OPINION
by Keith Boykin
June 20, 2005
"Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, was right on the money when he said recently that the GOP is "not very friendly to different kinds of people," and he was right when he said the Republicans are "pretty much a white, Christian party."
This is the party that wants to end affirmative action, outlaw abortion, put prayer in public schools, post the 10 Commandments in court houses and amend the Constitution to discriminate against gays. Of course they're a white, Christian party.
So what's all the fuss about?
Dean's error was strategic, not substantive. In politics, you never attack your enemies when they're making a mistake, and Dean's attack diverted attention from the Republicans' numerous mistakes.
With support for the failed Iraq war dropping dramatically and Bush's Social Security privatization plan ready to be jettisoned, the president's poll numbers have reached an all-time low, and Republicans have been searching for a way out. Then came Howard Dean.
Dean's comments allowed the Republicans to make him the issue instead of the policies of the party in power. "We gotta get ourselves beyond this point where when we disagree about politics, we call the other guy names," responded the disingenuously civil GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman. Without a hint of irony, the leader of the party that gave us Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and Tom "The Hammer" DeLay was now complaining about politeness in politics.
The Republicans get away with their hypocrisy only because the pathetically feeble Democrats won't stand up and challenge the GOP. The Democrats still haven't learned how to be an opposition party. When Republicans take a position, they stick to it with remarkable discipline and repeat it ad nauseum until the media reports it and we believe it. They have slandered and smeared their opponents -- from Dukakis to Kerry -- with hot-button lies and distortions. Remember the Dukakis "Pledge of Allegiance" controversy, the Kerry Swift Boat attacks and the meandering Clinton Whitewater investigation.
The Democrats, on the other hand, step forward timidly and then retreat as soon as they encounter even a tiny bit of resistance. Joe Biden, Joe Lieberman, Bill Richardson, Mark Warner and Nancy Pelosi all left Dr. Dean hanging when asked to respond to his remarks. But that's exactly why Howard Dean's hard-edged approach resonates with many disenchanted Democrats. "The one thing that we have to do in the Democratic Party is to stop being afraid of being different from the Republicans and stand up for what we believe in," Dean said recently.
He's right. Somebody needs to speak out repeatedly and forcefully against the gross mismanagement, unbridled corruption and criminal abuse of power in Washington. If the Democrats don't do it, they don't deserve to be elected.
Instead of getting outraged about Howard Dean, we should get outraged about the things that outraged him -- the GOP's widespread mismanagement, greed, corruption and rampant abuse of power. Would the real Democratic Party please stand up?"
Keith Boykin is a former special assistant to President Clinton, Harvard Law School graduate, popular lecturer and New York Times best-selling author of three books. He writes daily commentary on his Web site,
www.keithboykin.com.