How Dean Phillips Checks the Box for Each Quadrant of the Political Compass
A long-shot Presidential candidate with bipartisan (quadpartisan?) appeal
Dean Phillips is a three-term Democratic Congressman, age 54. Dean announced his presidential candidacy in October 2023, only after trying to convince other qualified Democrats to run. Looking at the polls, he doesn’t think Biden can win. More than half of Democratic voters are concerned about Biden’s age and his ability to draw votes from the right in the 2024 election, according to a CNN poll . Many are uneasy about Trump’s age also, among other concerns.
As a side note, I agree with Marianne Williamson on many issues, but she is perceived as too fringe in ideology and lacking political experience. I would support Nikki Haley, but unfortunately there are too many not ready for a woman president. I respect RFK Jr., and he’s currently in the polls higher in general approval than Biden and Trump. Yet Dean may over time have more broad appeal, especially with the pro-establishment quadrants. If he can pick up steam quickly, he will have a lot going for him. With the primaries coming up, since RFK is running as independent, I’ll support Dean.
This Politibanter substack is based on the idea that the United States needs to include multiple perspectives in political solutions, and Dean Phillips exemplifies this approach. As Vice Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Dean has supported bipartisan solutions. He believes thoughtful policy is driven by open conversation.
“Dean established his reputation as a problem solver and broke through partisan gridlock by making it a core mission to work across the aisle with Republican colleagues. He’s been recognized as the 2nd most bipartisan member of Congress” (para. 4).
According to Dean24.com, his platform’s three main priorities are as follows:
· relieving the economic hardship felt by working families
· repairing our broken political system
· reimagining the solutions to intractable problems
How Dean’s Priorities Match Core Interests of Each Pew Political Type
Dean has something for everyone. Dean24.com states the campaign priorities, and some accomplishments, which I’ve organized in the quadrants below. If unfamiliar with the Pew political types, see the initial post describing these.
Dean urges people to vote in the primaries. “Together, we can heal our country” (short video).
If you want to dig in further to his policy proposals, here are snippets of transcript from Dean’s interview on the Honestly podcast, with time marks.
Economic Hardship
42:10 I don't think Republicans are better at managing the economy. In fact data indicates democratic administrations generally do better for American economies. What I do think some Republicans are doing better than Democrats right now is just listening. I tell you Bari, Washington has a way of sucking new members of Congress into this culture that encapsulates you, that separates you, that forces you to focus on fundraising. 10,000 hours per week members of Congress spend fundraising, not listening to people other than wealthy and well connected people. By the way, I'm the only member of Congress who takes no PAC money of any kind, no lobbyist money. I don't take member money. I don't give it to other members. And I don't have a leadership PAC, which is just a slush fund for politicians. I’m the only one out of 535 members that do those four things….doesn't make you a bad person but it eliminates the opportunity to listen to people who are struggling. And all you hear with the organizations, the lobbyists, the state dinners, the country clubs, are people who have an agenda to continue to accrue more wealth to the wealthy.
43:25 What I'm hearing is people can’t afford their lives: healthcare, housing, education, and food, and fuel. It's true 60% of Americans right now live paycheck to paycheck; 40% almost half of the country doesn't have $400 in the bank for an emergency. We will not survive if we do not reduce the disparities between the haves and have nots. We are in deep trouble. And 32% of the wealth right now is aggregated in the top one percent. So when president Biden is aghast at the fact that the economy is growing and people aren't responding, I have a very simple answer for Mr. President, which is this: When the economy grows, most of that accrues to the wealthy, leaving others behind. So if we don't raise the foundation for everybody, believe me, I don't believe America can ever guarantee the same outcomes for everybody. I do believe that we should be striving to guarantee the same opportunities. So my economic proposition is very simple.
Housing
We need to build 7 million homes in America. There are 500,000 people sleeping outside at night right now in the 21st century….Identify regulations that are preventing production and we change zoning. A lot of these that are screaming to end the homeless crisis; they also scream when there's a proposal to build housing.
