Howard Dean is MOVELEFT.COM Progressive Person-of-the-Week

[Eric J in MN]

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_02_17_progressive_person_of_the_week_howard_dean_new_chair_of_the_dnc.asp

Sometimes choosing the "Progressive Person-of-the-Week" is easy.

For this feature which ran after "Martin Luther King Day," it was obvious to me that Martin Luther King should get the honor.

Similarly, choosing Howard Dean, who was elected Chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, to be MOVELEFT.COM's Progressive Person for this week was easy.

Howard Dean took office immediately.

I hope his chairmanship will bring:

* more interaction with the grassroots

* a re-examination of paying consultants a percentage to place expensive tv commercials (which biases campaigns towards spending money on tv which could more effectvely be spent in other ways)

* more criticism of the excesses of corporations

* changing the order of the primaries/caucuses for presidential races, instead of Iowa and New Hampshire always going first.

Howard Dean hasn't necessarily advocated all of the above; that is my wish list and not his.

However, since Howard Dean has a reputation as a reformer, I hope he will enact some of these important reforms.

If you haven't donated to the Democratic Party lately, donating this week sends a message of support for the new chairman, Howard Dean.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. You have some really good ideas here. Thanks for this post.

I don't know how Howard Dean would feel about the re-examination of the primaries, but I'd imagine he'd support this, since they ended his candidacy. As Democrats, we have to re-examine everything, since the process let us down, this time, as it did in 2000. Howard Dean certainly realizes this, as do leading Democrats in the Senate and the House. Changes are certainly necessary.:-(

As for interacting with grassroots and criticizing the excesses of corporations, those are reasons he has our support. And for choosing the time of his election as DNC chair to donate to the Democratic Party, this is an inspired idea, since it will send an important message. Thanks.:-)