Centrist Democrats Warn Liberals

[reprehensor]

Caveat: This article originates at the Washington Times.

Even so, the arrogance that exudes from these DLC 'dictats' is stunning. But judge for yourself.

Centrist Democrats Warn Liberals

The Democrats' postelection war about what they should stand for is heating up again, with centrists challenging liberals to "real fights" within the party about staking out a tougher position against terrorism.

In an attack on the party's dominant left wing, anti-war base, and a warning for new Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean "to do no harm," the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council said it is "a delusion to think that if we just turned out our voters, we could win national elections."

Instead, the DLC called on the party to dramatically change its message to "recapture the muscular progressive internationalism of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy and convince voters that national security is our first priority."

"To win back the White House in 2008, our party must change. We must be willing to discard political strategies that may make us feel good but that keep falling short. We must finally reject the false choice between exciting our base and expanding our appeal, because unless we both motivate and persuade, we'll lose every time," said DLC founder Al From and President Bruce Reed in a new manifesto for their party.

more@link

------------------------------------

Ok, Roosevelt had WWII to deal with, you either had to be muscular or die. Truman brought America the National Security Act and the CIA, the birth of the Cold War, and played the fear card to the hilt. JFK played right along, getting America's feet wet in Vietnam.

Ergo, be the better FEAR party, and hope like hell that America doesn't collapse financially in the meantime.

Helluva plan guys. Please explain how America will be able to be 'muscular internationalists' when foreign powers decide to stop bankrolling the joyride?

Will the Military be powered with BioDiesel? What about the rest of the country?

Does anyone get the feeling by castigating the anti-war crowd (which is going to continue to grow) the DLC is going to cost the Democrats more votes than gain them?

[Capn Sunshine]

1. Of Course, without the RW filter, the title would read

"Right wing corporatists warn centrists"

ps the US Navy is switching to biodiesel. Probably strategic more than ecological, but it's a nice start.

[reprehensor]

15. BioDiesel...

I guess my point is that if the military needs to appropriate all the BioDiesel in a REAL WAR then the rest of the country will have to drive... Flinstones cars, I guess.

I don't know how much Diesel an aircraft carrier uses, but I'll bet it's a gargantuan sum.

Yabba-Dabba-Doo!

[Nederland]

41. I'm pretty sure

...all our aircraft carriers are nuclear powered. There might be a few old ones left that aren't, but all the newer ones are.

[TheFarseer]

2. I totally agree

The anti-war crowd is bigger than the war crowd. I'm sorry, it just is. Don't even talk to me if you disagree. People want the national debt reduced, cheep renewable energy, a stop of outsourcing, affordable health care, a safe Social Security system, a stop to illegal immigration. These are winning issues. Not pandering to a few people in the middle that are too stubborn to admit this war was not worth it and as of yet, NOT a success.

[MichiganVote]

3. Becoming Rove clones won't do it.

[John_H]

27. Sadly, yes it will. In fact, it's the only thing that will do it. nt

[MichiganVote]

32. Well we disagree and that's fine.

There is nothing that the Dem's are doing that convinces me they are serious about taking control and there is nothing that the Repb's are doing that convinces me they care about anyone but their base.

[fishwax]

38. clone Rove's tactics, just not his politics

Rove never seeks to find "common ground," doesn't acknowledge weak points in the ideology, doesn't claim that certain people on his side are "outside the mainstream," etc.

[Warpy]

4. Just more proof that the DLC are a bunch of dinosaurs

who need to be herded off to pasture where they can't hurt us any more. They are out of touch with the party rank and file, out of touch with the traditional voting base, and out of touch with reality.

No wonder the only paper to take them seriously is the Moonie Times.

I just want them all to go away. Please.

[mongo]

5. Gee, maybe if we had FAIR ELECTIONS the Dems would be in power

Since Kerry would have won Ohio if the 'pubs didn't pull every dirty trick in the book - and a few new ones.

[reprehensor]

10. Fair elections appear somewhere on the list of priorities...

But it's not at the top where it should be if this was a TOP PRIORITY.

It should be.

[Claire Beth]

6. WashingtonTimes....

owned by Reverend Sun Myung Moon. They'll do anything to try and cause a rift with Dem's.

[reprehensor]

13. Hence, the Caveat...

But still, the overall message is clear, Michael Moore and the anti-war left is the problem.

