What Draws Us To Howard Dean

I am reading the book “The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World.” It talks about the 3 different groups in the culture: traditionals (Ready Rapture types), moderns (the dominant group in our country now, running business and government), and a large, new group that has gradually emerged starting in the late 1950's. Cultural Creatives emerged out of the civil rights, feminist, environmental, holistic health care, etc. movements and have profoundly changed the values of our society.

I think we love Howard because he is a Cultural Creative, and so are we. In fact, he is one of the first Cultural Creative leaders to emerge at the national level. Cultural Creatives value authenticity. Politicians who dissemble are moderns. The first thing that struck me about Dean when I heard him in person was that he just answered questions honestly and directly. I couldn't believe it, or how much it appealed to me. Cultural Creatives value community, and Dean appealed to our sense of community. Cultural Creatives are optimistic and believe their individual actions can make a difference. Dean told us the power to change the country is in our hands.

The moderns want us to believe that a politician who speaks an unwelcome truth makes a “gaffe.” The moderns tell us that our individual actions are too small to make a difference, so we need to just “fall in line” behind the leaders. Moderns tell us that opposing a popular pResident who wants to take us to war is political suicide, and the only way to win is to equivocate and work behind the scenes to try to lessen the damage. At every turn, moderns tell Cultural Creatives that our values are misguided and no reasonable person shares them.

And then came Dean. Howard Dean spoke our values out loud and we finally realized that our values are just as legitimate as those of the moderns. And when Dean gave us our voice and we started talking, we found each other and realized that we are not alone. In fact, there are 50 million of us. The future is ours.

Dr. Alta Price