Publius' Forum

-By Warner Todd Huston

Showing once again the bankruptcy of ideas in the Democratic Party, Party Chairman, Howard Dean, said that he thinks the U.S. is about to return to the era of the 1960's. "We're about to enter the '60s again," he wistfully told a religious conference in Washington D.C. on June 27th.

Of course, he tried to back track almost as soon as he said it warning that, as he weakly tried to explain it, he didn't mean a return to the race riots and anti-war demonstrations that typified the era. No, he said he meant that we are moving toward an "age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision."

I'm wondering what 60's he was in? Perhaps, to Howie Dean, people like Abbie Hoffman and Timothy Leary WERE "religious figures"? But, I am hard pressed to remember what representative figure, besides Martin Luther King, Jr., was religious in the 60's?

Dean waxed warmly about the day when everybody was "in it together," and says we need to emulate the 60's so that we can "... know that no one person can succeed unless everybody else succeeds."

Yeah ... all in it together. Now what did the free lovers and potheads in the 60's say about how we are all "in it together" again? Ah, yes. I remember now. "Don't trust anyone over 30." That was how we were all "in it together" according to the yippies and hippies of those heady 1960's.

The much ballyhooed "counter-culture" of the 60's certainly whined about the "man" and complained about the "establishment" but they offered nothing with which to replace it but some nebulous ideas about "freedom" and "love". The counter-culturists offered no real ideas, no full-fledged philosophies, no programs or processes that have stood the test of time.

All we ever got out of those espousing the hippie line was childish, half-formed, utopianism that not only attempted to ignore history but were filled with ideas that had no basis in an understanding of human nature. In fact, human nature became one of the counter-culture's worst enemies as evinced by that aforementioned agitator and "Chicago 8" member, Abbie Hoffman. You know, the one who attempted to Blackmail the promoters of Woodstock, the famed 1969 concert in New York, telling them that he would keep protesters away for a fee in a classic Mafia styled protectionist scam. THAT Abbie Hoffman?

So much for how we were all "in it together" in the 1960's.

So, it shouldn't be a surprise that about all of lasting impact that stayed with us from the 60's was hatred of government, hatred of the U.S. military, hatred of capitalism, and an unexamined but self-assured assumption that the U.S. is the most evil influence in the world.

My most remembered memory of the 1960's was the fear of wondering if my Policeman Father would come home alive to us during the many race riots in the big city in which we then lived.

And that is what Chairman Dean wants to bring us back to?

Dean also fondly recalled those grand 60's for its ideas of all those socialist welfare programs that about bankrupted the country by the 1980's, programs that had to be materially altered in the 1990's under the careful guidance of Newt's boys in Congress lest those programs ruin us all.

Dean, to his credit, offered that the new Democratic Party emphasizes the value of work, though.

How progressive of ya, Howie.

Dean even took a swipe at past Democratic Party mainstays such as LBJ's Great Society. "...we did give things away for free, and that's a huge mistake because that does create a culture of dependence, and that's not good for anybody, either," Dean confided.

After lambasting an overspending Republican Congress today, calling it "the biggest 'big government' government we've ever had," and claiming that LBJ's Great Society ideas were overreach, he paradoxically went on to propose, in typical Democratic Party double speak, that government stay as involved as ever.

"in America, you need the opportunity to work hard, and that means some level of support from government -- no handouts, but some level of support so that you really do have a genuine opportunity to contribute to the country."

Howie, what does that mean? Do you even know?

Of course, what would a visit by a Democrat to a religious conference be without some pandering to the floor? Dean closed his little talk with a "heart felt" thank you to the folks in attendance as he follows the new Democrat policy to convert the religious to liberalism.

"I came in the wrong door when I first got here, I came in the back, and everybody was talking about praising the Lord, and I thought, 'I am home. Finally, a group of people who want to praise the Lord and help their fellow man just like Jesus did and just like Jesus taught.' Thank you so much for doing that for me."

He came in the "wrong door" alright.

Contrast this with what Barack Obama said in a recent interview: (Reuters)

"Nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith -- the politician who shows up at a black church around election time and claps -- off rhythm -- to the gospel choir,"

If anyone can be off rhythm it can be Howlin' Howie Dean, one of the Republican's best operatives.