Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

Washington Post ^ | December 28, 2003 | Paul Farhi

[nwrep]

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has a vision of where he'd like to take the nation. It turns out to be the 1960s.

In campaign stop after campaign stop, in overheated high school gyms and smoky union halls, Dean repeatedly offers this misty-eyed homage to that turbulent decade:

"When I was 21 years old," he says, "it was the end of the civil rights era, and America had paid an enormous price. Martin Luther King had been killed. Bobby Kennedy was dead. A lot of other people who are less well-known, including four little girls in a Birmingham church, had died so that we could have equal rights under the law for all Americans.

"But it was also a time of great hope. Medicare had passed. Head Start had passed. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the first African American justice [was appointed to] the United States Supreme Court. We felt like we were all in it together, that we all had responsibility for this country. . . . That [strong schools and communities were] everybody's responsibility. That if one person was left behind, then America wasn't as strong or as good as it could be or as it should be. That's the kind of country that I want back."

It is a stirring piece of rhetoric, and one that inevitably draws cheers and sustained applause for the former Vermont governor as he campaigns through this state, which holds its first-in-the-nation Democratic caucus in three weeks. In this part of the farm belt last week, Dean used it as his closer almost every place he spoke.

His references to the '60s, Dean makes clear in an interview, are something personal. "We felt the possibilities were unlimited then," he said last week. "We were making such enormous progress. It resonates with a lot of people my age. People my age really felt that way."

As history, however, Dean's memories of the era are selective. Rather than the time of great national unity and purpose he describes, the 1960s were a period of great upheaval, and surely rank among the most divisive for America in the 20th century.

[nwrep]

PING

[Dog]

If Dean gets any more weirder....the men in white coats will get him...

Peace ....Love and Free Sex!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

This guy represents everthing I loathe about the baby boomers.

This article fails to mention the painfully obvious 'hate Bush and all Republicans' part of the strategy. A level of hatred which has not been created and exploited since post Civil War era. Designed to incite and bump up voter turnout.

[Polybius]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s......

[Miss Marple]

Well, I loathe Dean and I am a baby boomer. He is from the group that got all the TV time back in the 60's. People like me got zero. I didn't smoke dope, participate in demonstrations, wear love beads, or go to Woodstock. I was a military wife raising a son, scraping by with enough money for groceries, and horribly homesick.

Howard Dean is a certifiable loon and a dangerous demagogue. His candidacy will propel the country into turmoil, and I do not look forward to it.

[reg45]

What! No love beads!

[rickmichaels]

"...including four little girls in a Birmingham church..."

"The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the first African American justice [was appointed to] the United States Supreme Court..."

Any chance there were white people in the audience when Dean said these things?

(Didn't think so.)

[DustyMoment]

"In campaign stop after campaign stop, in overheated high school gyms and smoky union halls, Dean repeatedly offers this misty-eyed homage to that turbulent decade:"

As Pat Paulsen used to say at the end of all of his political speeches (during his Presidential Campaign spoof): "In the decades to come, years will pass."

It took the press months to figure out that Paulsen was not a serious candidate and the tipoff was that he ended every speech with that line. The press finally started listening (for a change) and figured it out based on that line alone.

The rest of the country already knew that Paulsen's campaign was a prank.

As for Dean . . . didn't he die in a car wreck in the 50s?

[Viking2002]

Libs just can't help themselves but to dredge up Woodstock, free love, and civil rights marches, can they?

[dighton]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

Translation: Dean is living in the past.

[byteback]

[VOA]

"Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s"

"Incense, peppermint..."

[mewzilla]

Summon the spirit of the 60s?

Been there. Done that. No thanks, Howie.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[It is a stirring piece of rhetoric, and one that inevitably draws cheers and sustained applause for the former Vermont governor as he campaigns through this state...]

And so the Washington Compost would have us believe that 60's radicalism sells in Iowa? Give me a break.

[Prodigal Son]

Perhaps Dean should adopt 'Spirit in the Sky' as his campaign song?

The spirit of the 60s is a ghost for good reason.

A lot of people realized what the 60s was all about at Woodstock. People rolling in the mud, not having a place to p!ss, nothing to eat. Those with any sense put the joint down afterwards, went out and got a job.

Spirit of the 60s indeed...

[EGPWS]

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has a vision of where he'd like to take the nation. It turns out to be the 1960s.

Progressive isn't he?

He would rather be confronting the Vietcong rather than the terrorists. LoL's!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

PS: So in a time of global war against terrorism, the best that the Dims have to offer is a 60's radical pot-smoking anti-America draft-dodger? Well, come to think of it, this worked once before.

[navygal]

Dean must be trippin.

[Tijeras_Slim]

"We felt the possibilities were unlimited then,"

Well, Jimmy Carter fixed all that in the 70's.

[woofie]

Well, Jimmy Carter fixed all that in the 70's.

I thought we just ran out of the really good dope

[gcruse]

I'd say the Spirit of the Sixties is already here.

'Mean for Dean' is a distinct echo of 'Clean for Gene.'

Vice-president Hubert H. Humphrey had been campaigning for delegates in non-primary states and won the nomination at a combative Democratic National Convention taking place in Chicago on August 26-29, 1968. Some three-thousand anti-war demonstrators stood outside the convention hall. Here, McCarthy was beaten by Humphrey. That same day, the delegates to the Democratic convention voted down a Vietnam peace plan by a 1500-1000 vote.(From Woodstock to Watergate, 47)
        The response to the rejected Vietnam peace plan was horrific. The three-thousand anti-war demonstrators, along with an equal amount of police and Illinois National Guardsmen fought a bloody, free-for-all battle that lasted all night. The police and Guardsmen also lead an assault in downtown Chicago on the headquarters of the Democratic National Convention. There were mass arrests and three-hundred injured as the police clubbed the defenseless demonstrators. Later, on Election Day, Hubert Humphrey lost the Presidential election to Richard Nixon.(From Watergate to Woodstock, 60-64) 

[Tijeras_Slim]

Whaaaa?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Dirty, smelly ping!

