Here is what the above says.
(please print the links out when posting because alot of times, later on links disappear and alot of readers will not take the time to click on the link...)
Eagle County Democratic Party
ECD Chair Branscomb Receives Note From Chairman Howard Dean
Posted By Debbie Marquez at 1/22/2006 4:05:48 PM
We often talk about the new DNC leadership being a more bottom-up, grassroots organization, but a personal email from Dr. Howard Dean to our local chair was the last thing he expected! But that's just what happended after he sent a note to DNC party Secretary Alice Germond last week asking if the DNC really listened to what Al Gore had to say in his speech on the White House domestic spying. The Governor's response was short, to the point, but it is evidence that the new DNC is paying attention to the folks in the trenches. Here's what the Governor wrote:
"We fully stand by Al's speech. He is a great American, and should have been President." Howard (note from Chairman Dean to ECD chair Harvie Branscomb.)
Alice
I have a question. Have you and the Governor read or listened to the entire one hour of Al Gore's speech from last monday at DAR Constitution hall?
It is important to have read or listened to the entire speech, not just the sound bites reported in the media which ignored 90% of the important contents.
(speech can be found on
http://www.algore.org/)Most of my friends here in Basalt and Carbondale Colorado actually listened to the speech and we think that it is 100% correct, appropriate and vital to the health of the nation.
Gore alone seems to have actually addressed almost all of the key points and in a responsible and presidential way- excessive fear mongering as an ideological weapon, the progressive accretion of excess power by the executive, the weakness of the legislative branch and its inability to perform oversight, the progressive weakening of the judicial branch via Roberts and Alito, the exploitation of science, the failure of the media, wiretapping, torture, kidnapping, war-making under conditions of false information, criminality.
I want to know how much Governor Dean and the rest of the DNC support the contents of this speech. I do not mind some difference of opinion.
I think the speech merits a celebration by broadcast email to Democrats.
I know that Ken Mehlman wrote some stupid drivel with the intention of discrediting Gore...I know the White House has started a disinformation campaign to discredit Gore and the speech and we all know that the power of the media to discredit is far more powerful than any power it has to accredit. In any case the major media rarely make the distinction between bad, false or irrelevant and the good, true and relevant.
Foremost, we MUST join Gore in throwing off fear of the media response for to fail to do so always results in an incremental destruction of intellect in our politics and culture.
That is why it is so important to bring Gore's good, true and relevant words directly to the people, bypassing the press. The DNC has the power to do that, and I hope you will do so.
Harvie Branscomb, Chair, Eagle County (Colorado) Democrats
Harvie then adds six advice points that he thinks the party should do.
1) take some action to give
platforms a more favored position in the process, make sure candidates
and officeholders actually see the platforms;
2) propose rules for debate so that it becomes meaningful (stop allowing
the media to ask the same rhetorical questions);
3) advise our candidates to take an aggressive stance on issues important
to Democrats and not just those important to Republicans and
Democrats... (this will require new political advisers)
4) give the opportunity to the entire Democratic
Party across the USA the chance to pick our candidates for office (at least
have the order of primaries change somehow from year to year);
5) do not tolerate satire, harangue and cynicism including
exhaustive repetition by the media.
6) work to make spaces to turn political dialogue acceptable and even
popular again... we should never
be embarrassed to be politically active as Democrats at the grass roots
in a "red state".
Eagle County Colorado (a supposed to be Republican stronghold including Vail)
voted for the Democratic candidate in 9 out of 10 cases in 2004 including for
Kerry... but at our State Assembly late last summer, about a third of the Democrats
still wanted to vote for Kucinich. And our State Platform was turned progressive through
amendments from the floor of our State Assembly. These two messages should be
heard by those making messaging and policy in the Party