Anti-Bush Profiles:
Howard Dean

by R. McFadden

Howard Dean describes himself as an "outsider" in his run to be elected US President in 2004. But months before the New Hampshire and Iowa primaries, this pretended outsider has already gathered more money than any other candidate (with more than $10 million in private donations) and he is the undisputed front runner to challenge George W. Bush to the presidential crown.

Dean served as Governor of Vermont for over ten years, spending the last year not in the state but criss-crossing the country and fruitfully plotting the operations of a campaign that must overcome four powerful East Coast US Senators -- Kerry, Edwards, Graham, Lieberman -- to first gain the Democratic nod, before directing its energy against the incumbent Bush.

These powerful opposing Senators have money and TV time, but none have developed ANY sort of word-of-mouth support on the ground that compares with Dean. In Los Angeles, one sees "Dean for America" flyers at coffee shops, "Dean for America" campaign stands at the local fair, and most importantly, people are talking Dean.

Dean's campaign has used internet communication to great effect. Operatives have employed e-mail lists and message boards to coordinate action and local "Dean for America" chapters now hold monthly meetings. General popular awareness of Dean's grand ambitions increased in 2002 through postings on news and political opinion forums such as Democratic Underground. Dean's method in news forums mimicks closely that of George W. Bush operatives who have used the conservative web site Free Republic to propagate pro-Bush and pro-War on Terrorism message.

To add to his effective field and "cyber" operations, Dean gained strong media presence in summer 2003, with cover stories on USA Today, Newsweek and Time. Growing grassroots support coupled with the potential for complete elite media positivity toward the candidate make Dean's chances to be elected strong. But so far Dean has shown himself to be just a master of new American political imagery and strategery. Who is this Dean?

Who is Howard Dean?

The Center for Public Integrity describes Howard Dean's blueblooded youth:

Dean was born into a wealthy New York family in 1948. The oldest of four brothers and the son of a wealthy, conservative stock broker, he grew up in the Hamptons and the Upper-East side where he attended elite private schools. In 1967 he entered Yale University. While at Yale, Dean discovered that he had an innate sympathy for the civil rights movement and the plight of the poor. He steered clear of radical protests and student demonstrations, later saying that he “instinctively distrusted ideologues,” but he also came to oppose the escalating Vietnam War.

After graduation Dean did not immediately pursue a career in politics. Though he left Yale with a B.A. in Political Science, he initially set out to follow in his father’s footsteps and make his way on Wall Street. He worked as a stock broker for two years before changing his career path and enrolling in the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York.

Dean graduated from medical school in 1978 and went to the University of Vermont Medical Center to do his residency. He subsequently moved to Shelburne, Vermont and established a medical practice with his wife, Judith.

Dean's wife, Judith Steinberg, is also a doctor and comes from another rich Ivy League family:

Judy Dean, who uses her maiden name, Judith Steinberg, in her medical practice, grew up in a Long Island suburb, the daughter of two doctors. She has always loved science; she majored in biochemistry at Princeton before going to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

The Deans have two children, Anne and Paul. Paul, 17, was found guilty in August 2003 for theft from the Burlington Country Club. More than $500 in alcohol was stolen and Paul Dean was to be the getaway driver.

What does Howard Dean stand for?

1. Universal Health Care -- Dean intends on "phasing in" new government entitlements to subsidized medical treatment and subsidized drugs. This has been a keystone issue for Dean since he announced his candidacy, and it is one other Democratic challengers, such as Dennis Kucinich and Richard Gephardt, are promoting as well.

Dean lambasts George W. Bush's Tax Cut of 2001, and vows to bring "affordable health coverage," to the downtrodden by having more successful Americans pay for these medical costs through increased general taxation.

The proposed system will move the American medical system under further federal control and create a new "health care cartel" who will woo Washington, DC bureaucrats and vie for the billions to be doled out by the government to subsidize health care services.

Dean plans on increasing the federal work tax to Clintonian levels to pay for the program and then to transfer this sum to the key players spearheading the "health care cartel," namely hospital owners, drug companies, labor unions, HMOs and insurance providers. All these factions will greatly benefit from such a grandiose federal scheme that concentrates so much power in appointed bureaucrats and this would-be cartel will be chipping in big money and people power for the Dean campaign if he can pull ahead as the Democratic choice.

2. Foreign Policy -- Dean agitators on the internet called out the fact that Howard Dean was opposed to the conquest of Iraq, and to the "Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive war. But this opposition is not as definite as antiwar activists might have presumed.

Dean was primarily opposed to the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003 because the attack was against the wishes of the United Nations, and because the assault hurt America's international "image."

Howard Dean is an interventionist and an internationalist. "Counterpunch's Alexander Cockburn labels Dean a "mainstream imperial Democrat," making this candidate an uncertain cure to America's foreign woes.

Dean is a loud voice crying that, "War is not the answer -- world government is." Dean appears to favor devolving power from our elected American representatives to appointed UN and NGO bureaucrats who would be able to overrule laws passed by local legislators.

Howard Dean has not yet come out in full support of any of the controversial international accords rejected by the Bush Administration in 2001, and remains vague in any discussion of foreign affairs. Though little spoken, Dean is leaning toward signing away control over our country with the "global warming" Kyoto Accords (which would make it an international crime to create too much CO2 in the USA), the International Criminal Court (whereby American citizens could be arrested and imprisoned by orders issued by foreign judges), and the myriad cloned treaties that will sprout in their wake.

