Tuesday, February 22, 2005
A Republican Talks Honestly About Howard Dean
His message to the RNC: Be afraid. Be very afraid.
...Dean's appeal doesn't lie primarily in the fact that he's a great speaker (although he is) but in the fact that he's a great listener. Grass-roots activists in both parties have been so starved for attention and support during the past 20 years that they will flock to the first person who promises to listen and do what he can to support them. And that, more than anything else, was the message that Dean took to the party faithful in his campaign for the party chairmanship: He's there for them, not for the insiders, not for the professionals, and certainly not for the consultants. Dean will be there for the hardworking activists who make up the rank and file. Contrast this to the state of the Republican base right now. No less a figure than Rush Limbaugh is warning the president that he faces a mutiny if he and the Republican Congress don't control spending and protect the borders, the two top concerns of the GOP rank and file. In fact, if Republican leadership fails here, the GOP will have bigger problems than Howard Dean. Now more than ever, the Republican Party needs to toss its heavy-handed, top-down management style overboard and rejuvenate its grass-roots parties. Howard Dean already has.But of course, the Republican Party is all about top-down management. They simply cannot do what Howard Dean is doing. They would slit their own throats first. Come to think of it, they're working on doing just that.
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