This is a blog post from 2006 that really impressed me. It laid out why Dean was concentrating on a strategy that many in the party found offensive. It presents it well.
We saw the fruition of some of these goals today.
From 2006:
Howard Dean's visionUpon taking office, Dean criticized the Party's focus on Blue and Purple (swing) states at the cost of completely ignoring Red states. Because copious amounts of money was poured into battleground states like Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin, states like North Carolina, Louisiana and Colorado were rarely if ever visited by Democratic presidential candidates and received little help from the DNC.
In comes Howard Dean and the "50 State Plan". Dean realized, and continues to understand, that many poor white southerners are voting against their own interests because they somehow see the GOP as the party of GOD. Absurd as it seems, Dean and his allies realize that overturning this ill-conceived notion of Republicans-as-Christ could go a long way towards rebuilding the party in the South and West. After-all, does it really make sense that rural southerners are voting for the Republicans who gave tax-cuts to the super-rich, billions of dollars to a failed Iraq war policy and botched both response and recovery after Hurricane Katrina?
Howard Dean and his allies realize southerners should not be voting Republican, and that issues like same-sex marriage, flag-burning and English as the official language should not outweigh issues that promote the health and well-being of their families and country.
The post states that his plan is quite controversial with many DC insiders. It is because he is looking beyond just one election to building a party for the future.
His vision includes building a Democratic party that may be willing to take minor setbacks right now in order to strengthen itself for the future. Democrats may not win Alaska in the next few years, but with a strong ground campaign they could succeed in 2012 (especially if Republicans remain as arrogant as they currently are). Although his critics believe it is important to win elections to build the party, the Clinton era proved that winning big elections means nothing to the long-term success of the party. America currently has a federal government dominated by conservatives - the legislative branch, executive branch and even the judicial branch (look at Bush v. Gore, for example). And this is right after one of the Democratic party's most popular presidents left office (so much for party-building via winning elections).
Howard Dean wants to prove that the Democratic party is the values party, not the Republicans. While GOP tax cuts help the rich, middle and lower class Americans continue to struggle with rising healthcare costs and the threat of "privatized" social security. It is time for Democrats to stand up to the Republican party's claim on so-called "values", and in the long-term Democrats can win the reddest of the red states. It will take time, and defeat could be a temporary result, but the Democratic party will never return to its heyday unless it plans for the future instead of just the next election.
The Republicans at the last minute were campaigning in "safe" red states and were put on the defensive completely. They were spending their money in
"safe" areas and had to borrow to help out the down ticket races.Added Democratic pollster Celinda Lake: "I think the 50 state strategy put in play a lot of western states that are extremely good for Obama, because they are change oriented and increasingly Democratic. Though no one noticed it, the west is purple."
Obama's task, however, is not just to flip states into his column, but rather to make enough areas competitive so that McCain and the Republican Party are forced to drain their resources. In this regard, Dean's vision may prove more successful
It is amazing how much of this new plan worked today. Part of it was the
New Map out West. I guess you guys noticed that Obama won without Florida, it was the iciing on the cake when it went blue.
Add it all up, and Democrats hope a new day is dawning. "We intend to contest Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada as a unit next time in the presidential because we think we can win there," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told U.S. News. Dean's theory is that, with a combined total of 29 electoral votes, those four states would make it unnecessary for the Democrats to win Florida, with 27 electoral votes, which they have lost in the last two down-to-the-wire presidential elections. "Bill Clinton won every single one of those states at one time or another," Dean added.
Big brother.
Dean said the key to the Democratic resurgence lies in what he sees as the rightward, interventionist shift of the national GOP. "The Republican Party has become the big-brother party, and this is a very libertarian part of the country. ... (Westerners) don't believe it's the government's place to tell them what to do with their personal lives, and this is a government that specializes in telling people what to do in their personal lives."
It was an amazing night. We had a tremendous candidate. Things that built on one another and still are building led to a great victory.
It's been a good night.
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