With Endorsement of Dean, Gore Steers
Democrats Away From Clintonism

An op-ed piece from the LA Times:

Clinton's overriding political assumption was that Democrats could not win solely by mobilizing their hard-core partisans. Instead, Clinton argued that Democrats had to craft policies that attracted swing voters while maintaining the allegiance of traditional Democrats.

In the central line of his 1991 speech, Clinton memorably declared that Democrats had to redesign their agenda to recapture middle-class voters who had abandoned the party since the 1960s. "Too many of the people who used to vote for us," he said, "the very burdened middle class we are talking about, have not trusted us in national elections to defend our national interests abroad, to put their values into social policy at home, or to take their tax money and spend it with discipline."

Dean starts from precisely the opposite perspective.

Throughout his campaign, he has disparaged the idea of targeting the Democratic message toward swing voters. Instead, he argues that Democrats must focus on mobilizing their base, and inspiring nonvoters, with language and an agenda that energizes traditional party constituencies such as labor, feminists and gay civil rights activists.

"We are going to take back the Democratic Party from the idea that the way to win elections is to neglect our base," Dean recently said.

In other words, Clinton's message was something like "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," while Dean's message simply seems to be "beat 'em." I'm liking the former governor of Vermont more and more.

Click here for more (and brave the LA Times annoying registration procedure).

Thanks to my old friend, Matt, for the link.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$