A college student's thoughtful views on the candidacy of Howard Dean

My daughter is a student at Claremont McKenna College near LA. She just returned from a big Dean rally at the Democrat debates in Phoenix. Debate Rally with Pictures Thats her in the bottom picture, front row, far right with white shirt, blond hair and a yellow sign. Anyway, she was so pumped that she sent the pictures to her grandparents in California. Checkout Grandma's question in italics, the rest is my daughter's response.

>Thanks for the photos. I have just one question for you- and your
>friends. Just WHAT do you find about Howard Dean to support him?
>
>Despite your Dad's comments, we are very pleased with the
>election here. (voted for Schwarzen-groper!)
>
>Love- Grandma


My friends and I support Dean for a lot of reasons. The first, and most important, we know that as our nation's commander-in-chief, he will not send our friends, brothers, and sisters to fight in a foreign war based on untrue premises made up to justify an invasion that serves the interests of our president and his friends, not to mention embarrassing the United States to no end and adding authority to the imperialism and racism of the american foreign policy.

But its more than that. We believe that gays and lesbians should have the right to affirm their love for each other through marriage, protection of adoption rights, and recognition of legal partnerships, and Howard Dean is the only candidate, democrat or republican, supporting that.

We believe that our president should not determine a woman's right to choose, and he supports us in that. We believe that Bush's tax cuts benefit only the upper class, and his economic policies only hurt us not only by taking away our post-graduation employment but forcing our schools to increase their tuitions by ridiculous amounts. We know that Howard Dean recognizes that, and also that every time Bush runs up another bill towards his insanely unbalanced budget, that we are the ones who will have to deal with that debt in the future.

Finally, we know (because he has proven to do it in the past) that Howard Dean will assist us and other young people in getting badly needed health care, possibly working his way towards universal health care, something that Bush has proven is necessary not just for the lower class but for students and the middle class, because families (like mine!!) currently can't afford to pay the premiums that insurance companies charge. We know he will reject Bush's 100% proclamations of environmentally-friendly legislation, and that the falsely named "Clear Skies Act" and "Healthy Forest Initiative" will be blown out of the water. We know Howard Dean would never vote to drill in our nation's most protected natural environments, especially the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We know that Howard Dean will side with us when it comes down to it, not with the CEO's and insurance companies and oil companies and multinationals. And we know that he appreciates everything we do, which he proved this Thursday in Phoenix.

I don't understand how you could support a man with a proven record to abuse drugs, sexually harass women, and without political experience, let alone the erosion of democracy created by the recall. We are not pleased by the results of the election, and in fact will do everything we can to reverse this election in 2004.

*sniff* I'm so proud!

Glad she took time to write her grandmother like that. Thanks for sharing.
:hi:

but you might want to correct her on this paragraph.

"But its more than that. We believe that gays and lesbians should have the right to affirm their love for each other through marriage, protection of adoption rights, and recognition of legal partnerships, and Howard Dean is the only candidate, democrat or republican, supporting that."

The only candidate who supports gay marriage is Kucinich and ALL the candidates support civil unions and gay adoptions. If she goes around telling people that Dean is the "only" one, it damages other candidates and those in the Democratic party who have worked for years on this issue.

Other than that, it's a fine letter.

and so does Carol Mosley-Braun, only she says it should be up to the state

may I add Great, he always has great things to say, may I add it was a pleasure to see him speak in DC little less than a year ago.

this issue, and I wish Dean supporters and all others would get this straight for once

I truly do like Al. I even made up my own nick name for him "sharp wit Al" lol he has a great wit. Great man always has something good to say. I was watching an old Chris Rock show episode and this was before the selection, Al was talking about Hilliary beating Rick Lazio in NY and how he and others were looking for the black voters there who voted Lazio. Sharpton and Kucinich to my knowledge were the only ones to speak at anti war rallies. Hes great Sharpton is. One of my best friends here at DU is a fan and I think supporter. Its a shame how the GOP mocks him because he is something else.

So, Dean is also incorrectly claiming he's the only candidate who supports gay marriage, civil unions, etc.?

Why doesn't he just state what he believes in, what he's for and what he'd do as president and leave it up to the voters to determine who he compares to the other candidates? Is it necessary to characterize the other candidates' positions - especially when he seems to get them wrong so often?

universal health care issue. All the candidates support UHC, so far, Kucinic's plan is my favorite, but that is just my HO.

This young lady sums up why we will get killed in 2004 if we nominate Dean.Gay marriage, more abortion, and just bashing Bush will end up getting us beat more than we did in California. We must choose someone who is more mainstream in order to compete in the marketplace of ideas.

California is a very liberal state. Arnold's ties to Bush and Enron should have been exposed, and he should have been painted as an extreme conservative. This way, the tax cuts and dereg get the blame for the job losses, not Davis.

Instead the Democrats pushed the stupid groping stuff which didn't work when used against Clinton. Even worse, they pimped Arnold as a liberal in a liberal state in a weak attempt to get conservatives to join McClintock.

Scaredy Cat! :scared:

doesn't support Gay "marriage", he supports gay civil unions.
Dean doesn't support "more abortion", he supports our current policy that the government should stay out of those decisions.
If you think it's *just* bashing Bush to bash him, then you need to do some research. Bush has put into place policies that will permanently harm America. People need to know about them and need to kick him out of office.

Dean *is* mainstream. And Dems have to run to replace Bush.

that way we'll "win"

:eyes:

All Dean has to do is show a clip of the Cheney-Lieberman debate where Cheney is saying that states should "do whatever they can" to accomodate same-sex relationships.

The message to the voters? If Dean is an extremist, then so too is Cheney.

But I do agree.. all of our candidates need to spend more time focusing on plans for the future rather than dwelling on the past. I'm kinda getting tired of going back to the war resolution over and over again. We need to look forward.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I feel that if Dean get's the nod, we are doomed to another 4 years of this chimp.

Just my opinion, please don't flame me for my thoughts. If he DOES get nominated, he will have my vote.

VERY good. Think I'll start making it a habit.

It's not original or proprietary. Here are some others that are floating around the web.

- Der Gropen-ator
- Der Gropen-fuehrer

Doesn't "Schwarz" in German mean "black" or "dark"?

Swartzkatz with a black cat on it!

... she cares, that's a sign of good parenting.

Politics! That's what Dean is doing, though.. he's getting People involved who were not previously enamoured with working for Democracy! :kick:

I know you must be proud of her! And thanks for the pictures and her story!

MAN, somebody's raised a daughter beautifully!

KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS! A young woman, like my own daughter, to whom I am delighted (and rather relieved) to know I'm bequeathing my country when I pass. How gratifying to know there are young people out there who've obviously thought things through with serious intention! This young woman is a credit to her gender, her family, her city, her school, her state, her country, and her world. Grandma could learn a thing or two, assuming her mind isn't too old and rigid to open up a little...

Dear Buck, whoever you are, you are owed a serious debt of gratitude for producing such an illustrious, articulate, intelligent young woman. It's kids like her that this country needs more of. May she continue to grow, enlighten, and lead! You should be EXTREMELY proud!!!

And by the way, WELCOME TO DU - you AND your daughter!

You have good reason to be very proud of your daughter!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: