Tactics and Substance in the 2004 Elections GoogleNews: Howard Dean

July 21, 2003

by J

Independent Questionnaire

Over at Dean Independents, they've found a questionnaire put out by the Committee for a Unified Independent Party. Setting aside that I find the name a little oxymoronic (part of the reason I don't register with a party is that I don't like typical party politics), the questionnaire was interesting. DI has two posts about it: 1, 2. The latter puts Dean's answers in html. The pdf version is also available.
c) How would you characterize the state of our political culture?

The state of our political culture is dismal right now. We have one party that runs every branch of government and believes that it can get away with just about anything, and another party that's too afraid of the President s approval ratings to stand up and fight.

7. Another serious concern of independent voters is the growing influence of special interests. Independents see politics and government as corrupted by special interests and are angry that policymaking is deformed by that corruption.

a) What is your view regarding the impact of special interests on policymaking?

Special interests have an enormous impact on policymaking one need look no further than Hillary Clinton's health care reform proposal in 1993. Regardless of whether one agreed with her solutions, her plan was audacious enough to upset virtually every health care-related special interest, and they launched a successful campaign to defeat the plan entirely. As a result, politicians have been so afraid of special interests that for the last ten years, Washington has done nothing about the growing number of uninsured Americans.

[...] b) How does your candidacy speak to this post-ideological movement?

Our leaders have developed a vocabulary which has become meaningless to the American people. Left, right, liberal, conservative how can we have politics with meaning when our political vocabulary has now been rendered meaningless? I intend to tell the American people what I stand for, and let them make their choice based on what they think is right.

Posted by J at July 21, 2003 09:19 PM
Comments

c) How would you characterize the state of our political culture?

"It really stinks. Candidates are comedians, integrity is only a word, and the respect (as a country) is being lost day by day. A president has finally beaten the country down with his racism, and antics of war, and what shall come next? It's anybodys' guess."

I poised this question alone, to a republican candidate running for president (in the 2004 election), and she e-mailed me back with this answer. Why aren't we looking at her? Her name is not easy to say (if I could pronounce it all), but at least I can pronounce her first name:

Edie Bukewihge, I found her at www.voteedie.org
and I e-mailed her at edie@voteedie.org

She might be a republican, but she sounds like an Independent.

Posted by: at October 7, 2003 02:03 AM

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