(Sanders group) Boston Globe: Third Way in struggle for the Democratic Party's Soul

[Kittycat]

Great article from a year and a half ago. I did a title search on DU to see if I could understand what the discussion was like back then, given how much it's changed and there's so much defending or ignoring Wall Street money, and couldn't find it. Either way, it serves as a good peice of background on shifts in the party, and who is driving them.

Btw - If anyone happens to find a thread on this archived, please share a link, and I will add it in the OP.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/10/06/struggle-for-soul-democratic-party-pits-wall-street-backed-think-tank-against-elizabeth-warren/pYk3SXRnZDmpi7C7N4ZpXN/story.html

Oct. 6, 2014 - WASHINGTON —
On a summer afternoon amid the frenzy of the Democratic National Convention in Boston 10 years ago, a group of Washington business lobbyists, political operatives, and a smattering of senators gathered at one of the city’s downtown law firms to hear a plan.

Members of the group worried that, with the end of the Bill Clinton era, the Democratic Party’s centrist wing had lost its way. Over sodas, they pitched a new think tank named for Clinton’s political philosophy, Third Way.

Fast forward a decade: The philosophy, sketched out privately at the Boston office of Brown Rudnick,is now at the center of an intense struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

Third Way, backed by Wall Street titans, corporate money, and congressional allies, is publicly warning against divisive “soak-the-rich” politics voiced by populist Democrats. Its target: Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator whose rise to power two years ago helped galvanize Democratic grass roots against Wall Street and pushed the issue of income inequality to the forefront.

This is more than a grudge match. At stake for the Democratic Party is the support of middle-class, swing voters who decide elections.

.... Article continues at link above.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. Third Way, backed by Wall Street titans

and some here love that stuff

[Rebkeh]

2. Wow. Thanks for this nt

[dreamnightwind]

3. Excellent find

There is no way to do it justice with excerpts, this article deserves to be read. I picked out these paragraphs to illustrate:

Their overarching emphasis is on solidifying political support among the middle class. Where they differ from many Democrats is how they plan to appeal to the vast middle: reduce deficits and cut spending growth on such entitlements as Social Security and Medicare.

They insist on deficit reduction and entitlement cuts as conditions for key tax hikes on the wealthy.

...

Third Way’s insistence on linking tax hikes to a grand bargain — which has been impossible to obtain in the Obama era — has a direct bearing on the wallets of the group’s wealthy funders.

[Kittycat]

4. On the bailout

More further down

The group also had some suggestions about the bank bailout that has fueled so much of the anger at Wall Street for the past six years: Don’t call it a bailout.

“This is an emergency line of credit,’’ Third Way executives wrote in September 2008, as anger was reaching a ferocious pitch. “Banks need this loan so they can loan to you — the American consumer.’’