PR.com (Allison Kugel): What do you make of some of America’s working class crying “Socialism” and protesting that they “want their old America back” in response to President Obama’s proposed healthcare reform?

Howard Dean: I don’t really think it’s in response to that. I think it’s in response to the anger machine that’s become the Republican Party over the last thirty years. This is a group of folks whose base has gotten smaller and smaller, and as they get smaller, they get angrier and angrier.

PR.com: You think that’s the main source of their anger, that fact that the [Republican] Party has lost some clout?

Howard Dean: It’s not so much their party. This election in 2008 was a generational change for America. It’s the first time that more people under thirty-five voted than people over sixty-five. They’re angry about the change. They don’t know what to do about it. They’re hit hard by the recession, and they’re told a lot of things that aren’t so by Rush Limbaugh.

PR.com: The reason I asked you that question first is because it’s so perplexing that the people who you see out there spreading the hate message for the Republican Party and saying they don’t believe in what President Obama is trying to do for healthcare reform, they seem to be the people who could benefit from it the most. Many of these people don’t have a lot of financial resources at their disposal. That’s the dichotomy that confuses the hell out of me.

Howard Dean: That’s often the case, though. And I think the great thing about the Obama healthcare plan is that it lets people choose for themselves. The truth is this is a group of people who can be virulently against government run anything and still be on Medicare (laughs). They’re not cognizant of the facts because they’ve been told a lot of things that aren’t so. That’s what you’re seeing at those [town hall] meetings. But eventually they will benefit from the changes that are made.

PR.com: Do you think they will eventually concede to the fact that they are benefiting?

Howard Dean: They’ll never concede, but they’ll sign up.

PR.com: Can you demystify the operational functions of the Medicare system for people? Then maybe people can get a clearer picture of how publicly run healthcare works.

Howard Dean: It actually works pretty well. When you turn sixty-five you sign up for an insurance program that you’ve paid for, for most of your life. You pay some premiums every month and you get a pretty comprehensive healthcare bill, and the hospitals and so forth pretty much take care of the billing. You get a lot of paperwork, but mostly the bills are paid.

click to read interview with Howard Dean