Carville

The nattering classes are all a buzz about James Carville's somewhat puzzling personal condemnation of Gov. Howard Dean's '50 State Strategy'... and indeed the good Governor himself. Perhaps that derives from the fact that they, like Mr. Carville, don't really understand it and are therefore laboring under a weighty dillusion and convincing only themselves. The 50 State Strategy as I see it is a long term answer to the Republican machine built in the early eighties and late nineties which ultimately delivered them the House and Senate in '94. It was a grass roots operation that ignored, in fact abhorred, DC insiders and instead focused on the localized mobilization of a disenfranchised heretofore ignored, but large, voting bloc within this great nation. The aim was to re-take Governorships, State Houses, State Senate seats, Judgeships and gradually manipulate the structure and plurality in microchosm. They would create the talking points, they would direct the conversation and debate to the topics they felt were the motivational and emotional winners for them. The strategy... 'Start small, think big' worked. Dean is, in my opinion, of the same mind. For too long Democratic DC strategists have held themselves and their mandate in high regard, believing the center was the battleground without ever accepting that their 'base' really meant anything, therefore the base had no seat at the table and no voice within the machinery, culminating in a veritable petry dish of disaffection and a nationally assumed irrelevance. So, for the last 12 years, just enough of the center has , irresolutely and inexplicibly, held for the Republicans through fear and sytematically imposed ignorance. No matter the money, the ad buys and the righteous indignation the DLC and it's centrist ilk spewed forth they failed to bring a victory. '04, enter Dean and his plan... Dean went back to the Democratic roots and glavanized State leadership, he brought them money, realism and groundtroops, reconnected and reestablished the lines of communication between DC leadership and its most fervent supporters, empowered the grassroots and the netroots and began the much needed reformation of the Democratic groundgame. His plan was not derived from a need for immediate success but, much like the Republican scheme, had a long term goal, change the dialogue (The war in Iraq is unpopular, a need for the separation of Church and State is widely accepted, people are being left behind, the need for some kind of socialized medicine has become apparent, Corporations cannot run amok and must be overseen, the Constitution must not be interpreted as the executive branch sees fit, international treaties are not 'quaint'... all big issues) excite the base, motivate. (I still believe that Dean was as suprised as everybody else at the overwhelming success of the Democrats in the mid-terms but it truly was a referendum on Iraq and the mood of the American people had been severely misjudged by the WH and Republicans nationwide.) Therefore, he was not willing to wade in at the last minute on individual races with DNC $$$$'s because that was not the plan - '08 and '10 and beyond were his targets and should remain so, unlike the DLC and Carville, this is not about instant gratification and personal benefaction, it's about our party's future health and power, without power we can not create policy. As a by-note, it has also been proven, with a majority of those races, it would not have mattered much if we had thrown everything we had at them we would still have lost. So Carville, in the best interests of the party he supposedly loves, slightly more than himself and all those Ad $$$$'s, should STFU and keep his Rahm lust to himself.