Howard Dean for president

Readers of this blog have probably figured out that I am one of those freakish small government, free market leftists. There aren’t many of us out there, or at least, I used to think that there weren’t. Then I heard a serious US presidential candidate say things like:

We cannot have social justice without a sound fiscal foundation. We must balance the federal budget.

And:

[T]here is a fundamental difference between the defense of our nation and the doctrine of preemptive war espoused by this administration. The President’s group of narrow-minded ideological advisors are undermining our nation’s greatness in the world. They have embraced a form of unilateralism that is even more dangerous than isolationism.

And let’s not forget:

I did not sign civil unions into law for gays and lesbians. I did it for America. I want to be the president where everyone in America has equal rights under the law.

That candidate? Readers of the title of this post will be unsurprised to learn that it was former VT Governor Howard Dean.

Howard Dean is a freak like me. He believes in social justice, but understands that a bankrupt government can help no-one. He opposed the war in Iraq not because he’s a pacifist (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but because he understood that Iraq was never a threat to the US, and the wrong war at the wrong time would damage our security, not enhance it. He wants to attain idealistic goals—universal healthcare, equal rights for gays and lesbians—through pragmatic and achievable means. Dean has my support, and my whopping $60 Bush tax cut; if you want to see the end of the Bush administration, then I think he deserves yours as well.

Filed under: politics/2004