"This is like Washington was when I got there five years ago. You know, the Democrats really weren't sure they were Democrats. If you want to win, you actually can't sort of move to the middle and become a Republican. You've got to stand up and stand for the things that you got elected on and that the Democratic Party believes in and we haven't seen that in the healthcare bill and I think that's part of the problem."
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It puzzles me endlessly how even the hardcore DLC'ers could discount Dr. Dean, and the ideas behind his "Fifty State Strategy". He was enormously effective, not only shoring up the base, but roping in self-identified independents. This is where Rahm Emmanuel comes in...
Why abandon (in a seemingly wholesale kind of way)the kind of populist politics and championing of big-D Democratic ideas in Washington after Obama's historic election, and the mandate that seemed attached to it? I am honestly curious about whether the personal animosity between Dean and Emmanuel, and the corporatist leanings of Obama and Emmanuel are responsible, in part, for the epic fail of the Democratic party to align itself with the concerns of the American people. Why else torpedo a way of connecting to people that was so effective, and be willing to alienate your base? I understand how the President may have wanted Rahm as some kind of "enforcer" in his position, but am troubled that Emmanuel's politics and style would so effectively have the ear of the President.
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