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Howard Dean and Joe Sestak
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08/19/09 04:37 AM ET
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein writes today that Howard Dean, the former Democratic Party chairman, over the weekend declared that health reform without a public option simply isn't worth doing. “The public option has become for the left what ‘death panels’ have become for the right — an easily understood metaphor that can be used to wage an ideological war over the issue of Big Government, and mostly a sideshow,” Pearlstein writes.
Consider the Democratic Party without the public option. Consider the Democratic Party without Howard Dean.
I bring it up because in the heat of the buildup to the Iraq invasion, Democratic voters faced a fork in the road and took the wrong turn. They chose Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, to represent them. They could have chosen Wesley Clark. The result is a Democratic Party stuck with an esoteric, escapist, elitist and partly delusional tendency. There should be a name for this instinctive and feral flight from mature action and responsibility: Woodstockism. Vermontitis.
It emerged primarily as an approach to the war in Iraq. Vermont was a primary hippie state and most prominent in opposition to the war in Vietnam. When the war in Iraq occurred, memory served in place of thoughtful analysis and determined action and the same approach was taken to Iraq as to Vietnam.
The first problem here was that the war in Iraq had little to do with the war in Vietnam. George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was obviously initiated by the devastating attacks of Sept. 11. Seventy-five percent of Americans supported the invasion. That fundamental support was confirmed with the reelection of George W. Bush.
The ’60s reflex virtually ruined principled opposition to the war in Iraq. And it could have been a great moment for the Democratic Party. Wesley Clark opposed the invasion with grit and determination. Clark spoke direct, without theater and without pretension. Had his counsel been followed, the Iraq quagmire with its tragic death toll would have been avoided and a principled invasion might well have bagged Osama bin Laden within weeks or months.
It could have been and should have been an awakening moment for the Democrats. They had great people coming up like Mark Warner, governor of Virginia, who had completely turned around the political culture of the Old Dominion. And Clark, formerly chief of NATO, brought a basis for national security on an entirely new level of leadership and responsibility. After the 2004 election he traveled the country tirelessly in support of veterans seeking office, particularly Iraq war veterans. Jim Webb, novelist, warrior and now senator from Virginia was first helped along in his run by Gen. Clark and his staff at WesPAC. So was Joe Sestak, the Pennsylvania representative who is running now for Senate against Arlen Specter.
But at the critical turning, the Democrats took the Vermont option: War is bad. Give Peace a Chance. This is the politics of denial; a minority edge which has managed through the recitation of escapist cant to dominate the party in foreign policy, in healthcare and here, there and everywhere.
But there is the possibility now of changing course with Joe Sestak, a retired Navy rear admiral.
“When I attended the Naval Academy, I learned from its honor code: Don't lie, steal or cheat. In the military I learned: duty, honor, courage,” he told WesPAC in 2006 when he ran for rep in Pennsylvania. “So I do not run for Congress as a career politician; I run as a career naval officer. In the Navy, when you sleep 40 yards away from a nuclear reactor on an aircraft carrier, you learn that fixing problems is what matters. That is why I am not running on the left or on the right — I am running to move this country forward to fix problems.”
As a purely symbolic figure, Sestak would improve culture and prospects for Democrats and bring a vital new direction to them, returning them to the mainstream, perhaps.
Woodstock is over. Forty years now.
Visit Mr. Quigley's website at http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com.
Consider the Democratic Party without the public option. Consider the Democratic Party without Howard Dean.
I bring it up because in the heat of the buildup to the Iraq invasion, Democratic voters faced a fork in the road and took the wrong turn. They chose Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, to represent them. They could have chosen Wesley Clark. The result is a Democratic Party stuck with an esoteric, escapist, elitist and partly delusional tendency. There should be a name for this instinctive and feral flight from mature action and responsibility: Woodstockism. Vermontitis.
It emerged primarily as an approach to the war in Iraq. Vermont was a primary hippie state and most prominent in opposition to the war in Vietnam. When the war in Iraq occurred, memory served in place of thoughtful analysis and determined action and the same approach was taken to Iraq as to Vietnam.
The first problem here was that the war in Iraq had little to do with the war in Vietnam. George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was obviously initiated by the devastating attacks of Sept. 11. Seventy-five percent of Americans supported the invasion. That fundamental support was confirmed with the reelection of George W. Bush.
The ’60s reflex virtually ruined principled opposition to the war in Iraq. And it could have been a great moment for the Democratic Party. Wesley Clark opposed the invasion with grit and determination. Clark spoke direct, without theater and without pretension. Had his counsel been followed, the Iraq quagmire with its tragic death toll would have been avoided and a principled invasion might well have bagged Osama bin Laden within weeks or months.
It could have been and should have been an awakening moment for the Democrats. They had great people coming up like Mark Warner, governor of Virginia, who had completely turned around the political culture of the Old Dominion. And Clark, formerly chief of NATO, brought a basis for national security on an entirely new level of leadership and responsibility. After the 2004 election he traveled the country tirelessly in support of veterans seeking office, particularly Iraq war veterans. Jim Webb, novelist, warrior and now senator from Virginia was first helped along in his run by Gen. Clark and his staff at WesPAC. So was Joe Sestak, the Pennsylvania representative who is running now for Senate against Arlen Specter.
But at the critical turning, the Democrats took the Vermont option: War is bad. Give Peace a Chance. This is the politics of denial; a minority edge which has managed through the recitation of escapist cant to dominate the party in foreign policy, in healthcare and here, there and everywhere.
But there is the possibility now of changing course with Joe Sestak, a retired Navy rear admiral.
“When I attended the Naval Academy, I learned from its honor code: Don't lie, steal or cheat. In the military I learned: duty, honor, courage,” he told WesPAC in 2006 when he ran for rep in Pennsylvania. “So I do not run for Congress as a career politician; I run as a career naval officer. In the Navy, when you sleep 40 yards away from a nuclear reactor on an aircraft carrier, you learn that fixing problems is what matters. That is why I am not running on the left or on the right — I am running to move this country forward to fix problems.”
As a purely symbolic figure, Sestak would improve culture and prospects for Democrats and bring a vital new direction to them, returning them to the mainstream, perhaps.
Woodstock is over. Forty years now.
Visit Mr. Quigley's website at http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com.
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