Transcript of Dean's Yearly Kos speech...on voting, democracy, and the internet.

[madfloridian]

Transcript of Howard Dean's remarks to Yearly Kos. In two parts. Thanks to Renee in Ohio.

Howard Dean on voting and Democracy

And I want to talk about a project that we just announced today. The fifty state strategy and all that has been a lot of fun, and you all have been fantastic in defending what we're doing, and I appreciate that. But there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the DNC that doesn't get in the papers, or barely gets in the papers, and I want to share one of those things because a lot of the work that we do is piece by piece and bit by bit. It takes a long time to put folks out of power who have entrenched themselves the way that the right wing has.

And, next week marks the 42nd anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. But, as you know, the Republicans believe that the fewer votes are cast, the more likely it is to benefit them. And we believe that the more votes are cast, the better it is for the United States of America. (Applause.) We're the party that actually believes there is something more important than our party, and that is our country.

So, over the last 30 years or so, we've seen roadblocks and outright attacks on the right to vote, all kinds of schemes, restrictive voter ID laws, phone jamming, voter purging, voter intimidation tactics. Manipulating the mission of the Department of Justice who fired United States Attorneys who refused to pursue phony voter fraud cases. Turning the Civil Rights Division into the "voter suppression division". We can do better than this, and we will do better than this! (Applause.)

More at the link

Dean was very outspoken in his speech about keeping the internet open and free. He must suspect, as do many others of us do, that the internet's free-flowing method of communication is a target....it gives power to the people instead of concentrating it with a few.

Howard Dean from YK on the power of the internet

It has re-democratized America. There is an enormous shift in power. I thought the YouTube/CNN debate was sensational. And why was it sensational? That is the first time since the Nixon-Kennedy debates when ordinary people, not members of the media, but ordinary people in large numbers got to ask in front of a national television audience, any question that they could dream up. Censored of course by the CNN people, but I know the person who did this. He's about 26 years old, and he basically did, I thought, a pretty good job, putting up a generation of questions that were direct and directly from people's hearts and minds, aimed at the candidates. Put them on the spot--I thought, frankly, some of those questions were a lot tougher than what the media would have asked.

But even if it was tougher or not as tough, the point is, it got the exchange outside the cozy realm of the beltway and put it out in the rest of Ameria, where it belongs. (Cheers and applause.) It's okay to make politicians a little uncomfortable--it's good for us! And what a surprise that the Republicans don't want to do it. (Laughter.)

It turns out that as the influence of the internet expands, both by more and more people using it, and by the extraordinary innovations--remember, YouTube essentially did not exist when I was running four years ago. And today, without YouTube and the people who use it, we would not have a Democratic majority in the United States Senate. (Applause.) That is true. So, what this party is about is change and evolution, and that's not not easy. There are forces of resistance even inside the Democratic party--I know that would surprise you! (Laughter.) But this party is about evolution. This party is about the future, the other party is about the past. Look at who they have running for president--doesn't that look like something out of the 1950s? Look who we have running for president! (Applause and cheers.)

......."Nations run by authoritarian forces will not stop the dynamic of technologically enabled citizens working together. Hundreds of thousands of networking citizens will find ways to circumvent and evade government interference in the free exchange of idears, as we have already demonstrated in the United States. Repressive governments at the helms of nations that would become world or regional powers, face a difficult choice. They can allow democracy to evolve and flourish on the internet, or they can destroy the technology that enables their best and brightest and most determined citizens to network, and that will cause them to fall back into third world status.

So, we can still win the battle for a democratic world. It will not happen by sending troops to Iraq to establish democracy at the barrel of a gun. (Applause.) The truth is that the most important weapon in the struggle for world democracy is a free and open, commercially and politically unfettered internet that empowers ordinary people from across the globe to speak and act in the interest of their own communities. (Cheers and applause.)

Thanks, Renee.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. he was KICK ASS.

the energy in the crowd was almost as good as today.

[madfloridian]

2. Part 3

Dean Yearly Kos part 3

[MissWaverly]

3. Howard Dean is my hope, not the DLC, and not Hillary

[Adelante]

4. He was great

Thanks.

[polichick]

5. Howard Our Hero Dean!

:patriot:

[madfloridian]

6. What concerns me is what was said at the DLC conference.

Sometimes we express anger about things, but then we really don't take them seriously enough. The things that happen, like what Carville did right after the election...make us upset but then we back off and forget.

Carville lets more slip about the attack on Dean after the election.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/838

Carville in that link practically included Rahm and the Clintons in his attack on Dean, where he said Harold Ford should become chair. They did not deny it to this day.

So here we go to the last week-end in Nashville...here is what Al From said about Harold Ford. I think we need to take it seriously..

Among the Centrists

The DLC's task, founder Al From told attendees, is to fortify the party to create a lasting majority.

"We have an opportunity that we have never had, to build a lasting, enduring, sustainable majority in the progressive center of the electorate," he said.

That goal underscores the DLC's decision to hold the event in Tennessee. The state has a kind of iconic significance as a crossroads through which the nation's political fault lines run. Though the state hews Republican, Bredesen provides evidence that Democrats can win here, and win big.

Paramount among the reasons for holding the meeting in Nashville, though, was DLC chairman Harold E. Ford Jr., who made a spirited run for a US Senate seat in the state last fall. The race was closely watched because Tennessee's seat initially figured in the Democratic calculus for a Congressional takeover, but also because Ford was a black man running as a conservative Democrat in a southern state. Ford lost, partly perhaps because of a racially coded television ad that was aired late in the race. But he gave his opponent, Bob Corker, a run for his money.

The run did not dim Ford's star - rather, it boosted him into the national spotlight as an intrepid Democratic path-breaker. "Harold Ford is the future," From told the gathering, to loud applause.

Harold Ford is not the future of my party. It is not what I want.

But I think we need to take Al From and company very seriously indeed.

[madfloridian]

7. Part 4

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/2007/08/howard-dean-on-young-people-and-future.html