implicit art

This
article, entitled, "Dean
Defense Forces: Lobbing E-mail at the Enemy," scares me a bit. On the
one hand, it’s nice to have a Dean Defense League. On the other, it winds up painting
a picture of Dean that we may not want. Howard
Dean’s supposedly all-encompassing liberal stance is what thrusted him into
fame for grassroots liberals, such as myself. The press, and pieces like these,
are continuing to paint that picture, with the slant of "those silly neo-hippies."
Dean *is* my choice candidate. This is because he is very progressive on social
issues (we need this) and farily conservative on economic (we also need
this). Though I do not agree with some of his beliefs, it’s things like his gun-control
and death penalty stances that will bring the middle (and the South) to our side.
Face it: on most issues, he is a centrist. On the most *important* issues, he
is not. This is why I like him :)
Note that Dean himself keeps trying to remind us that he goes to the center on
the formerly mentioned issues. Sometime before the primaries, he’s going to have
to use the fame he is getting from liberals to prove to the rest of the Democratic
party that we are all on the same team. We need to recognize this, and make room
for it, too. Right now, grassroots progressives control the Dean campaign. We
do not want it to stay this way – because he will never win on that vote
alone. We have to invite people other than activists on board. Dean is already
trying to do this; so should his supporters.