The DLC on Dean and their southern "strategy" [View All]

[Rose Siding]

The DLC, that council of leadership that has lead us in our stunningly successful drive to elect Dems to powerful positions in all arms of govt....oh, wait...last decade

Well, they weigh in on Dean:

The Right Way to Go South

snip>
So far there's not a lot about the Dean campaign that shows any understanding of the need for values centrism as a way to make sure people are willing to listen to Democrats' arguments about everything else. That's unfortunate, because no candidate for president is likely to win the nomination, much less beat George W. Bush, if his support is limited to a golden ghetto of white, upscale, culturally liberal, antiwar voters.

There's a right way to "go South" and build the kind of biracial coalitions that have long been the key to Democratic success in the region, while broadening the base of the Democratic Party in other parts of the country as well. We urge all Democrats to remember that lesson if they hope for better luck next year.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131&subid=192&contentid=252174

Isn't there a cliche about when "things go south"? And what the heck is "values centrism" :shrug:

Some of the reasoning in that article fits with the discussion at the recent Atlanta meeting covered in a piece here entitled:

Democrats urged to move to center

snip>
At a recent Democratic Leadership Council conference in Atlanta titled "God, Guns and Guts," DLC officials said their party had to stop avoiding the cultural issues that have helped Republicans make inroads among labor union households, married women, families with children, and religious people.

"It's time for Democrats to switch from a strategy of avoidance to a strategy of engagement" on cultural issues, said Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the DLC's think tank. "Voters are going to assume the worst unless we set them straight."
snip>

Amy Sullivan of Princeton University said Democrats need to connect with people of faith by "genuinely expressing their own religious faith," by "distancing themselves from militant 'secularists,' and speaking out about the moral health of the country."
Along with other participants at the DLC forum, Ms. Sullivan said that Democrats need to address "concerns about the moral condition of the country and the challenges of families trying to raise children," she said.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031029-105103-3000r.htm

discussed last week:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=191547