Dean again accuses Bush of exploiting homophobia....Stanford article.

This takes a lot of courage for him to take this stand. He talked about this at Northwestern or Dartmouth recently. I am not gay, but I have seen what this right wing has done to "liberals" in this country, and they are going to keep right on doing it to women, gays, or anyone else they so choose. Thanks to Howard Dean for the courage to speak up.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/december1/dean-1201.html

SNIP.."The 56-year-old politician spent more than an hour discussing the 2004 presidential race and how the Democratic Party can take back the country. He credited his party with running a great presidential campaign but said Washington Democrats are now suffering from a "loser's syndrome" and a "culture of defeat."

Dean, who signed the nation's first civil union bill in 2000, sharply criticized President Bush for tapping into homophobia to get re-elected. Measures banning same-sex marriage were placed on the ballot in 11 states where gay marriage already was outlawed, he said. "It was about the willingness of the president of the United States to appeal to the very worst in humanity," he said. "It served one purpose only—to once again pillory a minority has been described as the most despised minority in world civilization."

AND I love his common sense approach to the rights of all:

SNIP.."Instead of fighting over pro-choice and pro-life positions on abortion, Dean said, people should fight about whether the government has the right to tell them what kind of personal decisions they ought to make. And rather than fighting about gay marriage, he continued, people should be fighting over whether all Americans ought to enjoy the same rights. "Let's never stop including everyone in our society," Dean said. "Let's never stop the idea that we have a communal responsibility to each other. We owe it to this country to present an opposing model. I think that what we believe in is better than what they stand for, and I believe that if we make our case we'll start to win elections again."

Yes, HD, we most certainly do.

I was just reading the thread again about how bad we Dean supporters are. That is a big bunch of you know what. That is the theme that was used against us in the primaries, and now so many are falling over their own feet to be nice.

Wake up! We are just as nice as anyone else. We are good people here, we who supported Dean...We are intelligent and pretty well educated.

They tried to humiliate us during the primaries...in the same damn way that the GOP humilitated our Dems during the election. It is the tactics of humiliation.

The Democrats do not need to be nicer, they need to be stronger. We do not need to be "nicer", we need to be stronger when we are attacked.

We all know what happened. I don't have to put it into words. We know. But we are ok. Dean has either the DNC chair or DFA. He is a winner either way and so are we.

He still and always speaks like a genuine leader.

I hope you've had the chance to read this analysis. It made me feel very hopeful. It's written by Gross' wife who has had experience working with victims of abuse. She makes a case, then offers a sort of mental "click" that needs to be made to reject the abuser. There are dark dark times ahead and each of us must somehow find new strength.

http://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/001041.html

SNIP..."First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you’ve learned, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it’s better than the abuse.END SNIP.

I had a friend who was a victim of abuse, kept choosing men who continued the abuse. She did all of the above...trying harder and harder to please.

I did not realize that she was his wife. Glad you shared that.