Dean and the Democrats' Decline

A strong, perhaps the strongest, argument in favor of Howard Dean's candidacy for Chairman of the Democratic Party was his legendary fundraising ability. Dazzled by the vision of hundreds of millions in internet contributions and donations from loopy billionaires, moderate Democrats swallowed hard, held their noses, and chose the Boy Wonder from Vermont to lead them.

It was something of a gamble, but the Dems are desperate.

So far, the gamble isn't paying off. Robert Novak gleefully reports:

Democratic National Committee (DNC) fund raising under the chairmanship of Howard Dean shows a disappointing $16.7 million raised in the first quarter of 2005, compared with $34 million reported by the Republicans.

That tends to confirm dire predictions by old-line Democratic fund-raisers of a fall-off in money if Dean became chairman. He had promised to bring in heavy individual contributions, as he did in his 2004 campaign for president. But the DNC in the first quarter received only $13 million from individuals, compared to $31 million for the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Read the piece here.

I'm an independent and have no emotional stake in the fortunes of either major party, but it saddens me to see the Democrats, both in their internal organization and in Congress, spinning down the path to irrelevancy. It's too early to make any firm judgments, and the Republicans are certainly capable of screwing things up royally, but the current Democratic strategy and organization certainly are not heartening. It might be argued that Congressional obstructionism and pettiness, the adoption of looney left rhetoric, the demonization of religion, etc. make sense in a post-election year when fundraising is the major focus of the parties, but as Novak notes, the strategy isn't working very well, and it is poisoning the well for future candidates.