Wired for common touch

23 February 2005

Howard Dean didn't raise money from the Internet. He raised it from the people - an idea perhaps more profound than the one with which some gave him credit. And it is that idea that continues to drive hope for his tenure as chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Political pros watched in amazement in 2003 as Dean did all the wrong things yet raised millions. The accepted model for fund- raising is that candidates go after big donors - the well-heeled activists, business leaders, interest groups. The problem, of course, is that those candidates are beholden to a few.

Not Dean. Some of the technologically unsophisticated regarded the Internet as an independent source of funds, as if the World Wide Web handed out money to those who knew its secrets. But what Dean actually did was something quite old. He went after regular voters. His genius was to understand that the Internet could reach them cheaply and efficiently.

In other words, what mattered about Dean was not the Internet but the grassroots. It wasn't that average citizens necessarily agreed with him (except for his home state of Vermont, Dean never won a primary) but they were delighted, maybe even startled, that he actually reached out.

That's the power-to-the-people magic the Democratic Party hopes Dean can now conjure up as its boss.

Certainly some magic is needed. The party is in trouble. Not only is it a minority in both the House and Senate, it also seems to have lost the affection of the American people. A Gallup Poll found 37 percent of Americans now regard themselves as Republicans while only 32 percent think of themselves as Democrats. It's a remarkable reversal of fortunes.

Even worse, many of those who remain Democrats are there in name only, the political equivalent of cafeteria Catholics. They're members because their parents were Democrats or because their friends are. But they don't really buy into the orthodoxy. Often they're not even sure what that orthodoxy is.

Which speaks to the second problem Democrats have: They are not the party of ideas.

An amalgamation of interest groups, Democrats have been unable to generate any strong themes that can capture attention and unify support for a range of policies. Republicans, on the other hand, do that quite well. Democrats consistently find themselves on the negative side in a debate, arguing against something rather than for it. The GOP comes up with the idea for the Ownership Society, for example, and Democrats are reduced to sounding like Cort Furniture (Rent, don't buy!). And even when Democrats can generate a positive theme such as "Diversity," the Republican counter of "Unity" has more allure.

Can Dean solve the ideas problem as well? At first blush, one suspects a guy who so much appeals to Michael Moore may end up losing the moderate base of the party, taking Democrats off to some left-wing Neverland. But Dean's supporters argue his leftism has been overstated, that his politics, as evidenced by his stint as governor of Vermont, are much more to the middle. Moreover, Dean's willingness to listen to ordinary people and his vow to spend time in red states suggests that he too knows the answers the Democrats need can't be found only on the nation's two coasts.

Dean may fail, of course, and there is a chance Democrats could find themselves in some electoral desert, much like the Republicans were with Barry Goldwater in 1964. But to their credit, Democrats took a chance with Dean, choosing him over an array of safer candidates. Dean is not simply business as usual. If he can hold true to that, interesting things may start to happen.