Reply #21: The Democratic Party I also joined 32 years ago [View All]

[Gman]

is still the same confederation of interests it was 32 years ago only the groups in some cases now go by different names now. There were conservative Democrats back then and there are conservative Democrats now. I remember well the joy within the ranks of the far left at the exodus of conservative Democrats to the GOP. The thinking then, as it is now, is that the Democratic Party could then become a strictly liberal party without the conservatives. It didn't happen then and its not going to happen now or ever as long as there are groups like organized labor, the black caucuses, hispanic caucuses, women's caucuses and GLBT caucuses that form the organized (i.e. GOTV) feet on the ground in campaigns. While money in a campaign is a suitable substitute for not having an organization, you can beat a well financed campaign every time with an effective GOTV campaign. That's why the number of local elected Democrats still far outweighs the number of Republicans nationwide. This is also why GOTV will determine the presidency in November. It will be the above named groups that will provide the feet on the ground and ears on the phones to get this done. The far left liberal just plain don't have the numbers to compete for influence within the party by doing these things. In politics, its all about how many votes you can deliver and the far left doesn't deliver.

But none of this is to say that the above mentioned groups don't share many of the same cares and concerns as the far left because, in general, they do. However, I'm not completely sure the far left shares many of the same issues as top prioriies with the less liberal. Things like affordable health care, a living wage, and even the 40 hour work week and education seem to take a backseat with many far left liberals to things like IWR and whether or not a candidate is in favor of immediate withdrawal from Iraq. While there are less liberal folks like myself that feel strongly about immediate withdrawal from Iraq, a candidate's position on this does not at all take precedence over that candidate's position on health care, the economy and jobs, and education. These are known as "bread and butter" issues and are what win elections and make people's lives better.

You may say these issues didn't play well in 2002. The problem in 2002 was in the delivery of the message, not the message itself. As Bill Clinton said, people would rather have someone strong and wrong than someone right and weak.

The DLC fits nowhere in this grand scheme. The DLC is just there. They provide some money and a lot of ideas. But the real movers and shakers in the party come from the groups mentioned above.