Posted on 07/28/2004 11:56:26 AM PDT by FlyLow
Boston (CNSNews.com) - Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a liberal audience on Tuesday that southern voters will grow tired of the Republicans' perennial appeal on social issues relating to "guns, God and gays."
"Sooner or later, voters in places like that (the South) are going to grow tired of voting on guns, God and gays and start voting on education, health care and jobs," Dean told the crowd of activists gathered at a "Take Back America" event on Tuesday afternoon. The event, sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future, was billed by co-director Roger Hickey as "an alternative Democratic convention."
Dean, the former governor of Vermont, implored the party's liberal activists to start reaching out to voters in Republican strongholds in southern and western states.
"We can't be a national party unless we are willing to take our base to Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama," he said to cheers.
White southerners are wasting their votes on the GOP, according to Dean.
"If you are a white southerner, you've been voting Republican for all these years. You have nobody to turn to. [The Republicans] don't care about you, they (white southerners) have nobody to turn to, their job opportunities have gotten worse, not better," Dean said, referring to a conversation he had with former Congressional Black Caucus chairman Donald Payne (D-N.J.).
Dean noted that South Carolina has 105,000 children without health insurance. "Why in the world would South Carolina vote for another Republican? I have no idea," he said.
"We need to send a progressive message and stop being afraid of going to Utah or Idaho or Alabama or Texas," he added.
Dean criticized the Democratic Party for not standing up to the Republicans during the disputed 2000 presidential election. "The Democratic Party is responsible for not standing up to George Bush four years ago," Dean said.
'Like book burning'
Dean urged liberal activists to run for office at all levels of government to stem the tide of conservative governance, and he explained why he campaigned for someone who was running for the position of library trustee.
"I think the library trustee is pretty important in an administration where they like book-burning better than reading books," he said to applause.
Dean praised Teresa Heinz Kerry for telling a reporter from "a right wing newspaper owned by Richard Mellon Scaife" to "shove it."
"How many of you would like to tell reporters to 'shove it'?" he asked.
"You know what? Kerry is going to win the election just 'cause of his wife -- she's fantastic," he added.
'Trickle-on economics'
Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who also spoke at the event, declared that there is no economic recovery.
"There is a simple reality about the current economic recovery and that reality is there is not an economic recovery," Reich said.
"The gap between [the wealthiest Americans] and everybody else is wider than it's been since the late 19th century -- since the end of the Gilded Age," he added.
Reich lambasted supply side economics and its philosophy of tax cuts to stimulate growth.
"It's not trickle down economics, it's trickle-on economics. Nothing is actually trickling down," he explained.
Reich also cracked jokes about his diminutive stature. "Years ago, when I began battling the right wing, I was six foot two. But with your enthusiasm and your energy, I am rising like a phoenix," he said to laughter.
"I debate on some of these talk radio programs. They're yelling programs. I yell and they yell and I yell and they yell and I leave the program -- I don't even know what I said," he joked.
Dang, I was hoping for a YYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHRRRRGGGG!!! sometime during his speech.
Man how I wish Dean had won the nomination. Of course if he had he would probably have the same poll numbers as Kerry. But he is a loser.
All the man says when he talks to me is how incredibly idiotic he is.
As a proud native of the South, I can tell you Dean doesn't know jack about what us Southerners think. And if he thinks we Southerners (and most Americans, I suspect) will lovingly support the cancellation of the Second Amendment while at the same time rejecting Christianity and accepting homosexuality as normal, he's even more screwed up in the head than I thought he was.
places like Atlanta and major metro areas in Florida, the Carolinas and Texas too, have experienced good job growth. In fact, the whole Sun Belt in the south and west is the big growth area in the US over the last 20 years.
The Democrats can say literally whatever they want and get a free pass from the media.
Smart plan by Dean -- ridicule the American values of the Republican Party as pandering to "guns, God and gays". People love having their values belittled by politicians that come off as mentally unbalanced. Please get into some photo-ops with John Fonda Kerry.
If Howard "I-Have-A-Scream" Dean said it, then it MUST be true! </sarcasm>
What on earth was this loon talking about? I just don't get it.
If anyone knows about losing voter appeal it would be Dean.
Absolutely! Just like they did in 1980! And in 1984! And '88...'92...'96...2000...
True, but not in the way Dean means. It's the *Democrats* who keep trying to flog those issues into political points, by screeching their anti-gun rants, their "conservatives are religious nuts" rants, and their "gays and 'gay-rights' are one of the most important issues right now" focus.
Republicans/conservatives are only *reacting* on those issues. It's not like the Republicans go out of their way to push guns on people, evangelize, or target gays every time they make a public appearance.
The Democrats' incessant focus on these issues is indeed "losing voting appeal".
Dean and friends are intent on portraying the Republican Party as Nazis and Bush as Hitler.
When Dean actually says stuff like: "Bush is Hitler" then the Tucker Carlsons and Morton Kondrackes of the world complain and tell him he's out of bounds.
So he says coded things like that Bush "likes book-burnings rather than books."
People associate book-burnings with Nazis, Dean said that Bush likes book-burnings, and so he's called Bush Hitler without actually using the word "Hitler."
Dean is an idiot. I saw this article the other day.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125521,00.html
suuuuuuuure howard.
Mothers and Fathers will never become upset when GLSEN is mandating homosexual experimentation for you sons and daughters.
This is the convention for those very few far left liberals pretending to be "centrists" to fool the other 85% of the country.
The best response to Dean's drivel will be delivered by a Democrat,... at the GOP Convention,... - Zell Miller!
Geeze, Dean's an even bigger idiot than I realized. And Bush is married to a librarian!
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