Reply #16: Because Bill Clinton's DLC is not the current DLC [View All]

[eyesroll]

Something happened to Al From, Bruce Reed, et. al. between then and now. They have corrupted Bill Clinton's "party of real people" for their own purposes.

They demonize other Democrats now, directly, by name. Not by saying that their policies are better -- that's a campaign, after all -- but by calling them elitist and warning that those of us who are to the left of them are going to drive the party into obsolescence. They pretend they stand for all Democrats, and they call people like me -- a dues-paying Democrat, I should add -- an activist elite and not a "real Democrat." (This is from a May 2003 memo from Al From and Bruce Reed: http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=127&subid=900056&contentid=251690)

What happens if Howard Dean (or Dennis Kucinich or Al Sharpton or Carol Mosley-Braun, for that matter, although it was Dean they were attacking by name) gets the nomination? Do they cry "uncle" and try to get back on his good side, or do they make the destruction of the Democratic party a self-fulfilling prophesy? They're alienating a lot of people with their rhetoric.

I know the same thing can be said about Howard Dean, et. al., that they alienate the moderate "base", and they don't get the nomination, will they splinter off as an independent? Both have said they won't, so maybe my worry about the DLC driving the party into ruination is also unfounded.

Look, I don't dislike centrists or people who ally with the DLC platform -- heck, Howard Dean is pretty close on that count and I volunteer for his events (disclosure). Most DLCers in Congress and elsewhere are good people, good leaders.

But I resent, very much, being told I'm not "real people" or a "real Democrat."

And that is my beef with the DLC.