Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. president in 2004 and then chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2005 until 2009. He remains a political analyst for cable news networks. North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley encountered him at a political rally in Burlington Monday and asked him about national politics, including weekend actions by the Trump administration in Venezuela. Here's that conversation, beginning with Dean:
Trump is out of control. He has no idea what he's doing. I don't think he thinks about the future very much. So now, who's, are we going to be back in Iraq again or Vietnam? I mean, the idea that we're going to run a country in South America. First of all, the United States spent a century pushing around the South Americans and only since Jimmy Carter has our relationship recovered from that. I don't think there's any thinking that's gone into this at all. Military did an incredible job, as our military does, but I don't think there's any, been any thought about what's going to happen next.
What about the role of congress in this? The Republicans seem to be backing up the President's actions and the Democrats are criticizing it. So what about congress' role?
Well, that you might well ask. I think there's going to be a big change in Congress because I think people that are tired of having the right wing of the Republican Party run everything. You know, when I came here 50 years ago, the Republicans were actually more liberal than the Democrats on social issues and the Republican Party is unrecognizable today. Nobody on the Republican side, with one or two exceptions, has stood up for what they think is right and the courts too. The court has become a rubber stamp for the Trump administration. This not compatible with the survival of democracy and I think the midterms, assuming we can hold fair elections, are going to show that.
We're 10-and-a-half months away from the midterms and people can change their mind at the drop of a hat. Do you expect a blue wave I guess you might call it?
I expect, if the elections are fair, that the Democrats will control the House and the Senate. You've seen the poll numbers. People don't respect Donald Trump and I think it's important to respect the president. As much as I disagreed with George W. Bush, I knew him and I liked him, but I disagreed with him. I disagreed with his father on a number of issues, although I regard him as a person who knew how to handle foreign policy, which was unlike his son. You have to have some respect for the President and this president doesn't command respect.
Howard Dean, when you take a look at the Big Beautiful Bill as the Republicans call it, which has been passed, obviously, what kind of concerns do you have over its impact on Vermont and the rest of the country?
This is a president who cares about billionaires and not much else and that bill is written for billionaires. It takes money away from people who struggle to make a living every day and undermines their ability to raise their children and it gives it to people who are have given money to Trump or Trump's White House or bell room or whatever it is. I mean, he's laying waste to most of the treasured cultural institutions of the country. What he's doing with the Kennedy Center is ridiculous. And people don't like that. You know, most of the Republicans I know are not going to vote for Donald Trump. When it goes into, they go into the booth. They just can't. There's a guy who lives in Stowe, who was originally from Mississippi, who was a big time Republican consultant. He's not supporting Trump. I mean, the Republican Party has become something that it never became. Both my parents were Republicans. They wouldn't recognize the Republican Party today.
Howard Dean, when you take a look at what's going on, how these policies will affect, you know, the residents of Vermont, the residents of the US, what should people be doing?
I think there's a good effort to organize for the right things to do. It's a different political environment than the one I grew up in, which was about Vietnam and civil rights. But there's an awful lot of organization all over the country, not just on protests and all that, but on actually doing something for the people who are being hurt the worst. The food shelves being supported all over the country, including in states that are red states because they're decent people in red states. There's going to be some red states that do not vote red this time around because they now know the people who are being hurt by Trump and his cronies.
You seem rather optimistic.
You have to be optimistic. Most of the people I know in this country, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, the people I hang around with are decent Americans. I do not consider Trump to be a decent American and I think most Americans agree with me.
That was Democrat Howard Dean speaking with WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley on Monday.
