None of which can the Democratic party claim, freedom of any kind is a foreign concept to the Democratic party, in lieu of freedom we are asked to check our liberty at the door and freely accept the yoke of state centered control of every aspect of our daily lives. To be true the modern Republican party has strayed far from its freedom centered roots, but the Democrats are certainly in no position to criticize anyone, Howard Dean most of all.

Dean went on to regale his audience with the myth of Democratic support for civil rights...invariably one must face up to reality that the Democrats were and continue to be the greatest threat to civil rights anywhere in America, beginning with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which would not have been possible without the support of the GOP, certainly this is true when you recognize that most opposition to the bill came from Democrats.

Furthermore, since that Civil Rights era, the American left has gone to great lengths to create a subservient class of citizens functions as little more than wards of the state with no hope of making any decisions on their own behalf, indeed is this teh same Dem,ocratic party that demands American children remain shackled to failing schools while their counterparts in the industrialize (and developing world) lead far ahead of us. Is this the same Democratic Party that opposes Social Security Reform, leaving future generations trapped and tied to a bankrupt system? Is this teh same Democratic party that consistently seeks to raise taxes and deprive more and more American of the fruits of their own labor?

Exactly how does this highlight a commitment to Civil Rights? It doesn't it highlights a commitment to the state, more akin to Mussolini's Fascist state than anything a freedom loving American would be familiar with.
http://www.georgetownvoice.com/2008-02-28/news/howard-dean-talks-politics-in-icc