More evidence of the power of grassroots democracy

Here’s something that gives me hope: even though certain factions in the democratic party are trying to attack Howard Dean for his confederate flag remark, two of our country’s largest unions (SEIU and AFSCME— which include many, diverse constituencies — are about to endorse him (see the NYT article). Given how difficult race relations are in this country, how pervasive racism still is, and given how much the mass media are generally interested in supporting the status quo, how did this come about? Through grassroots organizing, with a big dollop of help from the decentralized net. Slate has an interesting article about the confederate flag flap, which points out that Dean has been making that particular remark all season long — and been applauded for it by a diverse range of democrats — until Kerry, et. al. started to feel some of the heat of his grassroots campaigning. Regardless of how you feel about Dean, and I personally feel quite good about him these days, it should give us hope for change that grassroots organizing still functions in this country.