The Dream Behind The DNC Election
by John Drury
Not surprisingly, this blog has had its share of articles this past week on Governor Dean’s election as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
There’s no doubt the party needed new leadership and while I think the Governor has an outstanding ability to lead and will bring a fresh look to the job, I think it’s more important to be ever mindful of his message.
Governor Dean spoke of the people. He said that the people could stand up, take back their country from the corporate giants and once again be a government of the people. I don’t recall him saying if elected, that he could do this alone. He always emphasized that the people have the power to do this and I think that is what we should keep front and center in our minds as we move to the mid-term elections in 2006 and beyond.
Governor Dean inspired millions of people with his message. The people in this country do have the power to take back their country—but no matter who leads our party, if we continue as we have been, it will not happen.
During my campaign for the Iowa Senate, we made the case for a better north Iowa. We made the case that we could beat an incumbent with a record of inactivity matched only by five other Senators. We made the case that we could win the election with strong grassroots campaigning and about half the amount of money that is typically spent in an Iowa Senate campaign. We knocked on thousands of doors, and we ran a positive campaign on the issues. We did all of these things and yet we still lost.
I can remember the early days of the campaign. We held committee meetings and only a few party faithfuls would show up. We expressed hope that Bush and his scorched earth policies would certainly make this the year of the Democrats down the line and with the idea that people would eventually come out of the woodwork to help in this campaign. I didn’t worry too much about the light attendance early on, but I can remember saying that if we had this turnout at an October meeting, we would be in trouble.
The truth is, the people didn’t come out. In fact, we struggled to find people to hold key positions in the campaign. Darrell Lewis was campaign chair, treasurer, and webmaster all wrapped into one very efficient package.
Don’t get me wrong, the support we did have was very much appreciated, and I met a lot of great people. And I suppose it could always be said that I didn’t rally the troops. But in retrospect, I don’t think a Democrat had a chance of winning this seat. I never believed that Kerry was our best choice of candidates, certainly not one that cared to win from the bottom of the ticket up, anyhow. And Karl Rove driving the Republican message of “be afraid, be very afraid” didn’t help our cause either.
But that’s not the point, my point is this: Governor Dean’s message was never about Governor Dean. It was about how a Democracy should be run. It was about how everyday people like you and me can and should have a voice in our government. It was about how people who get up to go to work every day ought to have the right to join a union. The Democrats have a strong, and yes, moral message and we must not run from it. Again, he spoke of the people having the power to take back their country from corporate America. (Perhaps if he’d only used the words evil-doers instead of corporate America, but I digress …) We must listen to his message and yes, take back our country.
But in order to do that, we must start now. We must be organized, we must pay attention to what our government is doing, we must comment on the issues, and we must be ready to help our candidates in any way that we can. It’s more important to know where we want to go than it is to be the driver getting us there. Chairman Dean is our driver; let’s tell him where we want to go and how to get there.