[horse_doc]

We were making such enormous progress.

And then the Lefty Boomers took over, and their generation has been dragging America down ever since.

I get so tired of culturally cleaning up after these guys, and I can't wait for a Dean candidacy.

The election will be much closer than anyone here will want to believe, but at least we will finally have a chance to drive a stake into the heart of Woodstock, once and for all.

[woofie]

Whaaaa?



Its a joke.....

[Tijeras_Slim]

Whaaaa? < /stoner voice>

(I was trying to be funny too... Let's not quit our day jobs.) :)

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

No, he didn't want to confont the vietcong either.

[okie01]

Adds Kazin, "Every political faith has a golden age. Conservatives like the 1980s, when we won the Cold War and America stood tall again. If you're liberal, you remember the '60s the way Dean is doing now."

Conservatives can celebrate a decade of real accomplishment.

Liberals celebrate a decade of violence, disunity and surrender.

Go, Howie, GO!

[Helms]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

More like the spirit of Nov. Dec. and Jan. of 2000-01 and during which they were deprived of the prize.

[TonyRo76]

older liberals who remember the 1960s in similarly warm and hopeful terms

Translation: all the dips••t hippies who smoked pot, protested the war and rolled around in the mud and excrement at Woodstock in a rabid, hedonist orgy with all their dirty, smelly, long-haired, maggot-infested freak friends.

I am sooooooooooo glad I wasn't born until 1970. I'm just sorry my dear, sweet parents had to live through that crappy nightmare of a decade, the '60s.

[Helms]

[Scenic Sounds]

Hey, I remember that!! LOL. ;-)

[Scenic Sounds]

Translation: all the dips••t hippies who smoked pot, protested the war and rolled around in the mud and excrement at Woodstock in a rabid, hedonist orgy with all their dirty, smelly, long-haired, maggot-infested freak friends.

I am sooooooooooo glad I wasn't born until 1970. I'm just sorry my dear, sweet parents had to live through that crappy nightmare of a decade, the '60s.

ROFL!

You didn't miss a thing, Tony!! ;-)

[gcruse]

Dear Tony,

It was a gas.

Love,

 [The dad of another  33 year-old.]

[mindspy]

And then the Lefty Boomers took over, and their generation has been dragging America down ever since. I too loathe the boomers. I grew up at the tail end of the privileged ones and it seems I have wade through the knee deep, sometimes shoulder deep, manure left by these jackasses.

[the invisib1e hand]

Dean Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s

This was the Clintons' schtick. Been there, done that (twice) and it only gets worse. I think we're all over that, Ho'.

[mindspy]

And then the Lefty Boomers took over, and their generation has been dragging America down ever since.
Revised. I too loathe the boomers. I grew up at the tail end of the privileged ones and it seems my whole life I have to wade through the knee deep, sometimes shoulder deep, manure left by these jackasses.

[foreverfree]

bump

[Zechariah11]

LOL!

[Zechariah11]

LOL!

[Zechariah11]

Dean supporters are not too happy about these stories from the Washington Post. One writer at Blog for America posts:

Just logging on for a second to say that I am sick to death of the Washington Post's constant haranguing of Dr. Dean (whom they refer to as "Mr. Dean."). They misrepresent his positions and put far too much emphasis on small matters -- those which, if they were a quarter as hard on our President would, by their own standards, disqualify him for the office he holds. And James Carville, since you're a pundit I don't have to be quite so polite: Kiss. My. Ass. On Tim Russert last night you denigrated Dr. Dean and then proceeded to list things you want the candidates to say -- EVERY SINGLE ONE of those things was a position of Dr. Deans; in fact, you could have been quoting from his policy papers. Sheesh. I was at a dinner party last night at which the host told me that the Dean campaign is "a children's crusade." In other words, we're all enthusiastic children who have no idea what damage we're doing. I thanked him for his point of view, but I look forward to the next dinner party at which he can eat his words. Fight the good fight, people! We need every bit of energy, every dollar. The tea is in the harbor. Posted by Betsey at December 28, 2003 11:37 AM

[woofie]

(I was trying to be funny too... Let's not quit our day jobs.) :)



Yep...and lets try workin the night shift at WalMart

[Tijeras_Slim]

As long as it isn't that one at the corner of 40 and Eubank, what a zoo!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Interesting contrast bwteen the Democrat Party of JFK vs that of Clinton(s)-Dean, eh? IMO the complete commandeering of the Democrat Party by the radical left is one of the biggest unreported storeis of the past 10 years. I guess the Leftist media sees nothing wrong there, while they're busy reporting on GW's failures and the nefarious activities of the VRWC.

[Polybius]

One writer at Blog for America posts: Just logging on for a second to say that I am sick to death of the Washington Post's constant haranguing of Dr. Dean (whom they refer to as "Mr. Dean.").

We at FreeRepublic, on the other hand, would not be so disrespectful as address him as "Mister". There is always.......

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Spirit of the Sixties, Executive Summary:

Moronic Sixties Pothead: "Bring it all down, man!"

Rational Citizen: "If you do that, what will you replace it with?"

Moronic Sixties Pothead: "Er, Uh...Hey, pass the joint, man."