Can we not be excited about presidential candidates anymore? Can presidential candidates not get excited about running? Should we only permit stoic, impassionate presentations? Too much has been said about Howard Dean’s performance at the close of the Iowa Caucuses, particularly his litany of state primaries he will contest and the now-legendary, quasi-cowboy, “Hee-yah!”
I can assure you that his exuberance wasn’t scripted and his speech was not delivered via teleprompter. Dean fed off his crowd of volunteers’ excitement, 3,000 strong, and released his. It was a necessary moment, preparing his committed supporters for the long road ahead. Too much is said about the “Hee-yah!” and too little about Dean’s platform and experience.
I was in Iowa this weekend, traveling with 20 other UW students and community members, a contingent of the 157 volunteers from around the country in Dubuque alone. Across Iowa, 3,500 people volunteered their weekend to promoting Dean’s candidacy. Upon our arrival, entering a supremely organized Main Street campaign office, I realized that this is the sort of grassroots effort that Paul Wellstone spoke of — a campaign made of people (appropriately parodied by the Soilent Green comic on the wall), not just media blitzes and tightly scripted rallies.
Howard Dean may not have the youthful simplicity of John Edwards (can you believe this man is 50?) nor the one-line zingers of John Kerry (“Trickle-down economics — we’re tired of being trickled on!”), but I’ve found that neither Edwards’ optimism nor Kerry’s well-crafted sound-bites do well to articulate their platforms and what they’ll do.
If people tuned in — before the “Hee-yah!” — to what Dean has said about solving child poverty, lack of health care, the ongoing war in Iraq, government accountability, fiscal responsibility, and federal involvement in protecting civil rights and the environment, their perception would be much different. Dean comes across as angry because he’s frustrated with the damage the Bush Administration has done in three short years, selling our nation off to corporate interests like bits of prime real estate — you ought to be angry too if you’ve paid attention to Bush’s false guises.
The so-called Economic Recovery Act of 2001 plunged us into record deficits; attempts to amend the Clean Air Act allow greater emissions; lowering industrial restrictions on mercury in the air and arsenic in the water; fighting “terrorism” in Iraq with American lives and American dollars under the guise of making the world safer… for oil markets. Bush is saving the forests by removing the trees; and improving education not by providing sufficient resources but by increasing consequences for poor performance under existing conditions, abdicating the federal government’s responsibility and placing it on impoverished schools.
Yes, there is reason to be frustrated and reason to yell, and you ought to be yelling right now — our generation is the one that’s going to pay for it!
Governor Dean metabolizes frustration into motivation, seeking to oust Bush and remedy his exploits. Dean offers effective, pragmatic solutions for every complaint. Having served as governor of Vermont for 12 years, Dean implemented plans on the state level similar to his current national proposals. Although Dean may not be best at sound bites or on painting the rosiest picture of the party, which wilted in the last decade, the more speeches I hear, the more I agree with him and know what he can do.
Although Dean fell short in Iowa, Dean — with the allegiance of nearly half of a million volunteers in 50 states — will bring his ideas to New Hampshire, South Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, and Wisconsin. After all, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Tune in, pay attention, and don’t be afraid to get excited, because it’s about time we had political candidates who can excite us.
If you would like to learn more about Students for Dean, email shira@deanforamerica.com
Greg Renden (garenden@wisc.edu) is a UW Law Student. He is a member of Students for Dean.