Take the gloves off

In light of the recent pillorying of Howard Dean for actually getting a bit harsh on loathsome Republicans, and my longstanding frustration with Dems who feel that we have to focus on cozying up to rednecks and religious zealots and the like by moving closer to the ridiculous positions used by the right to pander to these people's basest emotions and prejudices, the following statement makes sense.

Via Atrios...

From Rick Perlstein, TAP (The American Prospect) 12/6/04:


We talk about southern culture, blue-collar culture, NASCAR culture -- which overlaps, in complicated ways, with evangelical culture. Certainly one tenet they all share is this: When somebody punches you in the gut, you don't smile, stride halfway between his position and yours, and say that maybe the guy has a point. Behaving like that is precisely what has made the Democrats look so unsympathetically unfocused and confused to so many people.

Howard Dean is presiding over a Democratic strategy session on C-Span as I type. I feel that far from going along with roughing up Dean, we should be glad that we have someone with the courage and sense to start hitting back and show the oh-so-macho redneck tough-guy voters who have slid over to the other side that not all Democrats are wimps whose response to getting slapped around is "Thank you Sir, may I have another?"