[Vision2020] more perspective

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

I am starting to understand why you guys hyper-ventilate over things like 
this. No telling where insensitive racism is going to pop up next. The 
Democratic front-funner, no less!

Cordially,

Douglas Wilson



You Might Be a Redneck If...
By WILLIAM C. MANN
Nov 1, 2003, 23:06
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A comment by Howard Dean about Confederate flags and pickup trucks has 
embroiled the leading Democrats in Iowa's presidential caucuses in a 
name-calling donnybrook.
"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their 
pickup trucks," the former Vermont governor said in a telephone interview 
quoted in Saturday's Des Moines Register. "We can't beat George Bush unless 
we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."
Dean said Saturday that he was intending to encourage the return of 
Southern voters who have abandoned the Democrats for decades but are 
disaffected with the Republicans.
Two Democrat rivals competing against Dean in Iowa's leadoff Jan. 19 
caucuses saw the comment differently.
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who shares the lead in Iowa with Dean, 
accused Dean of making a blatant move to win the votes of people "who 
disagree with us on bedrock Democratic values like civil rights."
"I don't want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their 
pickup trucks," Gephardt said in a statement. "I will win the Democratic 
nomination because I will be the candidate for guys with American flags in 
their pickup trucks."
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts contended that Dean's "pandering" to the 
National Rifle Association gave him an inroad to "pander to lovers of the 
Confederate flag."
Dean's comment was reported in story about Kerry's criticism of Dean's 
record on guns. The senator claimed that Dean was an NRA favorite who 
opposed a 1994 law that banned assault weapons to civilians.
"I would rather be the candidate of the NAACP than the NRA," Kerry said in 
a statement.
Candidate and civil rights activist Al Sharpton - who has accused Dean of 
having an "anti-black agenda" - said he was "surprised and disturbed" by 
the Confederate flag remark. "If I said I wanted to be the candidate for 
people that ride around with helmets and swastikas, I would be asked to 
leave," Sharpton said.
In response to the criticism, Dean released a statement saying: "I want 
people with Confederate flags on their trucks to put down those flags and 
vote Democratic - because the need for quality health care, jobs and a good 
education knows no racial boundaries.
"We have working white families in the south voting for tax cuts for the 
richest 1 percent while their children remain with no health care," Dean 
said. "The dividing of working people by race has been a cornerstone of 
Republican politics for the last three decades - starting with Richard 
Nixon. ... The only way we're going to beat George Bush is if southern 
white working families and African-American working families come together 
under the Democratic tent, as they did under FDR."
The two southerners in the Democratic race, North Carolina Sen. John 
Edwards and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas, also protested. 
"Some of the greatest civil rights leaders, white and black, have come from 
the South," said Edwards. "To assume that southerners who drive trucks 
would embrace this symbol is offensive."
Clark said, "Every Democratic candidate for president needs to condemn the 
divisiveness the Confederate flag represents."
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign weighed in as well. "Governor 
Dean ought to be more careful about what he says," said campaign director 
Craig Smith. "It is irresponsible and reckless to loosely talk about one of 
the most divisive, hurtful symbols in American history."
Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright told The Associated Press that Dean had 
previously used the Confederate flag image in his campaign.
One instance came Feb. 22 at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee 
in Washington. Dean said the men with Confederate flag decals in their 
pickup trucks represented lucrative prospects for the party "because their 
kids don't have health insurance, either, and their kids need better 
schools, too."
The party elite stood and cheered.