Healthcare
This is probably most important we spend over $12,000 per capita right now in healthcare…our outcomes are mid-pack. A lot of countries that would shock you have better health outcomes than Americans. We allow pharmaceutical companies to charge us 3456 times more for the same product they sell to Canada and Mexico and our friends in Europe and Asia. And it's repulsive. And we need to extend health care coverage to every single American. 26 million uninsured…90 million underinsured. 66% of all bankruptcies in America right now are because of medical debt. When my daughter had Hodgkin's lymphoma and we spent time at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, I have to tell you Bari, it shocked us. Kid after kid after kid in her hallway had no visitors during the day because their parents couldn't be there or their guardian. They had to work. Many of them had no insurance. Many of the families had to take thousands of dollars in debt that they couldn't afford. Others had to declare bankruptcy. It so affected my daughter Pia that she started an organization. …We have to be a nation that affords healthcare coverage to everybody and that will reduce costs as a country. That does not mean that government should ever be in the delivery of care. This is just the coverage.
Education
$1.7 trillion in student debt right now for people who simply are trying to fulfill their American dream. They are burdened to pay 90-some-billion dollars a year now in interest. I just don't think we should continue to be a country that doesn't at least raise the foundation for people. If we…do not burden people in the earliest years we will be a much more successful country. Our economy will grow….In the curriculum public schools we should have a financial management course from earliest years all the way through high school.
Social safety Net
I think we should be testing UBI in certain cases because AI is going to disrupt this economy in massive waves….If we don't experiment and pilot some of these things Bari, we're going off a cliff in a real real hurry.
Social Security
The trust fund is being drained by 2033, interim benefits by 25% if we don't do something. What can we do, we raise the contribution cap from $160,000 a year to $250,000 and then we do something kind of novel this is one of my interesting propositions. Let's create a pool into which economically secure Americans can electively contribute their Social Security benefits into a pool that would be re distributed directly to the lowest 10% of Social Security recipients in America. Let's create opportunities for Americans to become philanthropists. We don't have to spend more….Let's innovate.
Government
[He laments that Democrats have long favored tenure over talent in schools and government.]
Illegal Immigration
53:46 I'm appalled and disgusted and disappointed that the party I'm representing seems to ignore it. And it is the foremost responsibility of the American president to protect our borders, ensure security. We're spending almost a trillion dollars a year defending our country from foreign enemies and anyone can cross the border….Here's the solution: we need a secure southern border….We redesign our ports of entry at the southern border in particular to create a better flow for people and for commerce. We use barriers where necessary. We use technology. And we have a buffer zone, a significantly redesigned buffer zone on both the Mexican side of the border in the USA border. The reason why we have this crisis is because our law incentivizes it. You have cross the border to declare asylum….We change the law to require that asylum cases are filed in your country of origin….
56:12 We should build a dorm proximate to our consulate or embassies that can house asylum seekers to keep them safe. I think we can do that for a very little amount of money compared with what we’re spending now. Have their cases adjudicated locally, because of course people in the local market understand what the truth is better than a judge here 4 years down the road. Best of all you won't spend your $10,000 if you're in asylum seeker and give it to a Mexican cartel that is further ruining the United States of America right now. You will have your money….right now they come across the border…they dump them into El Paso TX. They can't work. They have no money in their pocket….then they told to show up for a court case for years from now….we don't have leadership that is willing to do the right thing because politics gets in the way….It’s the foremost failure of this administration.
Policing
59:17 [interviewer asks] Defund the police…do you believe that that was a mistake? ...It's one of the most atrocious ridiculous misguided unprincipled slogans i've ever heard in any context. The notion of complementing law enforcement with social service providers, mental health providers, emotional health provision, to complement law enforcement that is not often as well trained is really smart. But to defund the police, when in my experience it's actually Black friends and Black constituents that are the ones telling me most regularly that we need more safety in our communities, that we are suffering more than anybody else. It's so misguided. It's shocking, and it was a massive disservice to the Democratic Party. I believe deeply in principled enforcement. We should be focusing on attracting the best and brightest Americans, compensating them well, training them well, entrusting them with our safety, and encouraging them. And there's not a Police Department in this country right now Bari that is fully staffed, because of that slogan….Police standards in many parts of this country have got to be addressed. Blacks have been subject to horrific injustice for many many decades. And the other truth is: we need public safety. And the communities that need it more than ever right now in many cases are black communities.
