Dean exhorts Demos to stand up for beliefs

Howard Dean brought an impassioned message and his apparent rock star status to Salt Lake City Saturday afternoon, drawing a crowd that started lining up at 8 a.m. for his noon speech.

Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former candidate for president, told an overflow crowd of about 600 people at Westminster College that the way for Democrats to win in 2006 and beyond "is not to become a pale copy of the Republican Party" but to stand up for what they believe in.

What Democrats believe in is what most Americans — even Utahns — believe in, he said. Even on controversial issues, he insisted.

"We do not need to change our beliefs to win."

Dean is known for his bold, unfiltered rhetoric — last month he made some Democrats uneasy when he described Republicans as "pretty much a white, Christian party" made up of many people who "never made an honest living" — but Saturday's talk was a less inflammatory call for action.

"We will not divide people in order to win elections," Dean said, arguing that President Bush's strategy of encouraging ballot initiatives against same-sex marriage in 11 states in 2004 was an attempt to "find people to scapegoat."

In 2008, Dean predicted, the scapegoat will be immigrants.

"We can't do this to ourselves," said Dean, a physician who served five terms as governor of Vermont. "It is immoral to divide Americans against each other. We are one family." People need to think of themselves as Americans first "and some category" second, he said.

The party chairman's reputation, and last year's brouhaha at Utah Valley State College over the appearance of filmmaker Michael Moore, apparently is what prompted a disclaimer "Fact Sheet Regarding Howard Dean Visit to Westminster College," put together by the school's office of communication. The fact sheet noted that because the speaking engagement fit into Dean's pre-existing travel plans, the appearance did not cost the students or the school administration anything. The event was co-sponsored by the Associated Students of Westminster College, the Utah Democratic Party and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, Dean's cousin.

Dean filled the school's Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory Concert Hall, as well as an additional overflow auditorium and an overflow classroom. Additional people stood in the concert hall lobby and listened to the speech via loudspeakers.