Bill and Hill's DLC is on the way out!

[denem]

That's the subtext to the current primary contest, the Democratic establishment taking on the flag bearers of the DLC. Thee may be little policy difference between the candidates, but behind the scenes the stakes are high. The DLC, a unaligned group, may have started off as a policy and organizing committee, but under the Clinton Presidency they quickly developed into power brokers.

The first challenge came from Howard Dean, first with Democracy for American, the bottom up political organization, then as DNC chair with his fifty straight strategy, rebuilding a national Democratic constituency . It's no surprise that the DLC wants Howard out. Now there are signs that the remaining DEM establishment are turning against the DLC as well.

Obama, a candidate on the first Dean Dozen, pointedly rejected the DLC's endorsement. As President, opposed by the DLC at each turn, he is unlikely to be more sympathetic. The Democratic Party may always have been a big tent of competing ideas but a parasitic group, having no party loyalty, like the DLC is unnecessary and undesirable.

If we are going to make mistakes, at least let them be OUR mistakes.

[denem]

1. Typo - I didn't means to call Bill, Nill

[jlake]

2. Oh dear.

[denem]

5. So you dont think there's a batlle between the Chicargo / Kennedy axis

for the heart of the party. It's policy, it's power.

[blm]

9. It's been a Clinton Dems v Kennedy Dems for over a decade now.

Kennedy Dems tried Clinton's way for too long in the 90s and all they got was screwed over and the party weakened.

[denem]

10. Who got screwed over?

[blm]

11. Progressive Dems who tried to give a Dem president what he wanted.

And all the while he was weakening the party infrastructure and blurring the positions on Dem issues and sweeping the toughest Dem investigations of government corruption under the oval office rug for his GOP predecessors.


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

That did NOT work out well for the country.

[denem]

12. Bill was / is DLC

but the real rot set in when Dick Morris brought Mark Penn into the White House to finger the wind on every policy decision made. Progress came to stand still.

[blm]

13. Rot set in the MOMENT Bill agreed to deep-six all the outstanding matters in

the investigations that were still ongoing when he took office - IranContra, Iraqgate, BCCI and CIA drugrunning.

Whether that agreement was made before or after he took office is a debatable point, too.

[ulysses]

3. yeah, don't bet on it.

[denem]

6. Every presidency creates a new power base.

[ulysses]

14. not necessarily.

Particularly not if we get Clinton.

[zanne]

4. That would be great.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a real Democrat in the White House again? We really have to work on all those DLC'ers in Congress, too.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Hillary's DLC funded by Big Oil, Military Contractors, and Fortune 500s

Read the full article for more

2003 invasion of Iraq

The DLC gave strong support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the war, Will Marshall co-signed a letter to President Bush from the Project for the New American Century endorsing military action against Saddam Hussein. During the 2004 Primary campaign the DLC attacked Presidential candidate Howard Dean as an out-of-touch liberal because of Dean's anti-war stance. The DLC dismissed other critics of the Iraq invasion such as filmmaker Michael Moore as members of the "loony left" <7>. Even as domestic support for the Iraq War plummeted in 2004 and 2005, Marshall reprised his right-wing credentials and called upon Democrats to balance their criticism of Bush's handling of the Iraq War with praise for the President's achievements and cautioned "Democrats need to be choosier about the political company they keep, distancing themselves from the pacifist and anti-American fringe."

Criticism

The DLC has become unpopular within many progressive political circles.

Some critics claim the strategy of triangulation between the political left and right to gain broad appeal is fundamentally flawed. In the long run, so opponents say, this strategy results in concession after concession to the opposition, while alienating traditionally-allied voters. For example, critics point out that liberal Democrat Michael Dukakis won a larger share of the vote in his presidential campaign (46%) than Bill Clinton in his first campaign (43%), despite Clinton's more centrist positions.

Others contend that the DLC's distaste for what they refer to as "economic class warfare" has allowed the language of populism to be monopolized by the right-wing. Many argue that the Democrats' abandonment of populism to the right-wing, shifting the form of that populism from the economic realm to the "culture wars", has been critical for Republican dominance of Middle America. (See, for instance, Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas.)

Still other critics believe the DLC has essentially become an influential corporate and right-wing implant in the Democratic party. Marshall Wittmann, a former senior fellow at the DLC, former legislative director for the Christian Coalition, and former communications director for Republican senator John McCain, and Will Marshall, a vocal supporter of the war in Iraq, are among those associated with the DLC who have right-wing credentials.

Finally, detractors of the DLC note that the DLC has received funding from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as well as from oil companies, military contractors, and various Fortune 500 companies.

more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council

[LSparkle]

8. The fight you describe is why I support Obama

You're right -- the differences between their policies is miniscule -- but if HRC is our nominee, it means that the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party will have lost ... AGAIN. This fight is more about the future of our PARTY than anything else. I want a Democrat in the White House, but I want it to be a REAL Democrat, not a Repug-lite.

[denem]

15. I didn't understand the Democratic wing of the Democratic Patry

until I finally got "You've got the power". Build the party from the ground up. Flip the Red Blue, constituency, by constituency. The DLC is top down by definition.