Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

Washington Post ^ | December 28, 2003 | Paul Farhi

[nwrep]

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has a vision of where he'd like to take the nation. It turns out to be the 1960s.

In campaign stop after campaign stop, in overheated high school gyms and smoky union halls, Dean repeatedly offers this misty-eyed homage to that turbulent decade:

"When I was 21 years old," he says, "it was the end of the civil rights era, and America had paid an enormous price. Martin Luther King had been killed. Bobby Kennedy was dead. A lot of other people who are less well-known, including four little girls in a Birmingham church, had died so that we could have equal rights under the law for all Americans.

"But it was also a time of great hope. Medicare had passed. Head Start had passed. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the first African American justice [was appointed to] the United States Supreme Court. We felt like we were all in it together, that we all had responsibility for this country. . . . That [strong schools and communities were] everybody's responsibility. That if one person was left behind, then America wasn't as strong or as good as it could be or as it should be. That's the kind of country that I want back."

It is a stirring piece of rhetoric, and one that inevitably draws cheers and sustained applause for the former Vermont governor as he campaigns through this state, which holds its first-in-the-nation Democratic caucus in three weeks. In this part of the farm belt last week, Dean used it as his closer almost every place he spoke.

His references to the '60s, Dean makes clear in an interview, are something personal. "We felt the possibilities were unlimited then," he said last week. "We were making such enormous progress. It resonates with a lot of people my age. People my age really felt that way."

As history, however, Dean's memories of the era are selective. Rather than the time of great national unity and purpose he describes, the 1960s were a period of great upheaval, and surely rank among the most divisive for America in the 20th century.

[nwrep]

PING

[Dog]

If Dean gets any more weirder....the men in white coats will get him...

Peace ....Love and Free Sex!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

This guy represents everthing I loathe about the baby boomers.

This article fails to mention the painfully obvious 'hate Bush and all Republicans' part of the strategy. A level of hatred which has not been created and exploited since post Civil War era. Designed to incite and bump up voter turnout.

[Polybius]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s......

[Miss Marple]

Well, I loathe Dean and I am a baby boomer. He is from the group that got all the TV time back in the 60's. People like me got zero. I didn't smoke dope, participate in demonstrations, wear love beads, or go to Woodstock. I was a military wife raising a son, scraping by with enough money for groceries, and horribly homesick.

Howard Dean is a certifiable loon and a dangerous demagogue. His candidacy will propel the country into turmoil, and I do not look forward to it.

[reg45]

What! No love beads!

[rickmichaels]

"...including four little girls in a Birmingham church..."

"The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the first African American justice [was appointed to] the United States Supreme Court..."

Any chance there were white people in the audience when Dean said these things?

(Didn't think so.)

[DustyMoment]

"In campaign stop after campaign stop, in overheated high school gyms and smoky union halls, Dean repeatedly offers this misty-eyed homage to that turbulent decade:"

As Pat Paulsen used to say at the end of all of his political speeches (during his Presidential Campaign spoof): "In the decades to come, years will pass."

It took the press months to figure out that Paulsen was not a serious candidate and the tipoff was that he ended every speech with that line. The press finally started listening (for a change) and figured it out based on that line alone.

The rest of the country already knew that Paulsen's campaign was a prank.

As for Dean . . . didn't he die in a car wreck in the 50s?

[Viking2002]

Libs just can't help themselves but to dredge up Woodstock, free love, and civil rights marches, can they?

[dighton]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

Translation: Dean is living in the past.

[byteback]

[VOA]

"Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s"

"Incense, peppermint..."

[mewzilla]

Summon the spirit of the 60s?

Been there. Done that. No thanks, Howie.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[It is a stirring piece of rhetoric, and one that inevitably draws cheers and sustained applause for the former Vermont governor as he campaigns through this state...]

And so the Washington Compost would have us believe that 60's radicalism sells in Iowa? Give me a break.

[Prodigal Son]

Perhaps Dean should adopt 'Spirit in the Sky' as his campaign song?

The spirit of the 60s is a ghost for good reason.

A lot of people realized what the 60s was all about at Woodstock. People rolling in the mud, not having a place to p!ss, nothing to eat. Those with any sense put the joint down afterwards, went out and got a job.

Spirit of the 60s indeed...

[EGPWS]

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has a vision of where he'd like to take the nation. It turns out to be the 1960s.

Progressive isn't he?

He would rather be confronting the Vietcong rather than the terrorists. LoL's!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

PS: So in a time of global war against terrorism, the best that the Dims have to offer is a 60's radical pot-smoking anti-America draft-dodger? Well, come to think of it, this worked once before.