Maura in VA has a writeup over at dKos explaining how the Dean Dozen (and DFA2's entire strategy) is already making a difference. It's about offering an alternative and seeking to ensure that a wider range of voices is heard. In Connecticut, Dean Dozen candidate Kim Hynes supports gay marriage. Since she's running, that point of view is now being articulated in the campaign. One can extrapolate and see how this is an important concept. As Maura says, "Leave no Republican unopposed."

Though some people here were critical of DFA2.0's choices of candidates in local races in "safe" Republican districts, these choices reflect Dean's belief that we need to aggressively run candidates against otherwise unopposed Republicans. The "Leave No Republican Unopposed" strategy allows progressive ideals to have a voice and forces a debate on the issues that are most important to us. The only way we can ever hope to win in the future is if we begin to build a progressive community (a growing splotch of blue in red areas) and articulate a progressive vision now.

Other comments in the thread:

That's what real leadership does, it changes the overall political landscape, which is in itself a victory without a single vote being cast. The fearful, play it safe crowd will never gain these kind of victories, having never held their ground they probably don't know there even are such victories. But in a sense they are the most important victories of all, they begin the process of reversing the swing of the political pendulum.

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Dean's political courage created capacity that was not there before, and the courage of Dean-inspired candidates has the potential to grow that capacity exponentially. Perhaps there is a new volunteer in Kim's district who read that quote today and was inspired. Or a donor who's never given to any candidate before but wants to support Kim because he's gay and lives in her district and is delighted that someone is finally standing up in support of his rights to be married.