Joan Walsh (Salon): The Democratic Weaselship Council

[Jack Rabbit]

From Salon.com (Subscription required)
Dated Tuesday July 29

The Democratic Weaselship Council
If Democratic centrists want to repeat Bill Clinton's success, they should stop attacking fellow Democrats as "far left" and concentrate on uniting the party against Bush.
By Joan Walsh

Has Karl Rove taken over the Democratic Leadership Council? I can't think of another explanation for the centrist clique's destructive guerrilla war against fellow Democrats. Tuesday's New York Times outlines the latest assault: a DLC conference this week devoted to blasting the party's presidential hopefuls for their "far left" critique of President Bush's budget-busting tax cuts and his dishonesty in leading the nation into war. If hitting Bush on those blunders really makes Democrats unelectable, the nation is in worse trouble than the DLC thinks.

Read more.
This is a better-than-average article on the shortcomings of the DLC.

[Cha]

1. It sounds like they don't want to win!

But we're going to win anyway..without them.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. The important thing

The important thing is that the DLC and the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" (and the Greens, too, for that matter) are going to have to learn to coeist if we are going to take this country back from these ideological aliens from HUAC-land.

In case anyboydy misses the point, that last barb was not aimed at the DLC.

[bemildred]

3. I've had the feeling for a long time that

the DLC was a stalking horse for the right, there to
vitiate and divide any effective political left in
the country. It started after the VietNam War, a very
annoying event from the point of view of the ruling class,
an effective grass-roots leftist movement that interfered
with their agenda.

But of course, that's ridiculous.

Edit: the fundamental thing is that the DLC is corporatist.
When push comes to shove, they prefer George Bush to Jim
Hightower or Ralph the Saint, or anybody else that will take
on the Corporations like FDR did. They don't want any of that
populist BS interfering with Corporate profits.

[Eloriel]

4. Ridiculous?

Or were you being sarcastic?

When you have time, you might want to wade through this:

DLC
What every DUer and every Dem needs to know about the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4443&forum=DCForumID22&archive=

Eloriel

[bemildred]

5. When in doubt

it is always safe to assume I am being sarcastic.
Read your link. :thumbsup:

[Larkspur]

6. The DLC as a whole is not the problem. It's the leadership

Al From supports Lieberman, who's sinking in the polls and Bruce Reed supports Edwards, who's sinking faster than Lieberman. Someone else supports Kerry, but can't remember the name.

Dean has said that the DLC has some good ideas that he likes but I don't think that he wants to be dependent upon them like Al Gore was and the current crop of DLC approved Dem candidates are. Dean wants to run his campaign his way, and he is willing to be partners with the DLC, but not their slave.