Just what is the DLC and how is it different than a difference of opinion

[DanCa]

Uhm forgive my ignorance, but there's so many intials floatting around here that it's gets hard for me to keep up. I was just wondering what exactly is the dlc and is it more than not being in lock step with everything the party stands for. Please no flaming. This is a genuine question.

[adarling]

1. Democratic Leadership Council

Another name for the "we're going to let the republicans beat the crap out of us cause we like to get the beat down and secretly wish we were ones" They are democrats that have some soul left in them that is trying to pull them out of the darkness....yet they have 75% of their body in it with that little head poking out still. That was a rant....probably didn't help.. :shrug:

[DanCa]

2. I take it these guys are "super centrist" meaning sell outs

and that's why every one dislikes them. I.E. there more than one or two positions away from the party platform.

[adarling]

4. yes, but since there is no real platform

they go all crazy and make trouble for everyone else. They are the drunk uncle at a wedding...they think they have good intentions...yet they are f*cking up the entire party./

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. yep and by the way welcme to DU

[adarling]

12. thank you

:toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. The DLC is the democratic leadership council

and it is more than a difference of opinion. The DLC has been advocating for years that we take more "mainstream positions" and that we need to compromise more.. They have also been at the wheel since 1988 and their record is less than stellar.

In another age they would have been known as either CONSERVATIVE Democrats or Moderate Republicans, as they are straddling that edge. They also advocate raising money from corporations and basically playing nice with corporations. And in my opinion, throwing out any Progressive liberal for we are scary.

They are not mainstream, and they are not moderate, and they have just pulled the party to the right, every so slightly (actually quite a bit)

Reaching for the tin foil... some have offered the theory that they are fifth columnists from the RNC, meant to destroy the DNC as an opposition party. I an not willing to go that far YET.

[DanCa]

5. I see thanks are they any relation to the yellow dog democrats?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. The other extreme

the yalla dog democrat is truly a Southern tradition, and it means they will vote for any body the dems run, even if it is a yellow dog

[w13rd0]

13. And the DLC relies upon yellow dogs...

...to stay yellow dogs, no matter what they do...

[w13rd0]

6. The DLC is essentially a creation of business interests...

...to pressure Democrats to be more corporate friendly. They do so by cooperating with and propagating the talking points of the right wing. By financial pressure and well-funded primary challenges, they have, over the past decade and a half, forced the party rightward and pro-corpowhoreward, giving the wingnut contingent in the Republican party that much more room to be loony and still act as if they can claim "the heartland" and "mainstream values". And when they do, the DLC nods and says, "Yes, let's follow them down this path and try to persuade that doddering 4% of the population that makes a decision in the 20 seconds before they pull the handle to follow them down the very same path." When people say there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans, you can thank the DLC. When people say, "The Democrats just seem to watch polls and shape what they say accordingly..." thank the DLC. It's basically a PR firm specializing in marketing right-wing corpowhore bullshit to the Democratic base, or disenfranchising them if they don't buy into it.

[mestup]

7. "or disenfranchising them if they don't buy into it."

I think that's actually been the result, regardless of any dividing issues. The largest percentage of voters no longer vote.

[DanCa]

9. Thanks everyone for schooling me. If you have any book recommendations

on the current state of the democratic party that explains it's history and this stuff let me know. This was a very useful thread. Thanks again you guys rule.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. somebody did write two books one on the DNC

the other on the RNC... have not read them , but

Now you may want to start not with the history but our framing (scaring the living daylights of the DLC) god, called Lakkoff... "don't think of an Elephant." Some of the copies also have his DVD. There are otehr very good books from him written on these ideological issues, but his Don't Think of an Elephant is a good intro.

Oh and also read "What's the matter with Kansas."

[madfloridian]

14. You asked, here you go. I think most of the links still work.

ARTICLES
Behind the DLC Takeover
http://www.progressive.org/nich1000.htm

DLC says party needs new 'face'
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030213-31023025.htm

Why the Democratic Party Failed to FUnction in this crisis
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2895.htm

How the DLC Does It
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html

Strange Bedfellows, RightWingWatch
http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2001II/msg03274.html

Why We Should All Give Up on the Democratic Party: A Polemical Essay
http://www.counterpunch.org/sperry1126.html

Strange Bedfellows: Republican Donors fund DLC Meeting
http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2001II/msg03274.html

How the DLC Does it
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html

Still Clinton's Show?
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030217&s=greider


MORE DU THREADS:

DLC's New Dem Daily LOVES *'s Speech, 2/27/03
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=41356&forum=DCForumID60


To what extent with the DLC Control the Primaries?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=13934&forum=DCForumID66


The joys of war, the outdatedness of antiwar, courtesy of DLC's New Dem Daily
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=12283&forum=DCForumID38

[DanCa]

15. coolio thanks readding and learning.

[U4ikLefty]

17. Damn, madfloridian...I'm impressed with all the sources...good job!!!

Way to inform!!! :)

[OneBlueSky]

16. it's the corporate wing of the Democratic Party . . .

whose interests are, by definition, contrary to the interests of the people (that's us) . . .