Reply #54: I think people are afraid of change in the upper echelons [View All]

because it means the lay of the land changes, and that could ruin any advantage they have or interests they have with the present lay. I think Dean is going to be as much a victim of a power struggle as a victim of sheer bureaucratic inertia running against him. If you are heavily vested in the existing status quo and cannot control the oncoming changes, then you would naturally fear a change that could potentially hurt you or weaken you.

Whether or not Dean is a true economic populist is beside the point. The point is he has become a symbol of change to a sizeable number of Democrats, and that's got people who profit from the existing order scared.

Democrats who rely too heavily on corporate cash to the point of compromising themselves is one thing, but Democrats who are simply in it for the power, prestige, connections, money, and pension plan who aren't interested in rocking the boat when it's time to rock are a whole different issue. Anyone who would be a reformer would have to deal with these two groups at the same time.