In the world of Dean, there can only be "world peace" if we increase the US's "international dependence." Dean's platform is virulently opposed to "isolationism" and "unilateralism" and appears to put America on the road to surrender our national sovereignty and join with the UN New World Order.

Now that American troops occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, Dean says, "their burden is ours, and anything less than total commitment will be dangerous to our long-term future." Dean also has faith in the neo-conservative plan to bring "freedom and democracy" to the Middle East by toppling Arab regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran.

Our government's foolish actions over the last fifty years have gotten us to the point in history where we find ourselves today. Howard Dean does not appear to want to correct these errors, or calculate the real price of a half-century of interventionism, but will likely lead America to interfere even further in the affairs of other nations. President Dean will without doubt find reason to send new rounds of young Americans to risk their lives in foreign wars as Bush I, Clinton I, and Bush II have done.

Howard Dean's potentially disastrous foreign policy is rooted partially in his own ignorance of current events in foreign countries. According to MSNBC's William Saletan, Dean showed a serious misunderstanding of foreign affairs at a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.:

Dean made a few elementary mistakes during the Q and A, such as confusing “isolationism” with isolation of the enemy. Some of his assertions — that an alliance of democratic ideals “defeated world communism without firing a shot,” that President Clinton bequeathed President Bush “momentum” toward Middle East peace, and that al-Qaida “used our loss of focus to rebuild their terrorist networks, as recent deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco demonstrate” — were unsubstantiated and misleading.

Yasser Arafat repudiated the Camp David talks of summer 2000 as a failure and the latest Israeli-Palestinian war (al-Aqsa intifada) erupted in September 2000, months before Clinton handed over the reins to Bush. The last gasp peace talks in Taba, Egypt in January 2001 revealed Israel and Arabs to be even further apart from resolution, while the murder of two Israelis eating lunch in the occupied territory at the time of the talks underscored that the "peace process" had given way to all-out war. And Dean claims that as a time of "momentum toward Middle East peace?"

Howard Dean must become much more knowledgeable about the Arab-Zionist conflict in Israel than this quotation reflects if he is to have any success in stemming World War III in the Middle East before it gets even more out of control. His ignorance of Israeli affairs is especially confusing given that, according to The Forward's E.J. Kessler, Dean is "making a concerted effort to develop a national Jewish constituency for his candidacy."

As a first step in 2002, Dean named Massachusetts-based Steven Grossman, former head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), to be a top fundraiser. Dean then took his campaign to Israel for a little vacation paid by AIPAC.

According to The Forward:

Grossman ... said Dean would appeal to American Jews because Jews, in effect, like doctors: "He is a physician who built a track record on health care ... The Jewish community will respond." Grossman said Jews would also approve of Dean's stance in support of civil unions for gay Vermonters because of the Jewish affinity for civil and human rights.

Dean's close ties with AIPAC, the Israeli government's lobbying agent in Washington, do not bode well for a an end to America's inexplicable double-standard when it comes to this island nation in a sea of Arab hostility. The US government's extravagant political and financial favors to Israel would continue under President Dean who rejected George Bush's proposed $1 billion grant to Israel as inadequate, and promised $4 billion in free American money if he were president.

3. Gays & Guns -- Howard Dean has made waves against the Democratic "establishment" with his statements that there should not be further federal legislation regulating guns. In 2000, Al Gore's anti-gun rights plank hurt the Party in Midwestern swing states, and may have been the single most important issue to turn heartland America into solid Bush Country. However, Dean does little to promote his "sensible gun laws" position among the "progressive" community.

He does do his best to promote his starring role in the great "civil union" debate that erupted while he was Governor of Vermont. Vermont was the first state in the Union to recognize homosexual "civil unions" and this is due in great part to Howard Dean.

The issue of homosexual "civil unions" came to the fore in 1999 when the Vermont Supreme Court ordered that the state Legislature give same-sex couples all the legal “benefits and protections of marriage.” In April 2000, behind closed doors, Howard Dean signed the first "civil union" law in the country guaranteeing homosexuals who applied for "civil union" status the same legal protections enjoyed by married couples.

The law was hailed by elite American media as a grand leap ahead in the struggle for human rights. However, widespread opposition ensued over the summer 2000, most notably with the "Take Back Vermont" movement. Five Republicans who had voted to recognize homosexual "civil unions" were tossed out in party primaries. Then, in the general election of 2000, several Democratic state representatives who spearheaded the initiative were voted out of office as the Republicans won a stunning 16 seats from the Democrats to take a majority in the state House.

Howard Dean was able to hang on in 2000 and earn one more term as Governor. In his campaign literature, he paints himself as a political martyr who stood up for "basic human rights" and "civil rights for every American" in signing the legislation. Dean continues to claim the Vermont "civil union" law as an important victory and as proof that he is the "pro-gayest" of all the Democrats running. Though homosexual political groups find the "civil union" law to be a distasteful compromise which fails to take that final step and recognize "gay marriage," many are still strong proponents of Howard Dean's candidacy.

www.deanforamerica.com

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