Howard Dean came to Deerfield, Illinois on Halloween night to speak with the Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats or "Tenth Dems." Tenth Dems is a large volunteer organization that was started in 2003 in a Highland Park living room by seven people including former state representative Lauren Beth Gash. The group now claims over 2000 members and works to elect Democrats at all levels of government within the congressional district.
Former Governor Dean started by congratulating the Tenth Dems on their mission and success, stressing the importance of the grassroots in American government because they are "always ahead of Congress."
In particular, Gov. Dean sees the increasing importance of young people as a voting block. He pointed out that the last presidential election was the first in modern times where people younger than thirty-five turned out better than seniors. Dean said that this new youth voting block will change our political dialogue because people under 35 have less patience for the anger now being shown by the Republican Party and are more tolerant of the differences among Americans. Since they know, and are friends and coworkers with, people from different backgrounds and walks of life, it is harder to young people are more accepting of differences.
Dean also talked about the fifty state strategy. It allowed Democrats to introduce themselves into areas where they had not been active for thirty years. Dean knew that moving into all states was the right thing to do when the DNC polled Evangelicals and found that the top three issues for younger Evangelicals were poverty, the environment and Darfur. Dean believes that Democrats must bring their own message to places where their message has lately been brought by Rush Limbaugh and other media figures of the far right.
The governor then turned the discussion to health care. He believes that we already gave too much away in the current legislation. We should have never taken single payer off the table. He said that he thinks the public option should be Medicare, administered by the same agencies and under the same rules as Medicare. He further commented that we cannot give up much more before the bills become worthless. He'd still be comfortable with a state opt-out provision, but an opt-in or trigger will set the public option up for failure. He touted a single payer system, but not an exclusive single payer pointing out that even in England where doctors and other providers are employed and paid by the government, 15 percent of health care dollars are private. However, when he spoke about bringing coverage to his home state of Vermont, he found that states cannot easily implement a single payer system of their own because of the complexities of ERISA law.
After his brief comments, Dean took questions. One audience member asked about the President's desire for bipartisanship and the importance of Olympia Snowe in the negotiations. Dean responded by stating that Harry Reid did well in not allowing Snowe to control the ultimate Senate bill, as it is important not to let one Senator overshadow the many who are already signed on to reform.
Dean was asked about the impact of the Blue Dogs on the health care legislation. He answered that he didn't think they have had as much negative effect as many believe. He feels that they took the place of the republicans by adding the conservative voice when the republicans failed to engage in any meaningful debate. He also pointed out that the Blue Dogs pushed for changes that will help the smallest of small businesses by taking them out of the insurance business completely.
I asked Dr. Dean what the next steps to reform are. Democratic congressional leaders have told those of us who are disappointed with this legislation that it is only the first step, so what comes next? Dean said that the next steps are not congressional, but are for the grassroots. It will be important to push for expansion of the public option. He also said that the insurance companies have to show that they can do better. Their profits show their inefficiencies because those are dollars not spent on health care. If they don't do better, their inefficiencies will cause them problems down the line.
Another audience member asked about the money that affects legislation. Dean closed by reminding us of his campaign where small Internet donations from average Americans challenged traditional money sources for the first time, but reminded us that we are going to have to campaign finance reform an issue in the next election or it will never get done.