Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
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Lynn Burton - Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Sat 02/25/2006 10:00PM MST
Coming soon to a congressional election near you -- something akin to the Republicans' Contract with America.
As outlined by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean in Aspen on Saturday, the preliminary points to cover in the agreement will include:
* A raise in the federal minimum wage;
* "Real" stem cell research;
* A balanced federal budget;
* Ethics legislation;
* No selling of public lands "for corporate benefits."
The public lands point drew the loudest round of applause from the crowd at Harris Concert Hall.
Earlier in his talk, Dean said opinion polls show the people of America are ready for a change from Republican to Democratic national leadership. "So we have to position ourselves as a clear alternative to Republicans," he said.
Dean -- a physician, former governor of Vermont and 2004 presidential candidate -- was the guest of the Aspen Institute and was in town to fundraise and meet with Democratic Party leaders. He started his remarks by telling the audience he moved to Aspen in September of 1971 and his first job was pouring concrete. Later, he washed pots and pans at the Golden Horn from 4 p.m. to midnight, and skied during the day. "Season passes were $250," he said. "I skied 80 days."
Dean's 45-minute talk, titled "The Democratic Party's Vision for America," attracted the party faithful and others from up and down the Roaring Fork Valley including Pitkin County Commissioner Dorothea Farris and Carbondale Mayor Michael Hassig.
The former Aspen ski bum made rapid fire points from start to finish, and started by saying the Democratic Party lacked grassroots organization for the past six or seven presidential elections, but is now better organized in all 50 states.
"We want to run a permanent presidential four-year campaign," he said.
Several times, Dean referred to Republican Newt Gingrich's successful election strategies in the early 1990s, and indicated it's OK to emulate them.
"But there has to be a clear difference" between Democrats and Republicans, he said.
Later, during the question-and-answer session, he said, "If you want to win elections you have to be different from the other guy."
To do that, Dean is working with the Democratic leadership to draft a "value statement" to articulate the party's vision. "We haven't seen this since the 1950s ... and it has to mean something."
Many of the issues Dean touched on have been around for years or longer: health care, taxes, public education, energy policy and jobs. Dean said the United States must link jobs to energy independence by shifting part of its workforce to retrofitting homes and businesses, and creating manufacturing jobs in the solar and windpower industries. "Those are jobs in the U.S.," he said. A national health care system would benefit American businesses such as General Motors, which spends more for health care for its workers than it does for the metal that goes into its cars, Dean said. That's one reason GM is spending $2 billion on a manufacturing plant in Canada, he said, so it won't have to pay for health insurance.
"The folks in charge won't change that, but we will," Dean said to a smattering of whoops in the half-full auditorium.
As for the rising cost of energy worldwide as China and India continue their economic expansion, Dean said it should spur the United States to use more ethanol in its cars, and high energy costs will force the United States to divert its resources to energy conservation. "It (China and India) is a problem but I see opportunity here ... we can turn it to our advantage."
Dean didn't spend much time on President Bush, but did say the Katrina Hurricane response was the biggest blow to his presidency. Dean said people around the world always thought the U.S. could adequately respond to a disaster, "But America was exposed" as the government's response "fell apart."
As for the war in Iraq, Dean personally agrees with a strategy that others have voiced that includes: bringing home the National Guard and Reserves, stationing 14,000 special operations forces in a Middle East country near Iraq, sending 20,000 troops to Afghanistan for "a fight worth having" and bringing home the remaining 10,000 troops by 2007.
"We need to take the targets off the backs of Americans," he said.
During the question-and-answer session, Dean said the Democrats must work harder to get their message out, and then pointed to a recent success. He said after the Democrats started referring to the Republicans' "culture of corruption" polls showed the American people believe by a 2:1 margin it's a Republican phenomena, and not Democrat.
So to get the word out and to break through, Democrats must "be concise, clear and repetitive on how they are different from Republicans."
http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_13057
I look forward to hearing the vision statement of our party and to helping elect Claire McCaskill to the U.S. Senate from Missouri making her our first elected female Senator (Jean Carnahan was appointed to serve for her late husband the great Gov. Mel Carnahan, she lost her re-election bid because Jim Talent rode the Bush coattails after 9/11). 
