Rebel Without a Cause

By Alston B. Ramsay | Friday, June 11, 2004

It's a politician's worst nightmare: He delivers a major policy speech, but a small group of protestors steals all the media attention. For former Vermont governor and former Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, this nightmare came true on Thursday, November 20th, when a group of Dartmouth students appeared at his education initiative announcement with at least eight Confederate Battle Flags. "For several months, Dean has been talking about how he wants to be an inclusive candidate and reach out to everybody. Then he used one of the most divisive symbols in the nation's history to reach a certain demographic," said Daniel Linsalata, a freshman at Dartmouth and a writer for The Dartmouth Review.

The incident stems from a long-standing Dean talking point in which he claimed he wanted to "be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Although Dr. Dean has repeatedly referenced the Confederate Battle Flag since February, it was only after recent, widespread media attention that his opponents reacted. In Hanover, the students took Dr. Dean's words at face value, much to the campaign's chagrin.

When Dean came striding into Alumni Hall, he greeted the crowd and shook hands, realizing too late that one of the individuals with hand extended also had a battle flag around his shoulders. Then, as he took the stage, eight more Confederate flags unfurled around the room, leading to gasps from some corners, and raucous laughter from others. Dr. Dean ignored the protestors while announcing his education initiative, but he stumbled at various points throughout the speech. The protestors remained draped in the flags, watching silently, but not unnoticed. "He kept giving me a death glare," said one protestor seated in the second row. As he stepped down from the rostrum Dean was again confronted by a Confederate flag held by Nathaniel Ward '05, Managing Editor of the Review. Dean looked him in the eyes and said, "We don't do that anymore." Mr. Ward was perplexed: "I had no idea what he meant, but he seemed visibly upset."

— Sponsored by the Young Democrats —

Campus liberals and Dean supporters first became nervous when fliers with the Battle Flag appeared all over campus early Wednesday morning. Young Democrats President and Dean campus co-chair Paul Heintz told the Daily Dartmouth that it was "the most awful sort of prank," and he later told the Associated Press that "socially conservative" students probably staged the protest. Campus Democrats were enraged that the Battle Flag posters included a "Generation Dean" logo and said, "Sponsored by Young Democrats." Stefan Beck, former Executive Editor of the Review, responded, "There have been some complaints about attributing the poster to a real student group. But I don't think many Dartmouth students were confused about whether a liberal campaign would really advertise with a Confederate battle flag. It was quite clearly a joke."

After the event, many more reporters flocked to the students with flags than to Dr. Dean. Xi Huang, a sophomore, told the crowd around him that Dean's previous remarks had castigated an entire region of the country: "What's the difference between stereotyping Southerners and stereotyping Asians or other minorities? We're all people."

When confronted by the press at his next stop, Dean said only, "Things happen on college campuses. They wouldn't identify who they were or who they represented, so I'm not going to respond to that." Indeed, rumors immediately flew that The Dartmouth Review had staged the event. Dr. Dean, after moving to another location on campus, wryly asked—in response to a brief power failure—"You still have that right-wing newspaper over here, huh?" The connection between the power outage and the presence of right-wingers was not immediately clear.

Senior staff members at the paper admitted that they had given advice and suggestions to students who had solicited their opinions. While The Dartmouth Review has denied organizing the event, a few of the protesters are staff writers for the conservative publication. "Some students wanted to protest against what they felt were demeaning comments about Southerners and African Americans," said political editor Rollo Begley, "and I think it's a very legitimate cause." Editor Emeritus Ryan Gorsche added, "People asked me how to communicate a message effectively, and I told them that they should be peaceful, respectful, and honest if the press asked them why they were carrying Battle Flags."

This was not the first time Dr. Dean dodged the Confederate flag issue. In a recent Democratic debate, Reverend Al Sharpton and North Carolina Senator John Edwards excoriated Dean. The former governor hedged on an answer from an audience member asking about the flag, and Edwards forcefully told him, "The last thing we need in the South is somebody like you coming down and telling us what we need to do." When Edwards specifically asked Dean if he was wrong to make comments embracing the divisive symbol, Dean sharply retorted, "No I wasn't, John Edwards." Dr. Dean refused to back down even when Sharpton passionately exclaimed that, regardless of the desire to court Southern voters, "You can't bring a Confederate flag to the table of brotherhood." A few days later, after widespread media condemnation, Dean said he regretted the "pain" he had caused, but still refused to apologize for the remarks themselves. Candidate John Kerry rebuked Dean for this quasi-apology: "Howard Dean has finally admitted that his words have caused pain, but I am puzzled as to why he does not seem to regret the words that caused the pain."

Campus activists also have not expressed remorse for their candidate's comments. Following the event, a number of operatives for the Dean campaign candidly attacked the protestors and others—for using Dean's own message. According to a reporter from the Concord Monitor, one veteran on the campaign appeared near tears and "really got in the face" of a protestor. Deaniac ingenue Graham Roth—Editor in Chief of the Dartmouth Free Press, Dartmouth's liberal publication—said to Review President Harry Camp, "That was not funny." Mr. Camp, who was covering the event for the Review, later responded, "The incident with the Rebel Battle flags certainly was 'not funny.' It is never humorous when a serious candidate for the Presidency demeans and stereotypes an entire region of the country." Mr. Heintz even interrupted Mr. Camp's lunch following the event, demanding to know the names of students involved—even as Mr. Camp interviewed them for the Review.

"They should all lighten up," Mr. Camp mused later in the day. "It was a brave, clever way to draw attention to a serious issue that Dean has inadequately addressed."

The fiasco did not go unnoticed outside of Hanover; it was reported in print or on the web in the local Valley News, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the New York Post, USA Today, FoxNews, CNN, the New Criterion, the Drudge Report, and Hotline, just to name a few.

Rebel Without a Cause

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