Howard Dean spoke tonight after a South Dakota Democratic Party fundraiser dessert at the Radisson in downtown Rapid City.
Dean's speech centered mostly around the concept of "a new direction" for America. Dean mentioned problems with current Republican leadership, like Frist being accused of insider trading and Hastert's trouble with the Jack Abramoff scandal. Dean used the phrase "culture of corruption" to describe the current status of higher level Republicans in our government.
Dean went on to say that as well as a "war on Iraq", we have a "war on the middle class". Dean said that to fix the problems like the shrinking middle class and average wages dropping, America needs to keep Republicans "off of social security" and we need to secure health care benefits for more Americans.
Dean called the Democrats the "party of opportunity" for middle and lower class Americans.
Dean then listed some changes that needed to happen, both within his party and without. The most interesting need of Dean's was the need for Democrats to reach out to evangelical Christians. He claimed that evangelical Christians share a deep concern with Democrats, that of the "loss of spirituality" among Americans. He stated that Democrats need to work on "restoring a sense of community and working for the common good" and listed some moral values held by South Dakotans and Democrats like good health care benefits, raising the minimum wage, providing a decent education for everyone, and leaving the earth for future generations better than it currently is.
Towards the end of his speech, his tone changed drastically from bitter attacks on the GOP to a message of peaceful co-existance where states aren't labeled as "red states" or "blue states" but as American states, and where we worry not about electing Republicans or Democrats but electing "good people".
Hearing Dean (I didn't actually see him, the meeting room was packed and I was sort of around a corner) left me with a bunch of questions. Like, "what was that scream all about?" (That's right. I couldn't get the Iowa Dean scream out of my head. Outside, there were Republicans hosting a Best Dean Scream contest.) and "why did you include the line about evangelical Christians?" and "why all the vague generalites, like working for the common good?". But I also came away with a new view of the Democratic party... they're taking over where the real conservatives left off a few years ago. Dean spoke a lot about getting the government out of our hair (like with the privatization of social security), being fiscally conservative, being the party of the middle class.
My big question after this is "When are we going to see the big party realignment?" A lot of Dean's ideas sounded scarily like old conservatives. Dean said our government now is "borrowing and spending, borrowing and spending", which sounds scarily like the old perception of liberal Democrats. Where do the moderate Republicans like Stan Adelstein, who still believe in the rights of the individual, fit in? There is a major rift in the Republican party forming between Neo-cons and old school conservatives, and the Democrats seem to be moving towards some old school conservative values, but did this just seem that way to me because Dean was speaking to South Dakotans, not Vermonters or Massachusettsites? I don't know.
Major party realignments are to come, but when? The next election should offer some clues.
