Uncle Howard

A friend described Netroots Nation as like a giant family reunion with Howard Dean as the crazy uncle. I thought that was about right as I watched him yesterday addressing a crowd outside the convention center as part of Barack Obama's "register for change" voter registration drive. On another reasonable view, however, Dean is more like a patriarchal figure, the foundational character from which all else flows. Ultimately, though, I think that's wrong -- Dean is not a blogger himself and is, at the end of the day, a bit besides the point when it comes to the larger movement.

He and his 2004 candidacy happened to be the point around which a lot of the early netroots energy coalesced. Over time, however, it's become clear that the real leaders of the movement were include a large number of folks who were early Dean supporters or followers, but that Dean himself plays an essentially peripheral, symbolic role in the whole thing. And it's to his credit, I think, that he's basically accepted that role and done it well while also focusing diligently on his job as DNC chief. I recall being skeptical at the time that Dean would work out well in that task, but I think he has.

Comments

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Posted by far | July 18, 2008 10:04 AM

I agree that Dean has done a nice job in terms of organizing, re-thinking the electoral map, and raising money. But I have been disappointed in his inability to transform the DNC into anything resembling the kind of rapid-response media machine that the RNC has been for some time.

The Democratic Party is never going to be a pure, top-down hierarchy like the GOP, but I still find myself slightly amazed by the party's failure to round up a halfway decent batch of surrogates to spout effective talking points when a "controversy" hits the airwaves.

Posted by owenz | July 18, 2008 10:24 AM

the crazy uncle.

No, for Netroots Nation, that's probably Matt Stoller. Or Glenn Greenwald.

Posted by dry_fish | July 18, 2008 10:36 AM

There's a clip on TPM of Howard Dean talking to Howard Kurz. Dean plays down his own roll in much the way Matt just did.

Has everyone forgotten about Joe Trippi? Isn't he the link between the PJ clad basement dwellers and the politicians?

Posted by Geoff | July 18, 2008 11:19 AM

It's not that Dean is the crazy uncle but that he doesn't see the netroots nation as the disturbed cousin you wish would stay in the attic and out of sight. Dean has always seemed respectful of the efforts of bloggers and reluctant to criticize.

Posted by Th | July 18, 2008 11:33 AM

the crazy uncle.
No, for Netroots Nation, that's probably Matt Stoller. Or Glenn Greenwald.

Greenwald does seem nuts. Or at least autistic.

Dead did manage the contentious primary well.

Posted by Peter K. | July 18, 2008 11:36 AM

Matt, I'm surprised you'd say this. Just because Dean was the focal point of the netroots burst in 2004 doesn't mean he had to be. What would have happened if Dean hadn't run, or told Joe Trippi where he could stick his then-insane-sounding ideas? John Edwards wasn't going to be the first to embrace the netroots, Dennis Kucinich was/is a shitty candidate who large groups would never get behind, and who else would even come close? Clark? Is there any evidence that he understood the netroots as anything more than an ATM? I have a hard time buying Dean as anything but a crucial focus point, even if he himself was not of the movement.

Second, I think Dean DID become part of the movement at the DNC, where he spent two years fighting tooth and nail for the 50-state strategy until it became obvious to even the most insular beltway types that he was right. Yes, that's not literally the netroots, but the 50-state strategy shares the respect for Democrats and voters everywhere that marks the netroots philosophy. At the DNC, Dean made the netroots mainstream, at least in this party.

So not only would I say that Dean was crucial to the growth of the netroots, I say he did it twice!

Posted by Terry M. | July 18, 2008 11:39 AM

"Dean" not Dead

Posted by Peter K. | July 18, 2008 11:51 AM

Unkie Howard is an upper-crust, low-class twit. I realize no MSM reporter is ever going to do it, but if I ever get the chance to talk to him I'm going to walk him through all the ways his "scapegoating immigrants" claim is wrong, including the fact that IllegalAliens aren't "immigrants", that being concerned about things like terrorists coming over the borders isn't "scapegoating", that his statement is an attempt to shut down a debate we should be having, and that his statement is a divisive appeal to baser instincts in order to obtain race-based political power.

Posted by TLB | July 18, 2008 12:06 PM

I really love Howard Dean, so I'm not uh, biased, or anything, but it seems to me that Dean's strongest qualities is both an openness to outside ideas and a results-oriented, common-sense approach to getting things done. His weakness is that he's doesn't have top level political skills. Harnessing the netroots and employing a 50 state strategy make a lot of sense, and now that they are in practice, it seems obvious to do so. But some politicians wouldn't go there because it's not how things were done before, and others for "political" reasons--ie it might offend the wrong people. Obama's got some Dean-like qualities, but with a lot more slickness (which is why he's the nominee now and Dean wasn't in 04--people need a certain amount of slickness). And you notice that Republicans aren't doing as well in these areas either. If it were just a sign of the times, everyone would be doing it. I think, rather, the Democratic party found the right talent and people to both decide these were good ideas and to carry them out even against opposition from within the party itself. It doesn't give those people enough credit to think it would "just happen" anyway.

Posted by JMS | July 18, 2008 12:56 PM

Where's Ned Lamont?

Posted by Undertoad | July 18, 2008 4:11 PM

Dean became more relevant when he went from outside truthteller to insider powerbroker.

Posted by blah | July 18, 2008 7:57 PM

I'm not much of a blogger, but I would've used the word paterfamilias somewhere in this post. Then I might have made an O Brother Where Art Thou reference, possibly called Howard Dean the man of constant sorrow, and embedded the soggy bottom boys video. Matt, being a professional, took it in a different direction.

Posted by southpaw | July 18, 2008 9:07 PM