Who here hopes Dean will be the Barry Goldwater of our party?

[DaveSZ]

Even though I did not support Dean as our nominee, I am fond of his message.

I hope Dean's message will inspire and energize Democrats, and lead to real change within our party in the same way that Barry Goldwater heped shape the Republican Party before the Fundies and Neocons took it over and ruined it.

:)

[Terry_M]

1. There is a lot of resistance to change to overcome...

In this country in general and within the democratic party.

[WilliamPitt]

2. Give a great speech and then get beat like a dog?

I hope not. Goldwater is a bad model. Dean is better, stronger, and way way way more important than to spend himself like Barry did.

"Extremism in the defense of virtue is no vice" did more for the Democratic Party than anything else you can point to in that time period.

[Leilani]

3. I believe the quote was

"Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice."

[WilliamPitt]

4. Distinction without a difference

[DaveSZ]

5. But

Without Barry there would have been no Reagan.

Get my drift? Hehe.

[drumwolf]

7. Goldwater's campaign was a disaster in the short term.....

.....but I think DaveSZ's point was that in the long term he helped build the foundations that made the Republican resurgence possible a couple of decades later. Many people think that Howard Dean could have the same effect.

We need to be doing the same. Getting * out of office is absolutely important, but at the same time we also need to be focusing on building the same kind of foundations for ourselves (i.e. spreading ideas via foundations and think tanks, pundits, etc.) that the Right has. We've already started doing so, with orgs like MoveOn and the Center for American Progress, and we need to keep building on that.

[eridani]

6. That would be Dennis Kucinich

Dean's policy differences with DLC aren't enough to put him in the Goldwater category. It was his style and lack of permission to run from the PTB that got him shot down.