New Dem Daily: Idea of the Week: A Reform Insurgency

[dolstein]

DLC | New Dem Daily | November 5, 2004
Idea of the Week: A Reform Insurgency

In words immortalized by Janis Joplin, the political philosopher Kris Kristoffersen once acutely observed: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Flip that observation around, and you can see the opportunity Democrats now have to recapture the political momentum.

. . .

It's time to use that freedom. Republicans are now responsible for all the policy failures and special interest dominated procedures of the most powerful central government this side of Beijing. Surveys consistently show that roughly a third of Americans don't know which party controls Congress. How often did you hear Democrats talk about one-party domination of Washington during the last campaign? Not remotely as often, we'd bet, as you heard Republicans, from the president on down, talk about Democrats as the big-government party. That needs to change right away. We need to stop acting like a "shadow government" that's just patiently waiting for the opportunity to get back into power and return to business-as-usual. Washington needs fixing, on a very basic level, and Democrats need to become not an impotent minority party with no agenda other than obstructing the worst excesses of a newly emboldened GOP, but a positive insurgency committed to a whole host of reforms. Here are some of the reforms we will be talking about in much greater detail in the days ahead:



This kind of "reform insurgency" agenda would help decisively recast Democrats as a party of progressive change and national purpose rather than as a status quo party wedded to old programs and listening only to organized special interests and narrowly targeted constituencies. And it would help Democrats recapture the ability to speak to the country in terms of their vision, their values, and their broad goals, instead of the Washington code language of programs.

This last point is especially important because Republicans in Congress can be expected to frame every debate and every vote in a way that casts Democrats as obstructionists with no ideas of their own. Precisely because Democrats, especially in the Senate, may be forced to use the limited prerogatives of the minority to stop right-wing outrages, they need a positive message that reaches beyond the Beltway to the vast majority of Americans who don't understand or care about the partisan maneuvering on Capitol Hill. Moreover, a clear, values-based message would be invaluable in reducing the "culture gap" that reflects the persistent fear that Democrats live in a different moral universe than the middle-class voters whose interests we claim to champion.

. . .

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?cp=2&kaid=131&subid=207&contentid=253005

[Julien Sorel]

1. I posted something similar from

NewDonkey.com, and it sank like a stone.

Amusingly enough, the DLC and some of the more fiery of the activists are saying similar things, but the activists are so busy screaming at the DLC and it's putative power, they don't listen.

[Eloriel]

2. And that's because

the DLC has been hugely responsible for getting us exactly where we find ourselves today.

However, the more important issue to me right now is publicizing the vote fraud and gearing up for the NH recount:

URGENT: VOTE FRAUD? Tell everyone you know -- details
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1337662

So I still don't much care what the NDOL has to say. YMMV. Maybe sometime later.