Howard Dean & The Moral Center

Written by: Guest Writer on Feb 12, 2005 3:39 AM EST

By Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Now that Governor Dean has successfully out-campaigned his opponents for the DNC Chair, the cries of those who never supported him fill the air: "He must move to the center."

At the National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, we agree—it is long past time for the Democratic Party to get back to the moral center. During slavery, conservatives wanted to maintain slavery. Liberals wanted a kinder, friendlier face on slavery. But the moral center sought the abolition of slavery. Conservatives did not fight legal segregation. They did not march in Selma for the right to vote.

The moral center always comes from outside the system, from the bottom, up, or from some leader with a vision willing to challenge the status quo.

The political center often chooses short term expediency over long term principles. Vanity asked, is it popular; politics asked, will it work; morality and conscience asks, is it right. To get our nation back on the course of its promise, we must answer the "is it right" question—that the moral center, one much more profound than the political center.

In August, 1996, I gave a speech entitled "The Moral Center" to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I pointed out that as we gathered in the United Center that night, the following facts ring as true today as ever:

— 1/5 of all American children will go to bed in poverty;
— 1/2 of all African American children, growing up amidst broken sidewalks, broken families, broken cities, broken dreams;
— the #1 growth industry in urban America—jails;
— 1/2 of all the public housing built in this nation during the last decade—jails;
— the top 1% wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 95%—the greatest inequality since the 1920s.
During Bill Clinton's second term, our booming economy eased some of these pains. Employment went up, poverty went down, the growing gap between rich and poor slightly narrowed. Then came an election in Florida, where the fundamental flaws in our voting system were exposed—the loser won, and the winner lost, and voter irregularities—and collusion between partisan Florida elected officials and the Supreme Court—fundamentally crippled democracy.

Under the Bush administration, all domestic public policy has been tilted towards the already rich and powerful. The canyon between rich and poor has gotten larger and larger. Poverty has again increased. More Americans are without health insurance. Wages are stagnant, jobs are stagnant, pensions are declining—and now Social Security is on the chopping block. Repeated tax cuts for the upper class of our society have vastly increased the deficit, while the Bush Administration has left its "compassion" on the campaign trail.

This administration is one of the most ideologically driven administrations in history—they believe there should be no roof of opportunities for the rich and powerful, no safety net or floor for the poor.

This week's smoke and mirrors budget—one that does not even account for the massive war spending Iraq and the new $80 billion appropriation request—makes the hypocrisy, the disparities, very clear. All the gains go to those who already have a lot; all the pain goes to those who are already hurting.

And, of course, the war in Iraq continues. Bush's pretext for rushing to war—WMD's, imminent threat—have now been exposed as false. None of it was true. Several commandments were broken. President and Vice-President would like us to focus on the Iraqis who came out to vote, and they are deserving of praise. But some of us can also focus on the outcome of that vote—did we really invade Iraq in order to vote Iran's religious allies into power?

The aggressive, pre-emptive invasion of Iraq besmirched the reputation of the United States, violated our own rules and laws, and transgressed the moral center. Some of us still remember.

Where's the moral center in the Bush/Cheney Iraq policy?

So we do call on our new DNC Chairman to move our party to the center—the moral center. We call on Howard Dean to do what he does best—to tell the truth, to stand up and fight for the defenseless and the weak, to point out the corrupt and biased priorities by which this Administration, this Congress, and this GOP are pushing.

Howard Dean knows how to deliver health care to children—that's fighting for the moral center.

Howard Dean knows how to involve more Americans in their party and their democracy—that's the best of our nation's history, its moral center.

Howard Dean had enough gumption to stand up and oppose the war in Iraq—and that opposition was, and still is, the moral center.

Howard Dean understands that we cannot continue to boost the already wealthy, cut the thin budgets of the poor, and outsource the jobs that sustain the middle class—that's not the moral center.

Howard Dean knows that using false terminology like "personal accounts" to try to hide the destruction of FDR's greatest legacy, our sacred trust with the Greatest Generation, Social Security, is just plain wrong. Dr. Dean's view is the moral center. Does anyone truly believe that Jesus would be scheming to move our Social Security program from the elderly on Main Street to investment firms on Wall Street?

Howard Dean knows that it's time for reform inside the Democratic Party; it's time to air out the ethical stench of the DeLay Congress; it's time to open up the secret books and closed-door schemes of the Bush Administration—it's time to open up our political system to real people and small donors again, and clear out the special interests, the big-fee lobbyists, the corporate corrupters from the halls of government once again. That fight is in the moral center.

Howard Dean knows that the air waves belong to the public. That fight's the moral center.

Howard Dean knows that until the right to vote is guaranteed, and the right to organize is respected, our democracy and our economy will be in jeopardy. So we encourage him to keep fighting to move the Democratic Party to the moral center.

America at its best is not the private playground of the mean-spirited, the war-mongers, the greedy, the hypocrites; America at its best is the nation that enlarges its democracy, shares its wealth, fights only to defend itself, tries to make life easier for those Jesus called "the least of these."

That's the moral center. That's where the Democratic Party belongs.

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