Dean's No Lefty

Here is MaxSpeak on Dean

A friend suggests that the left should back Dean for the same reasons the right backed Goldwater. I don't think the analogy holds. Goldwater stood for radical principles, worth fighting for if you were a true blue conservative. I don't see any counterpart in Dean. I see no appreciation of the importance of class, unlike, say, John Edwards. Dean is no less a child of privilege than George Bush. I don't see a focus on the creation of good jobs. I don't see a critique of welfare reform. I don't see much about what are pigeon-holed as "labor" issues. The main exceptions are health care, where Dean has made a serious contribution to the debate, and the war, where he has shown leadership.

I've never entirely agreed with the notion that Dean is your run of the mill "elitist liberal" or the second coming of George McGovern. I think he's far more of an oddball than that, or as perhaps he'd prefer, far more "independent" and "free thinking". The true liberal on domestic policy seems to be Dick Gephardt, whose (near) universal healthcare plan is both more expansive and more expensive than anyone else. On social issues, Dean's more of a libertarian than a liberal, supporting civil unions and opposing gun control. His only real liberal credential is that he was opposed to the Iraq War, but this matters less now that the war is over and Dean has in fact pledged to continue the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq.

So, where's that leave us? Dean clearly is no McGovernite (though, as John B. Judis notes, he appeals to the same groups), but rather something resembling a real life version of Bullworth. Dean's ideaology seems to isn't liberalism or progressivism, but contrarianism, he'd rather be a maverick than anything else. Personally, I've always (or at least frequently) been suspicious of mavericks, outsiders and straight-talkers. If someone running for President trumpets their authenticity, its likely that they are just a very skilled phony.