Howard Dean says Democrats should not shy away from controversial issues.
He was speaking to a group of NJ College Democrats, and it sounds like he was pretty outspoken about the way our party tends to shy away from controversy.
After speaking for a while about the 50-state strategy, Dean then spoke about message framing and cited the debate over gay marriage. Dean forcefully spoke about how the Democratic party was often too cautious in spreading its ideals, and that the Republican party has been branding our party as the party without values. Using gay marriage as an example, he said that Republicans have for too long controlled the debate, talking about how the Republicans state that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but Democrats do not push back appropirately. Dean said that the Democrats should not go along with the Republican frame, but should instead create the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone, and thus support gay marriage. Using this debate, he said that Democrats would then be able to meaningfully debate with Republicans, and that voters would be able to decide which position they would like to take. He also spoke about abortion, and how many Democrats refuse to debate abortion rights, believing that it is too controversial of an issue to debate. Dean proposed that Democrats should not shy away from the "controversial" issues, and should welcome all debate with open arms, citing again the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone.
QUOTE(ap215 @ Apr 10 2009, 02:50 AM) 
Howard Dean says Democrats should not shy away from controversial issues.
He was speaking to a group of NJ College Democrats, and it sounds like he was pretty outspoken about the way our party tends to shy away from controversy.
After speaking for a while about the 50-state strategy, Dean then spoke about message framing and cited the debate over gay marriage. Dean forcefully spoke about how the Democratic party was often too cautious in spreading its ideals, and that the Republican party has been branding our party as the party without values. Using gay marriage as an example, he said that Republicans have for too long controlled the debate, talking about how the Republicans state that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but Democrats do not push back appropirately. Dean said that the Democrats should not go along with the Republican frame, but should instead create the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone, and thus support gay marriage. Using this debate, he said that Democrats would then be able to meaningfully debate with Republicans, and that voters would be able to decide which position they would like to take. He also spoke about abortion, and how many Democrats refuse to debate abortion rights, believing that it is too controversial of an issue to debate. Dean proposed that Democrats should not shy away from the "controversial" issues, and should welcome all debate with open arms, citing again the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone.
He was speaking to a group of NJ College Democrats, and it sounds like he was pretty outspoken about the way our party tends to shy away from controversy.
After speaking for a while about the 50-state strategy, Dean then spoke about message framing and cited the debate over gay marriage. Dean forcefully spoke about how the Democratic party was often too cautious in spreading its ideals, and that the Republican party has been branding our party as the party without values. Using gay marriage as an example, he said that Republicans have for too long controlled the debate, talking about how the Republicans state that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but Democrats do not push back appropirately. Dean said that the Democrats should not go along with the Republican frame, but should instead create the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone, and thus support gay marriage. Using this debate, he said that Democrats would then be able to meaningfully debate with Republicans, and that voters would be able to decide which position they would like to take. He also spoke about abortion, and how many Democrats refuse to debate abortion rights, believing that it is too controversial of an issue to debate. Dean proposed that Democrats should not shy away from the "controversial" issues, and should welcome all debate with open arms, citing again the notion that Democrats support equal rights for everyone.
Too bad Dean is not VP...He could do a much better job at keeping Obama honest...
too bad Dean was not allowed to be the Democratic candidate in 2004
He was the one with fire in his belly that had the crowd in his hand that helped Obama win inj 2008
Who knows if he would have been allowed to win in 2004, but they stole it from him before they stole it from Kerry.
and, ignoring and discarding Howard Dean, by Rahm this year, is going to come back and haunt the democrats in the future. He is not that old.
And in parallels, look at Newt on the other side.(though of course Howard=good, Newt=bad)
Howard Dean could be considered like the Irani' was who was exiled while the Shah went on, and in exile the one exiled later became THE ONE.
and I bet not one of Howard's fans has gone away either.
He was the one with fire in his belly that had the crowd in his hand that helped Obama win inj 2008
Who knows if he would have been allowed to win in 2004, but they stole it from him before they stole it from Kerry.
and, ignoring and discarding Howard Dean, by Rahm this year, is going to come back and haunt the democrats in the future. He is not that old.
And in parallels, look at Newt on the other side.(though of course Howard=good, Newt=bad)
Howard Dean could be considered like the Irani' was who was exiled while the Shah went on, and in exile the one exiled later became THE ONE.
and I bet not one of Howard's fans has gone away either.
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