Foreign Policy
1:05:14 As a defender of Israel, but also a believer in self-determination for Palestinians….I am not the type of leader or representative that runs from the fire, because the only way to put out a fire is to be next to it and extinguish it….I've reached out to a number of Palestinian leaders in the country, some of whom have responded, many of whom have not but….at least engaging….Needs to be a ceasefire…and Hamas needs to be eliminated….Gazans live miserably. [He advocates for giving aid directly to Gazans, not giving aid thru Hamas as Netanyahu had done.]
1:23:24 [With China] that mean that means sitting down expressing ourselves. Reciprocity. We should not allow tiktok in America if they don't allow Facebook and Instagram. But let's have the same standard. Let's just make it clear. We should not be allowing you to steal our IP [intellectual property] with impunity. We've got to work with other allies around the country. We should be collaborating on regulations on AI, on crypto. We should be ensuring that the world is safe. We should be competitors, not adversaries. And we're literally creating an enemy that we would sensibly then be defending ourselves against. And I think a lot of that is for military industrial complex that has to identify a boogeyman to get us to keep paying for these absurd expenditures.…Do I consider China to be a direct threat to the United States right now? ….No I do not. I think that is a very misguided idea. It serves the purpose of some people who are profiting from it….The Chinese are not just table adversaries. We should be deeply concerned if we mismanage this relationship.
Long-shot Candidacy
1:25:15 It was about inspiring courage at a time where I really believe our country needs to see that it's possible that it's integral and that the system requires it….I anticipate actually winning. It's gonna be a long really hard journey, but if people care deeply about changing this nonsense and fixing this mess and actually being excited about being American again and recognizing that common sense should rule the day, not Democrats or Republicans, I'm actually optimistic.
Thanks for reading. If you’re interested in more, you can find labeled audio snippets of the episode, topic-divided by Snipd. Here’s where you check that you’re registered to vote. The primaries are going to matter if you favor Dean.
Repeat of Quadrants Content
This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format or use text-to-speech. Groups are presented in order of political party size.
Auth-Left Quadrant
Pew type: Democratic mainstays
• Relieving the economic hardship of working families, reducing wealth disparity; voted renew infrastructure
• Affordable healthcare through Medicare for All, with choice of health-care provider
• Creating an affordable childcare system
• Restoring the expanded Child Tax Credit
• Preserving Social Security, Medicare, and giving federal support for caregivers
Pew type: Establishment liberals
• Original co-sponsor of HR 2307, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which would put a price on carbon
Auth-Right Quadrant
Pew type: Committed conservatives
• He has been successful in business, built Talenti Gelato into a top national brand
• Prioritizing public safety, need policing and need it to be fair, accompanied by social workers for mental health cases
Pew type: Faith and flag conservatives
• Federal government: “The current system is an unmitigated disaster. It is legalized corruption, and I will tackle it.”
• Getting money out of politics: refuses all money from federal lobbyists, PACs, other special interest groups, and fellow members of Congress
• Voted for Respect for Marriage Act
Lib-Right Quadrant
Pew type: Populist right
• Raising pay to a living wage for hard-working Americans in every zip code
• Comprehensive immigration reform, including more border security
• Supported Apprenticeship Colleges Act to expand enrollment at institutions of that sponsor construction and manufacturing-oriented programs
• Lost his father to Vietnam war; committed to support vets & families
Pew type: Ambivalent [dissident] right
• Financing his own campaign
• On the Honestly podcast, he stated, “let's bring great private sector thinkers into how to do this better. Let's reduce expenses. Let's eliminate programs that are not serving American interests. Let's reduce what we're wasting in many cases overseas….military industrial complex that has to identify a boogeyman to get us to keep paying for these absurd expenditures” (1:23:24)
Lib-left (Green) Quadrant
Pew type: Progressive left
• Stopping the big corporations from gouging consumers of food and fuel
• Tuition-free college, vocational training, & zero-interest student loans
• Has long been involved in efforts to address racial disparities in Minnesota.
• Co-sponsored and voted for pro-choice HR 8297, HR 8111, & HR 3755
Pew type: Outsider left
• Numerous conservation and environmental organizations endorsed Dean throughout his Congressional campaigns because of his emphasis on responsible ecological stewardship.
• Ending the affordable housing and homelessness crisis, building more.
• Supports a pathway to citizenship and a streamlined process to enter the country legally. Helped pass HR 6, the American Dream and Promise Act.
• Voted for Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act