The Dean Machine

This week, US News & World Report published an article entitled "Dean's List" which covered DNC Chairman Howard Dean's controversal 50-State Strategy. In this plan, Dean believes the Party should look to hit voters head on with our message in all states, not just states like Ohio and Florida which have been labeled "swing states." Recruiting precent captains and donors in states like Mississippi have become the focus of Dean's plan for our own revolution much like the Republican revolution in 1994. With each day moving us closer to the midterm elections, many are wondering whether this will pay off.

The reason I chose to post on this today is not only because this article just came out but also because of how important I believe this strategy to be. Although I understand that elections are won and lost in the so-called "swing states" as it stands now, I dont think that is the way it needs to be. Part of the reason why I supported Howard Dean in 2004 and still support him to this day is because I think he is not afraid to stand up and tell it like it is. In his campaign, as we all know, he put energy and emotion before rehersals and note cards.

As the article says, Mississippi hasnt voted Democrat in a presidential election since 1976. However, prior to 1964-65, the South was a solid bastion of Democratic ideals. Famously, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he said "there goes the South." And he was right. In 1968, as part of his "Southern Strategy," Richard Nixon helped turn the South Republican for the first time since Lincoln all but electorally condemned the party a century earlier. Since then, with the exception of Clinton and Carter picking up a southern state here and there, it has been all Republican.

How does Dean think he can change this? Well, he believes that Democrats just arent known as well as the Republicans are. His plan - which is already underway - calls for four paid-DNC staffers in each state who drum up support all year long for Democrats and their causes. These staffers sign up voters to be precinct captains and seek out high end donors. This, Dean believes, will begin the grassroots revolution that will bring a Party that was long forgotten back into the homes of average people in places where the Party has been afraid to go in recent years.

Does money need to be spent in places where elections are close? Of course. But simply making campaigns about both coasts is clearly not working and neither is simply dumping money into Florida and Ohio. We need to combat the Republican agenda all over the country, whether it is in the bluest of blue or the redest of red. Howard Dean believes that there is certainly some things in our party agenda that anyone can, given the chance, find attractive and I agree with him.

Howard Dean has a vision to return our party to the greatness it has achieved in the past and I believe the 50-State Strategy is a crucial part of our coming revolution to take back Congress and then the White House in 2008. For more information, check out the Democratic Party website to the right of this post.