Dean On the Southern Strategy In South Carolina

Restoring the American Community

The following remarks as prepared were delivered this afternoon by Governor Howard Dean in Columbia, South Carolina:

In 1968, Richard Nixon won the White House. He did it in a shameful way -- by dividing Americans against one another, stirring up racial prejudices and bringing out the worst in people.

They called it the "Southern Strategy," and the Republicans have been using it ever since. Nixon pioneered it, and Ronald Reagan perfected it, using phrases like "racial quotas" and "welfare queens" to convince white Americans that minorities were to blame for all of America's problems.

The Republican Party would never win elections if they came out and said their core agenda was about selling America piece by piece to their campaign contributors and making sure that wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a few.

To distract people from their real agenda, they run elections based on race, "guns, God, and gays," dividing us, instead of uniting us.

But these politics do worse than that -- they fracture the very soul of who we are as a country.

It was a different Republican president, who 150 years ago warned, "A house divided cannot stand," and it is now a different Republican party that has won elections for the past 30 years by turning us into a divided nation.

In America, there is nothing black or white about having to live from one paycheck to the next.

Continue reading "Restoring the American Community" ...

more at http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002565.html

Finally someone taking direct aim at the republican racially charged code words and the "southern strategy".

BTW, here is a direct link to the speech:

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002565.html

but I love this speech. The thing about Dean is that he is putting the racial issue right out where everyone can see it. He may not carry the Southern states, but this kind of talk should influence independents in other states.

I think his position of gun control--leave it up to the states--will help win back blue collar white men who like to hunt. I think his focus on health care for children will win support from blue collar women with children who have been seduced by the family values rhetoric of the Republicans.

I wish I could see a vid or even audio of this speech in SC. Is there one out there?

But I do think this message would be more effective from a southerner. The people most affected by the Republican "Southern Strategy" probably aren't going to be easily reached by a Vermont governor. There is a stubborn social component (visceral racism) and a historical identity component (Confederacy) that resist sense.

Still I applaud Dean for the effort. There is nothing wrong with trying. Dean is no shrinking violet.

The truth doesn't care what body it comes in.

its kind of obvious...

bases around the world. He only lived in arkansas for the last few years.

His moma is from LR. He grew up there from 3 1/2 on. I'm from PA although I haven't lived there in years, but who would you be to tell me that I'm not from steel valley?

Are there any limits to which you will not go? I haven't seen any.

I know a lot of people who were there, including my husband. Dean's support there in Orlando was just way ahead of anyone. If he offends these "Southerners" it does not show.

thats a plus down here

but Orlando is not really southern and Dean is still a yankee...

n/t

Thanks, great speech.

Taking a chance on the truth. That is what people are not getting about Dean....he has a message and he says it.