Mea Culpa to the Deaniacs

Dear Deaniacs:

Please accept my sincere apology for my less-than-substantive commentary on Howard Dean last week. It was uncalled for and beneath Afro-Netizen's reputation and mission to "inform, inspire and engage" its readers.

Of all the blog entries Alex Williams of The New York Times decided to excerpt from, he chose my pre-convention missive on Dean. I gave him the rope, and he hanged with it. I could speculate why of all the entries he chose to use for his article, he chose that one, but that's a separate matter. (Although, I find it somewhat ironic and amusing that the impetus for this mea culpa is the revered, but bruised New York Times whose own mea culpa for their tainted coverage of the American invasion of Iraq was, shall we say, half-assed.)

I had only wished that I had posted my many observations on conversations I had with a diverse array of citizens at and orbiting the convention last week in time to clearly show the growth (what Republicans call "flip flopping") I experienced with regard to my views on the impact of the Howard Dean movement on the DNC, this election cycle, civic involvement from previously disaffected people. Well, better late than never.

For many months now, I have found Dr. Dean to be an enigmatic character; and I have been frustrated by some of the things he has said, and the extent to which he has been portrayed by many as a progressive largely because he 1) was not in the DNC's pocket, 2) was unabashedly against the American invasion of Iraq, and 3) his candid insights about Democrats' poor response to the highly cynical GOP strategy to spook white rural swing voters, appropriately titled: "guns, God and gays".

And though I am still not quite sure where to place Dean on my political radar screen, I have a new-found respect for his ability to rouse thousands upon thousand of Generation Xers and others, who had not been moved to action by any other movement or public figure.

Before the convention, I used to postulate that these Deaniacs were BHNC-types ("big hat, no cattle"). I believe now that I was egregiously wrong. I have greatly underestimated legions of Deaniacs who now are not only first-time voters, but who have also become delegates, precinct captains, local campaign volunteers and so on. I met many such folk in Boston who are truly walking the talk, and are outpacing many of my well-educated, upwardly mobile Black friends and colleagues who, despite their awareness of the bloody sacrifices our parents and grandparents made mere decades ago for us to be able to vote undaunted, are still painfully derelict in their most basic civic duty to be counted.

My conversations and experiences in Boston this past week have given me a much more nuanced and higher regard for Dean's impact on civic activism -- particularly among whitefolk within my generation (of thirtysomethings), who like himself are what Deaniac Lawrence Winnerman's mother dubs former "Yell-at-the-TV-Democrats". Essentially, folks who have the energy to gripe about the right-wing direction in which this country's been moving, all the while eroding our already proto-democracy, but who are not sufficiently motivated to get off their Dorito-laden sofas to do anything about it.

After talking with folks like Lawrence and his buddy Shanna Sawatzki, spouse of a Dean delegate from Washington state, I had an actual heart-to-heart dialogue with real Deaniacs without the blurred lense of the press getting in my way.

Lawrence is white. He is 34 years old -- my age. He had never voted before (an ungodly crime which in my family would be punishable by . . . I can't even imagine the consequences)! He had not felt moved (from the couch) to vote until the candidacy of Howard Dean. Not only that, he actually contributed money to Howard Dean via his weblog BEFORE he took his first vote! If that's not revolutionary in this beat-up, Republicrat-dominated political system, I don't know what is. But wait, there's more!

Lawrence is now a precinct captain in his home district, and is helping to elect Democratic candidates on the local and state level -- not to mention actively working towards electing the very-non-Dean candidacy of John Kerry. Lawrence and crew have also taken it upon themselves to spin off their state's version of Dean's Democracy for America called Democracy for Washington.

Lawrence is also part of The Backbone Campaign, a small, but growing regional project geared towards supporting and conspicuously honoring Democrats who walk the talk regarding promotion of progressive legislation and public advocacy.

Bill Moyer and compatriots brought out a 70-foot backbone to the Democratic convention to promote their simple, but enlightened cause. I didn't get a chance to see it in person, but the symbolism was vivid enough in my mind's eye to appreciate their creative effort to encourage the DNC to act like the Democrats their leadership once faithfully produced.

I know this sounds like a Kum-ba-ya moment, but the impact of the Deaniac movement is neither minor nor ephemeral. It is real and nothing less than revolutionary. And in discussing its anatomy, scope and import, we -- particularly those of us in the Black community -- can avoid being preoccupied with personality or policy differences and focus on the infrastructure and mechanics of a movement that will soon eclipse the man who was once its epicenter.

While many Blackfolk are content to wait for "our next leader", many previously apathetic whitefolk have not only found a "leader" in Dean, but more importantly, embraced and helped strengthen a movement that transcends the cult of personality or leadership as embodied in one chosen individual.

I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps the Howard Dean movement is exactly the wake-up call many of us Blackfolk need in this most crucial election cycle (and beyond) to be movement-minded and not leader-leaning. While to older and wiser activists may see few unique elements of the Dean movement, Deaniacs' web-empowered activism should remind us that when we dig deep enough, indeed it was this movement made Dean -- not the other way around.

And it is this fact and powerful lesson that compelled me to acknowledge what I believe is a turning-point in grassroots politics that I should not have initially reduced to tongue-in-cheek jabs that belittled the largely positive contributions Howard Dean and his adherents have made to this election season and the two-party system at large.

Comments

[AL J]

Excellent Mr. Rabb. You are great, bar none.

Your moving fingers writes, and lots of us Dig It. Be safe, and God speed.
AL J

PS. WILL SEE YOU ON THE TRAIL.

[Harolynne Bobis]

As the African American parent of a 35 year old son, who rarely votes, I can tell you the impact that Dean has had on our lives. I am politically active and have voted in every election since 1968 when I cast my first ballot. But Dean's candidacy, and his speeches electrified my son's best friend (and his Mom) and together we were able to have coherent coversations about Democrats and the party and where we were headed. I don't think I'll have to nag him to vote this year. Thanks for taking a second look.