When Democrats were Democrats and they Won

[searchingforlight]

http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/Columns/Article/69564.html


The Democratic Leadership Council – the centrist group responsible for what President Bill Clinton called his “third way” of politics – thinks the only way for the party to win the White House next year is to pander to the electorate on issues of war and tax cuts.

Al From, a longtime Democratic operative who founded the DLC in 1985, said last week that the days of left-right politics are over, and that Democrats have to move beyond their base to have any chance of winning next November.

He told a DLC gathering in Philadelphia: “We won’t win the presidency if we just stand aside and say OK to the forces in our party, the forces that have driven the perceptions that are coming back of us being weak on national security and beholden to the interest groups.”

The forces in the party, apparently, are former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the medical doctor whose presidential aspirations have captivated liberals and generated millions of dollars in early contributions from around the country.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Ardee]

1. before this gets chopped

for pasting the whole article ,contrary to rules and law.

Heres another link to a pro and con Dean article in Newsweek:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/947647.asp?vts=8320030627#BODY


Everybody loves Howard: Dean has inspired his fellow Dems and Republicans think he'd be easiest man to beat



The Left’s Mr. Right?
IN YOUR FACE: His willingness to go after Bush on Iraq thrilled long-suffering liberals. And his unexpected success at fund-raising gave him crucial momentum. But is Howard Dean the Democrats’ path back to power—or a recipe for another 49-state defeat?

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The article does deal with one important though rather neglected point, however. It raises the question as to why the DLC is so anti Dean as he is firmly branded as a centrist by his career as governor..I would imagine that they are so firmly in the pocket of the military industrial complex that his anti war stance is completely unacceptable to these neodemocratic repug-lites.....

[joeybee12]

2. It's about control

The DLC has become just another one of those special interest groups they mock. They want to crown the king, and they can't take credit for Dean.

[searchingforlight]

5. Thank you for the other link and for letting me know I had goofed.

I have never posted an article before and need to get more proficient at it.

I will review the rules and improve.

They can call him leftist but his record stands and we can overcome that. The people are starting to wake up.

[Abe Linkman]

3. Democrats who run for high office can't be very different

Why is it that so many people don't seem to understand that all politicians who make a serious run for high office, are funded by the same corporate money?

The decline in political party membership and active participation in them, the decline in labor union membership (and the political education so many people got from being a member), and the steep rise in the number of rich people, combined with more monopolies (in every industry) and the sharp right-wing tilt of the dominant media, means that you cannot win a national election by being more than a smidgen to the left of your Republican opponent.

[searchingforlight]

6. That is a sad picture.

I believe the majority of people can become involved again just the way that Dean is doing it. He is using the internet - available in millions of homes and the public library. The common man has access to him and he is teaching them how to get involved and that they can be a power collectively.

It has worked before. It can work again.

[Ardee]

8. I understand your point

but I believe that special interest monies could be overcome by a grassroots campaign in which an energized electorate donated because the candidate exited and moved them. One vanilla candidate sucking at the corporate teat is pretty damn much like every other one, imo.

Someone ,sometime, must break the mold or we are doomed to forever be led by the wealthy interests. After winning a populist inspired and finance election the candidate,now president, could make campaign finance reform meaningful and permanent, right after he makes lobbying illegal!

[Liberator_Rev]

4. How about "Tax & SERVE" Democrats ?

The Greedy Old Party has been winning for years on the slogan that they are the alternative to "Tax and Spend bleeding heart Liberal Democrats" and our answer has been to run and hide, AND TO LOSE.
I recommend that we stop running, and use all the free publicity they have given us over the years, and challenge Americans to think about the options. Isn't what Liberal Democrats have to offer exactly WHAT THEY WANT ?
See http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/taxandserve.


at http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org .
WE are the Answer to the "Christian Coalition" & "Religious Right" .
YOU are the way to get the word out, because unlike THEM,
WE are the friends of the POOR and the downtrodden,
who can't give US the kind of support the RICH give to THEM

[Terran]

7. brigadoon

Please review DU's rules about posting copyrighted material--a maximum of four paragraphs may be excerpted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html#copyright

Thanks,
Dirk - DU Moderator

[bread_and_roses]

9. when Democrats were democrats

Dean would have been a Republican.