JOLLY DAYS

Dean Memes

Howard Dean has become, as the police say, a person of interest.

Some thoughts on Dean and the Democratic primaries:

It seems obvious from the continual shifting in Dean's positions, that Dean's true attraction to his supporters is the strength of his opposition to Bush. The other candidates seem weak and recessive by comparison. Dean is combative and confrontational — attractive to a Democratic party that has felt jerked around since the presidential election. The Iraq war is the cipher for this anger.

The real issues the Democrats need to place front and center: corporate influence, the erosion of privacy rights, health care, social safety nets, a skewed tax system that enriches the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

Rather than the Iraq war, the Democrats should be talking about security — the paramount issue to most citizens. Dean is the “I Hate Bush” candidate — that may be tasty now, but won't fly in a presidential election.

Of course, centrally, if Dean can't explicitly reject the reflexive anti-Americanism of the marginal left, if Dean can't condemn the anti-Israel hatemongering which often percolates with anti-Semitism, no one will vote for Dean but Bush-hating fanatics and bigots.

The passionate support for someone who is just beginning to put together a coherent set of ideas relies on the unexamined enthusiasms of youth and the desire for change for its own sake. The excitement around Dean comes from the excitement around Dean — not his ideas, which aren't articulated. That is, oddly, in these dauntingly ideological times, Dean's personality is the true enticement. This is strangely reminiscent of the way the Nader campaign went — from admired but somewhat unknown public figure to shoot yourself in the foot personality-cult excess.

By nature Dean seems more an independent than a Dem. He is progressive in his anti pronouncements, but Perot-like in his dissing of both parties and their leadership; there is a further narcissistic arrogance in his assumption that the continual shifting in his message will be accommodated by his followers — although that assumption has held true thus far.

The message seems to be: “Hey, just come along for the ride, don't worry about it, I know what I'm doing, it's exciting — we need change, you know it and so do I, and when I get to be president I'll do the right thing, trust me — right now, let's run on adrenaline”.