Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, and Wisconsin
Originally published in the The Capital Times
John Nichols: Dean, Kerry, Kucinich and Wisconsin
By John Nichols
August 28, 2003
Howard Dean's Saturday night rally in Milwaukee was impressive.
Despite the scheduling mishap that had the candidate appear on a night when the Green Bay Packers were playing, Dean organizers could credibly claim their man drew a crowd of 800. And the front-running candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination gave the troops an applause-line-packed speech that tore into George Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Tom Delay with a proper measure of bloodlust.
Along with the bombast came a reasonably appealing progressive message. He hit a lot of the right themes on foreign policy, argued for expanding access to health care and, after years of preaching from the free-trade playbook, he is finally beginning to criticize the corporations-uber-alles economic policies that have undermined protections for workers, the environment and human rights.
Most of the people in the crowd at the carefully staged Dean event were white, generally trending upscale and suburban. The cars in the parking areas tended to be new, pricey and, frequently, foreign made. Pickup trucks were in very short supply, as were union jackets and feed-mill caps.
In other words, very little about the Dean rally said "Wisconsin" or even "Midwest," let alone "Wisconsin Democrat." Now, on the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. Dean's tech-savvy, high-energy campaign is clearly drawing new people to the fold, many of them young. That could be good news for a state Democratic Party that has tended too frequently toward stodginess in recent years.
However, the high-flying Dean campaign still needs to get in touch with the party's grass roots if the former Vermont governor plans to prevail in Wisconsin's suddenly significant Feb. 17 Democratic primary. In particular, Dean needs to drop the "If it's Saturday, I must be in Milwaukee" stump speech and focus more on the unique concerns of a state that is poised to play a significant role in deciding who the 2004 Democratic nominee is going to be.
Dean's message was cursory when it came to addressing manufacturing job losses in Wisconsin, and he glossed over farm issues altogether - a glaring omission in a state where rural counties provided the margin of victory for Russ Feingold's Senate re-election campaign in 1998 and Al Gore's successful campaign to win Wisconsin's electoral votes in the 2000 presidential race.
Contrast Dean's one-size-fits-all approach with several of the other candidates. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who seems to enjoy riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles, will appear Saturday at the Milwaukee-based manufacturer's 100th anniversary celebration - you can bet he'll use the opportunity to talk about protecting Wisconsin jobs. And Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairman Dennis Kucinich, who recently visited the Tyson Foods strikers on the picket line in Jefferson, has been making factory and farm issues central to his campaign in the state.
While Dean looks to be the Wisconsin front-runner at this point, Kucinich has gained traction in the western Wisconsin farm counties that will play a significant role in deciding next February's primary contest. And Kucinich is scoring by talking tough on agriculture issues. The Ohio congressman's farm plan proposes ending corporate-sponsored trade agreements that have undermined prices for farmers in the United States, using antitrust laws to break up agribusiness monopolies, expanding country-of-origin labeling, providing low-cost health insurance to farm families, and investing in programs to revitalize rural America.
Kucinich's farm plan has made a big impression on farm activists.
On the same night that Dean visited Milwaukee, Kucinich was in Dubuque, Iowa, just across the Mississippi River from southwest Wisconsin. At his side was country singer Willie Nelson, a regular on the FarmAid concert circuit. "Finally, we have a guy who's standing up for the small family farmer," Nelson said of Kucinich.
Kucinich's campaign is organizing concerts featuring Nelson in Iowa and Wisconsin. Wanna bet that there will be a few more pickup trucks in the parking lots at those events?
Published: 6:33 AM 8/28/03
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