Democrats urged to move to center (by DLC) [View All]

[Rose Siding]

Some leading Democrats are moving to stake out more conservative positions on gun rights, reconnecting with "people of faith," and even voting to ban partial-birth abortion as the 2004 election approaches.

Polls have shown that liberal positions on social issues have cost Democrats elections in the past decade, and strategists are urging Democrats to stake out positions in the political center.

At a recent Democratic Leadership Council conference in Atlanta titled "God, Guns and Guts," DLC officials said their party had to stop avoiding the cultural issues that have helped Republicans make inroads among labor union households, married women, families with children, and religious people.

"It's time for Democrats to switch from a strategy of avoidance to a strategy of engagement" on cultural issues, said Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the DLC's think tank. "Voters are going to assume the worst unless we set them straight."
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Amy Sullivan of Princeton University said Democrats need to connect with people of faith by "genuinely expressing their own religious faith," by "distancing themselves from militant 'secularists,' and speaking out about the moral health of the country."
Along with other participants at the DLC forum, Ms. Sullivan said that Democrats need to address "concerns about the moral condition of the country and the challenges of families trying to raise children," she said.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031029-105103-3000r.htm

This is just the Wa Times, but I didn't see any other coverage and it sure is timely, given Our Own Zell.