2004-01-27 - 7:06 p.m.
No new column until next week, so here's a bit of politics. The following was written in December, pre-Iowa caucus debacle. I should have another piece up by Thursday with commentary on whatver the hell happens in New Hampshire.
The Kids Say He’s All Right: The Miraculous Emergence of Howard Dean
By Jenn K.
His weblog’s sidebar reads like a public service announcement for the next generation: Dykes for Dean, Deadheads for Dean, Geeks for Dean, Unemployed for Dean. The democratic front-runner’s election campaign seems like something lifted straight from the history books—of Disney. He is the charming character that pulls ahead through sheer will and ends up with the glory. The obvious underdog at the beginning of the race has now become the favorite among the youth of America, and particularly the kids in New York.
He is Howard Dean.
"He’s just really cool," says Bonnie Goguen, a senior at Long Island’s Adelphi University. Goguen is a prototypical Dean supporter: educated, well-read, disillusioned with the current president, yet somehow still hopeful about the future. "My friends and I have been telling a lot of people about him—anything is better than Bush at this point, you know?" she says.
A recent walk down West 4th street in Manhattan presents telltale signs of Deanheads. Signs of support plaster local cafes and restaurants. Piles of the Village Voice with Dean on the cover lay on doorsteps and storefronts. The Halloween parade in the West Village was brimming with Dean floats and micro-marches. Howard’s giant head loomed above the crowd, smiling gregariously at the anti-Bush protesters.
A local Dean meet-up this November in Hicksville, NY seemed to represent the epitome of American culture. The equal representation of young and old, female and male made for a secondhand Benetton commercial. It has never been much of a stretch to see adults participate in politics. It was the appearance of three local high school kids at the support meeting that caused a moment of pause.
Brett Wynnings, a 17-year-old Hauppauge native, was the most vocal devotee. "Dean is a democrat who knows what it means to be a democrat. He’s not like Wesley Clark—a Republican hiding behind the image of the donkey."
It’s Howard Dean’s liberal and embracing attitude that has really captured the hearts of the youngest voting generation. His website, deanforamerica.com, has become a round-table for tech-savvy supporters to exchange niceties and opinions about their man as well as the competition. Dean’s swift perception that the Internet is the best forum for his particular brand of grass roots campaigning has been widely heralded and successful. USA Today recently ran an op-ed piece stating: "His campaign is uniquely suited to the kind of people who are comfortable on the Web. It speaks to people who seek out change, and does so in their own language and through their own medium."
Kids who have recently been handed the reigns to vote have fallen into the Dean camp for a number of reasons. "He’s simple and he understands what’s wrong with the country," says Lisa Palermo, also a senior at Adelphi University. "I am so sick of rhetoric, of the war, of Bush destroying the country, and it really seems like Dean is too."
This sentiment was perhaps best expressed recently by guest blogger (a blog is a type of Internet forum where people can post ideas) Ken Foster, who frequently posts on Dean for America. "We all know that there is at least one thing we share: the desire to correct the direction our country has mistakenly taken," he writes.
It seems regardless of where Dean stands on the issues, he’s got one other thing going for him. "He’s just so charismatic and charming," Palermo says with a discernible sigh.
For more information on Howard Dean:
http://www.deanforamerica.com
www.deanforamerica.com
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/
http://www.saccenti.com/deanybopper/index.htm
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