December 08, 2004

Dean, M.D. and the Democrats' Future

It's deja vu all over again among the Democrats:

The race to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee is shaping up as a retread of January’s Iowa caucuses, with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean emerging as the early front-runner and the Democratic establishment furiously scrambling for a candidate to beat him.

As much as I'd like to see Howard Dean, M.D. running the DNC (the Duck Hunt could rise from the dead) it won't help the party better connect to all voters. Virulent anti-Bush tirades may satisfy a gloomy political base, but it's not the foundation for future electoral victory.

Ideally, I want to see a Democratic Party that takes Bill Clinton's "era of Big Government is over" line to heart and combine it with a muscular anti-Islamist policy. In essence, I want them to go to the right of the Republicans. Will it ever happen? Not in my lifetime, but the farther they move to the right the better it will be for human liberty.

"How to Stop Howard Dean, Part Two"