Pros and Cons: the DLC

[Fixated]

I'm about to get into a debate with someone. Can someone tell me the pros/cons of the DLC? I know they're centrists etc, no need for basics. Thanks!

[Fixated]

1. .....

Damnit, someone move this to Gen. Dis.

[Bombtrack]

2. pro or con, people here don't understand what it is

it's a think tank, not a wing of the party or a strict, autocratic, power broker.

[Zorra]

3. Here's a starter.

Enjoy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4443&forum=DCForumID22&archive=

[Eloriel]

5. THANK YOU!!!!

Because of a hard disk crash AND the broken promise (it appears) of still being able to access our DU1 bookmarks with DU2, I'd lost that thread. I REALLY appreciate getting it again.

Eloriel

[madfloridian]

4. Here is a real doozy of an article.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2895.htm

A few mentions of Harrimans, and a not so cheery mention of Donna Brazile at the end.

I have a lot of mixed feelings. Most of our candidates are connected one way or the other and in varying degrees of closeness.

[Eloriel]

9. OMG -- If THIS doesn't explain a helluva lot

From your article:

The only "Democrat" to whom Moynihan was ever close, was banker Averell Harriman, his former boss. This was the same Harriman who had financed the eugenical racial propaganda of the early fascists; the same Harriman who, with his banking partner Prescott Bush (grandfather of the current President), had financed the Nazis' rise to power. When Harriman ran for New York Governor in 1954, he hired Moynihan as speechwriter, and then brought him into the Governor's office as a publicist. Harriman entrusted Moynihan with writing the authorized history of the Harriman gubernatorial term. Harriman would persist as shadow sponsor of the anti-FDR side of Democratic Party politics.

-----

The Harrimans were in business with Prescott Bush, and helped finance Hitler even well after the war had started.

UNBELIEVABLE.

Thanks!!

Eloriel

[Eloriel]

6. Knowing what I know about the DLC

there aren't any positives that I can think of. Especially given the fact that their funding has been from the rightwing, and they've been nearly successful in destroying the Democratic Party.

Now, why so many bright people (Dems in Congress) drank the Kool-Aid is another question all together. I have no clue. I can imagine that one of the reasons was that raising money from corporations was a heckuva lot easier (and quicker) than raising it the old-fashioned way: grassroots organizing. Well, you sell your soul and reap the whirlwind.

Eloriel

[Bombtrack]

7. So it's ok for governors to associate with DLC but not congressmen

Dean has never uttered one word admitting any distance or conflict with his DLC affiliation.

[Eloriel]

10. Yeah, that's why he got his supporters to write them en masse

when they went after him AND his "elite" supporters months ago.

That's why he's on this list:
http://www.ndol.org/new_dem_dir_action.cfm?viewAll=1

It's perfectly okay for a former governor to "get it" about who aren't his friends and aren't very good Democrats either.

Eloriel

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Was Pat Moynihan One Of The "Bad Guys"?

<sigh>

[Selwynn]

8. There are no pros. "New Democrats" also go by the name of "Republican"

[IranianDemocrat]

12. The DLC was instrumental in Howard Dean's bid for Vermont Governor.

He refused to raise income taxes. He opposed gun control, for which he received an "A" rating from the NRA. He supported the death penalty. And even though it was not constitutionally required, he balanced the budget every one of his 11 years as governor - and then set aside a "rainy-day" fund for fiscal emergencies.

Dean, in fact, governed as such a moderate and fiscal tightwad that in 1996, the DLC - the same organization which now denounces him as some neo-Vladimir Lenin - hailed re-election of "the centrist Gov. Howard Dean" as evidence of growing "New Democratic leadership."



http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/6596263.htm

[blm]

14. Dean started collecting liberal antiwar $$$ he turned against the DLC

he was a part of for so many years, but ONLY rhetorically. He himself governed further right than most of the other DLC members.

[Classical_Liberal]

17. I don't think the history after turning against the DLC

has been written yet, so where are you getting this he only supports the antiwar movement rhetorically. Are you psychic. I think following the money is a pretty good indicator of policies.

[w4rma]

13. information

The Democratic Party: Outside In
…
The Dean split is mirrored in the centrist New Democrat movement as well. No organization has been more hostile to Dean than the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). In May, Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and the president of the DLC -- the group that served as a policy springboard for Clinton's rise -- wrote their now-infamous manifesto warning that nominating Dean, whom they view as hopelessly left-wing, would bring certain defeat for Democrats in 2004. But, for months, another prominent New Democrat has been making a different case. Simon Rosenberg, who cut his teeth on Clinton's 1992 campaign and now heads the New Democrat Network (NDN), sees Dean as the most innovative and potentially transformative Democrat since Clinton himself. Like Stern, Rosenberg is a bit of a rebel within his own movement. He once worked for From, but his organization is now challenging the DLC and is becoming an increasingly influential player in Democratic politics. Unlike the more top-down DLC, NDN is building a grassroots network of donors and has become a key player in the new world of 527s. "NDN has not endorsed Dean or embraced him, but we have given our opinion that this is a serious campaign that is going to change the party," says Rosenberg.
…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/13/opinion/main583484.shtml
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=84412

Dean Statement in Response to DLC's Charge that Public Servants are "Fringe Activists"

“Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as ‘fringe activists’ who do not reflect ‘the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’

“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don't need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand up for them.”

Posted by Mathew Gross at 04:27 PM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000206.html

Tell From and Reed of the DLC What You Think
Click here to sign a letter to the Democratic Leadership Council telling them that you're an active Democrat who supports Howard Dean. You can tell your friends about the link, too: www.deanforamerica.com/DLC

Posted by Mathew Gross at 01:29 AM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000240.html

Fineman on the DLC Memo
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000213.html

Former DNC-Chief Steve Grossman to DLC: "Creating Conflict is Not Leadership."
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000225.html

Liberal Oasis on Howard Dean and the DLC
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000226.html

Will the Real DLC Please Stand Up?
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000228.html

Congressional Members Call on DLC to Stop Divisive Tactics
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000238.html

Activists Are Out of Step
By Al From and Bruce Reed
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251866&kaid=85&subid=65

The Real Soul of the Democratic Party
By Al From and Bruce Reed
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251690&kaid=127&subid=900056

Here's my major problem with the DLC:
The DLC is pandering to the largest corporations in the country and is not looking at small buisnesses. The effects of this are seen in that it is becoming harder and harder to start up a successful buisness in this country while the huge entrenched buisnesses cannot do anything bad enough to go out of buisness (note Enron is still in buisness).

I do not see the DLC as supporting of buisness in general. I see the DLC as supportive of the specific mega-corps that are donating to the DLC (and also seem to be big donors to the Republican Party).

Also, I think that the DLC has been actively preventing the Democratic Party from taking positions that they need to take to get the small donations that Dean is receiving right now. I don't *think* that it is sabatoge, I think that it is just that they support these specific mega-corps first and the Democratic Party second.

The DLC knows how to fundraise from granting favors to big corporations.

Big corporations want regulations that protect the environment, consumers and their smaller competitors watered down or revoked. The DLC helps do this for campaign funds.

This is their version of moderation. They aren't taking the moderate voters' position, they are moderating between what the voters want and what their big buisness contributors want.

[madfloridian]

15. This is a great statement you posted.

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000206.html

SNIP...'Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as ‘fringe activists’ who do not reflect ‘the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’

“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don't need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand up for them....."”

[Classical_Liberal]

16. Pro: We get money from republicans

Con: we can't act like Democrats anymore except on abortion, gun control and confederate flags.