2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumVideo: Howard Dean Rips Income Inequality, Koch Brothers, "Small People" on Supreme Court
http://www.bluevirginia.us/showComment.do?commentId=39997Howard Dean was fired up last night in Arlington, Virginia!
"If 80% of the people haven't had a raise for 20 years because of the machinations of Congress and politicians and failed institutions like Wall Street. If 80% of the people believe - and they're starting to believe - that you could play by the rules and the deck is fixed against you, then America dies, because the core of the American dream is the possibility - not that being rich is bad, we don't believe that - but the core of the American dream is that some day we can be like that if we work hard enough and if we listen to what our parents have to say and if our values are right. So what is being destroyed by the Koch brothers and others is not simply campaign finance and skullduggery in politics, what's being destroyed is the core of who we are as Americans. And that core means that it is the individual vote that matters, not how much money you have. That was what the Supreme Court destroyed in McCutcheon..."
*"People want to respect politicians, and they can't respect politicians unless they stand for something. Don Beyer is not afraid to say what he stands for. He just did, and you can take to the bank that that's how he's going to vote when he gets into Congress."
*"We are plagued by a whole group of people in Congress that have put their party above the interests of their country. When you are willing to shut down the government to prove a political point and harm the credit rating of the United States of America. When you believe that the way to win is to have less [sic] people vote, then you would be more comfortable with Ukrainian politics than with American politics. Seriously, if you are part of an effort to restrict people's rights to vote in the United States of America, then democracy is not a value that you espouse...We need to support our democracy, which means we need people like Don Beyer and not people like - it's such a long list - Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, the House of Delegates in this state, which made it harder for ordinary people to vote. These folks ought not to be in politics, because they have not valued the core of democracy...it's not ok to win by taking away people's right to vote...and have the Supreme Court of the United States of America - Earl Warren must be turning over in his grave - and these are small people on this court; they may be smart, but they are small, tiny human beings with wizened souls, and we are going to replace them when we get the third Democratic president in a row."
*"This is a great nation, what the hell happened to Congress?"
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)And he can put those words together as well as any Democrat.
democrank
(11,094 posts)His courage to speak the truth is very refreshing.
merrily
(45,251 posts)average Americans has next to zero influence on those who allegedly govern them.
But, keep signing those internet petitions and making those calls to your representatives. We love to think they matter more than what the big money boys want and what the head of the Party and the caucus say. And our elected folk love us to love thinking that. For one thing, thinking that those calls and internet petition decide policy makes us think there is no need to do anything else. Besides re-electing them, of course.
HelenWheels
(2,284 posts)He is one politician who has never disappointed me. I am still mad at Obama for not naming him Sec. of H&HS or for not giving him any post. Howard played a great part in getting the President elected.
freebrew
(1,917 posts)beerandjesus
(1,301 posts)...but I try not to dwell on it, especially since the Democrats are in much better shape now than they were then.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)We need more like him. I wish he'd run for Congress. I'd move to VT just to vote for him.
DFW
(54,387 posts)I think he is just a little too uncomfortable even for the Democratic establishment, such as there may be one.
If Vermont's congressional delegation were not composed of Democrats (or Bernie Sanders), he MIGHT have considered it. As it is, his schedule is absolutely full. He and I have been trying to meet up for about a year, and our schedules always seem to pass like ships in the night. He and DFA are doing LOTS of ground work and behind the scenes work, and he is by no means slowing down. He'll be 66 in November, but he. has the energy of someone half that.