Back To Basics

We're all lost in the hoopla.

The fact of the matter is that the Dean candidacy, unlike those of his rivals, is built (in techno-speak) on a robust, scalable, modular platform.

As Gertrude Stein might say, "there is some there, there."

Where is that there? Here is that there:

Here are the words of John Winthrop: “We shall be as one. We must delight in each other, make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always living before our eyes our Commission and Community in our work.”

It is that ideal, the ideal of the American community, that we seek to restore.

An America where it is not enough for me to want health care for my family – but the obligation, and responsibility of every one of us as American citizens to insure that each one of us has health care for our families.

An America where it is not enough for me to want good public schools and a better life for my children – but an obligation, and a responsibility as citizens to insure that every child in America may go to a good public school and have the opportunity of a better life.

An America where it is not enough to protect my rights under the law but where it is a duty and an obligation for each of us as Americans to make sure every American is equal under the law.

An America where it is not enough to proclaim the words freedom, self-government, and democracy, but where it is a duty and a responsibility to participate together in common purpose with the sacrifice required of each of us to give those words meaning.

This is the Howard Dean we are supporting. This is the Howard Dean the trolls fear. This is the Howard Dean we want as President.

Yeah, he gets excited some times. So do we. Yeah, he's not perfection incarnate. Neither are we.

And, no, it's not Howard Dean we really want to empower. It's We, The People. We know, unlike the Clark and Kerry and Edwards folks, that Howard Dean is not going to solve our problems for us.

He told us so. If you believed him then, then believe in yourself now.

You have the power to reclaim our nation’s destiny.

You have the power to rid Washington of the politics of money.

You have the power to make right as important as might.

You have the power to give Americans a reason to vote again.

You have the power to restore our nation to fiscal sanity and bring jobs back to our people.

You have the power to fulfill Harry Truman’s dream and bring health insurance to every American.

You have the power to give us a foreign policy consistent with American values again.

You have the power to take back the Democratic Party.

You have the power to take our country back.

And we have the power to take the White House back in 2004.

Don't be misled by the hoopla, or the polls, by our mistakes in Iowa or by our candidate's passion in front of us.

Remember, instead, what this is all about.