Why Dean is the Best DNC Chair Choice: Individual vs. Corporate Donations

[dpbrown]

In 2000, the DNC raised about $35 million in small donations. It raised $150 million from corporate sponsors. That's the McAuliffe legacy - pandering to the DLC-wing and furthering the deathly-ill "privatization über alles" American version of capitalism that's doomed to failure and taking us with it.

In 2004, due to the effect of Dean, not McAuliffe, the majority of DNC funding came from small donations, $248 million, while corporate donations dropped to $105 million, while for the first time since the mid-1970s, the DNC outraised the RNC.

One key to making the Democratic Party into a viable opposition party is to ween itself from its untenable reliance on the corporate handout - freeing it to do the work of bringing back a healthy American capitalism neither cannibalizing the public sector, nor degrading the American standard of living.

Whether Dean understands that or not, his demonstrated capacity to PRACTICALLY transform the fundraising mechanism of the Democratic Party demonstrates both effectiveness in fundraising, AND an internalization of a KEY transformation that the Democrats need to undergo regarding their relationship to corporate handouts, and the "favors" they require.

Of the candidates running, Dean is, in my opinion, the Chair who will bring about the healthiest and best opposition party.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota