Did you read the headline of this diary? Good. I think that is how we need to remember this weekend.
The scared, Orwellian RWCM so-o-o-o-o-o did not want Dean to become the DNC chair, quite obviously. They knew this would make the party into something besides an unsuccessful GOP shadow puppet. They have hated Dean so much since his first walk on the national stage because he refuses to back down and does not further the right-wing frames on everything that they have forced on us all.
I supported Dean's bid for DNC chair- just in case it could ever be successful. But until about two weeks ago, I assumed that what happened this weekend would not happen after all. And despite the developments of the last two weeks, I did not take for granted it would happen until I saw the headline saying he got elected! Why? Because I lived through the Dean Iowa experience, specifically. But more than that I did not take this for granted because I have lived through the past few decades, which are full of phenomena most epitomized by the last four years. I am just so used to the RWCM getting what they want, period. From the Republicans of course. From the voters just about always. And until now, from the Democrats- politicians, voters, and activists.
The RWCM gives intentionally Orwellian advice to Democrats because they want Democrats to lose. This is the first time the Democratic Party (which is just finally starting to realize that the media is fully on the Republicans' side) has not taken the bait.
The following are some examples from the past several years which we all know have resulted in nothing but Dem losses (When appropriate, I included the after-the-response rhetoric from the RWCM, which points out how the RWCM intentionally sets traps for the Dems so they can criticize the Dems even more for taking their advice):
RWCM: "Al Gore has a crappy, unlikable personality and must reinvent himself if he expects to be elected."
Response: Gore re-invents himself
RWCM: "Al Gore has re-invented himself in order to get elected President. What a fake, two-faced, dishonest guy he obviously is. People should vote for Bush instead because he is so real. Whether you like his policies or not, you should vote for him because at least you know what you are getting."
RWCM: "The Democrats should support Bush and his policies after 9/11 because we need to be united and they need to prove to those real, non-elitist, patriotic Americans that they are willing to put party politics aside and be patriotic in a time of crisis."
Response: Dem congressional compliance and lack of alternate vision, followed by losses to Repubs in 2002 election.
RWCM: "Those Democrats lost because never articulated an alternative to what Bush had to offer. What a weak, namby-pamby, confused, pandering party!"
RWCM: "Dean is out-of-touch and unelectable. The Democrats should never nominate him. Anybody is better than Dean. Kerry, for example, is electable."
Response: Primary voters pick Kerry over Dean, allowing the media to (they thought!) permanently destroy Dean by making him out to be SUCH a pathetic loser because he went from front-runner to far behind so quickly and gave a speech that could be easily misportrayed on TV. The media beats up enough on Kerry that he becomes beatable (at least when you include GOP cheating), which would have arguably been harder to do against Dean because he would have fought back harder and would have (if he hadn't been demonized during the primary season) been able to continue his record of inspiring people to convert to our side. The RWCM knew they had to get rid of Dean, because (whether he was easier or harder to defeat than Kerry) he was the one who would further the reframing that needed to take place and would be the lightning rod for a strong, long term progressive movement.
RWCM: "The Dems better have a positive, upbeat convention because mainstream America just sees them as too negative and fanatically anti-Bush."
Response: Party holds what PR Week snidely termed the "Shiny Happy" Dem National Convention, with not much Bush bashing and lots of optimism and hamster stories.
RWCM: "Those Dems got up there and had this vapidly positive convention despite the fact that they are an angry opposition party who disagree with so much of the status quo. How insincere, lame, and strategically disastrous!"
RWCM: "Michael Moore is telling lies and saying things in his movie that aren't PC in sacred red America. If they want to remain electable, all Democratic politicians better distance themselves from Moore and join us in condemning him." This despite the fact that the RWCM never demands that GOP politicians distance themselves from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, and they still remain electable when they cavort with the likes of him.
Response: Rather than taking the opportunity to defend Moore, criticize the media for not ever revealing the truths Moore's movie reveals, and encourage Americans to go see the movie (I think it would have been a Kerry landslide had the bulk of swing voters seen it rather than believing the media's lies about it), most Dems at worst dismiss Moore as a dishonest ideologue and at best try to avoid the topic.
RWCM: "Michael Moore's movie obviously cost the Democrats the election. The fact that so many Democrats had to disassociate themselves from it just proves what bad PR it was for them. Those liberals better have learned their lesson! No one should ever make an expose' movie about a right-wing politician again!"
RWCM: "Dems are wimps who don't fight back against the GOP."
Response: In order to get Kerry elected, Dems work long and hard and speak bluntly and truthfully about what is really going on. Kerry (officially) loses anyway. The RWCM's intentional ignoring of the voter fraud that cost Kerry the election allows them to blame the Dems for Kerry's loss.
RWCM: "Dems lost this election because they were so viciously mean to poor, sweet, downtrodden Bush and his moral, Christian, real-American supporters. Just forget all about Ann Coulter and Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh and believe us when we say that only Democrats have been mean and that no party who is so mean will ever win."
RWCM: "Dems better move to the right and be as inoffensive and pro-Bush as possible, because the 51% mandate obviously proves that the public unanimously loves the Republicans and their policies. Democrats better give up on being anything but timid shadows of the GOP if they ever want to get elected again. This certainly involves having a conservative DLC man (or at least anyone but Howard Dean) as the new DNC chair."
Response: Top party insiders and leading Washington Dems naively believe the media's Orwellian advice once again and launch an anybody-but-Dean campaign. At this point, the party's grassroots, at least, is finally not believing the media and realizes that enough is enough when it comes to Dem pandering, media Orwellianisms, and Republican extremism. They realize Dean had it right all along and outmaneuver and humiliate the pathetic anti-Dean movement until everyone else has to drop out of the DNC chair race and endorse Dean. This is the first time we have a coup against those naively trying to implement the intentionally bad advice of the RWCM.
I am very optimistic about what Dean's tenure will bring. I know some out there are still wary of it. None of us can predict the future, and those who sincerely supported other decent candidates for this position have every right to be disappointed.
But one thing we should all be happy about is that we have finally kicked the habit, as a party, of always believing and implementing the RWCM's intentionally Orwellian advice. This better be the start of a new trend. Even if Dean's chairmanship doesn't work out so well, we should all be happy that this happened this weekend, for this reason.
It seemed like our party (as well as our voters and the swing voters) were just destined to always take the RWCM's advice and believe that those giving it were neutral or on our side. I am so happy and surprised to see Dems not only refuse the advice, but to see them succeed in making the opposite happen. It just proves what Dean has said all along- we do have the power! Now that we know we do, let's go forth and do great things and win.