Michael Moore and the anti-war left poured out in DROVES to try and get ABB elected.

And now, instead of analyzing and embracing that reality, the DLC recommends discarding the millions of people who would have voted Green, or Nader, or Libertarian, instead of figuring out how to embrace and draw in more of them.

What about the kids who will turn 18 before the next election? Do they want to vote for a party that can offer them nothing but more of the same?

In my opinion, just my opinion, this is a disastrous course that denies the reality of America's current financial situation, and doesn't fully, in a full-frontal manner, address the stolen elections of 2000, and now, 2004.

Also, there is a movement afoot to steer MoveOn.org to a firm anti-war direction. That is a lot of voters that will not stand for being cast aside.

[mahina]

7. We have to bring the anti war people who left the party back.

We had hundreds of thousands maybe millions marching in the streets against the * child king. Lots and lots of them here did not vote since the party has moved so far center.

Anyhow good From is speaking aboul losing, his personal area of expertise.

And you are dead right to bring up the economic instability brought about by the debt.
Grrrr!

[Capn Sunshine]

14. You're making a mistake

You're letting them define the playing field.

Anti War is NOT "LEFT"

It's a CENTRIST position and even the Pope was against war.
War = Bad. Peace = Good. How hard is that to articulate?
That's sure as hell not "radical" in MY playbook.

WAR=DEATH

Neocons are a "culture of life"

See the disconnect?

[mahina]

52. Not in the mood for a fight.

We are all working on the same side here, this is just the kind of arrogant know-it-all attitude we are accused of.
Who said "The agressor defines the context of the battle"?

My family has fought too many wars. We are done.
Yeeesh.

[wtbymark]

8. hey - DLC - read my lips - you're Fired - you're bunk - you're passe

want to act like a republican, then go be one. I think we know who our leadership is "and you ain't it", and if you force policy and candidates down an anti-war party's throat, then you won't have a party for very long - what fuck heads, its just the republican element of the democratic party pleading to keep this a 'one party' system controlled by corperations. And they're scared, they see the writting on the wall. I say 'hey, DLC join us or dont even show up for work anymore, cause no one's listening' f(&*^*&^g ass*&%'s

[Cha]

46. I hope someday soon they get that

message loud and strong. It must kill them that Dean is the Democratic Chairman..not exactly a terry mcauliff clone.

[Stand and Fight]

9. The lines are being drawn. n/t

[mattclearing]

11. That's the plan.

The DLC IS the Republican Party.

It's a false flag operation of the worst kind. It is there to align the goals of the Democratic Party with those of the Republican Party:

Corporatism at any cost.

[smoogatz]

12. DLC=Democrats Lose Continually

But, there's some validity to the notion that for a Democrat to win in the post-9/11 climate, he/she has to have way more military cred than the Republican. WAY more. But that doesn't mean he/she can't also be a progressive.

[Totally Committed]

21. I agree totally!

Great post, smoogatz!

TC

[Tinoire]

35. Democrats for the Leisure Class as Jesse Jackson calls it n/t

[depakid]

56. oops- deleted

[Malva Zebrina]

16. trying to erase the shame of the votes

for giving Bush free reign to invade who he likes.

No doubt in my mind, Kerry or Clinton are their candidates to run in '08.

Take that and that and that you little hippy paeons. We don't need your crappy little ten dollar donations. Who do you think you are? The people? We got plenty comin in from the real big donators--

[welshTerrier2]

17. Safer? Yes ... Stronger? not exactly ...

Al From and his "muscular machismo" are at it again ...

America needs to be safer ... liberals, or anybody else who gives a damn about this country and this Party, should not push for isolationism but neither should we push for the nonsense that From advocates ... US conduct in the world IS terrorism ... we must acknowledge that failure to respect the sovereignty of nations and interference in the internal affairs of other countries for the benefit of the corporate state only puts Americans at greater risk ...

The US already has sufficient weaponry to annihilate the entire planet ... the Pentagon budget has sailed past the $400 billion mark and that doesn't include the "extra" monies for the "war" in Iraq ... we certainly do NOT need to spend more money on defense ... what we do need is a major change in US foreign policy ... again, go to the DNC's (not the DLC but the DNC's website, www.democrats.org ... i could not even find the word "Iraq" on the homepage OR on the page displayed when you click the "More Headlines" link ... those currently in power in the Democratic Party seem to want to pretend that Iraq doesn't even exist ...

We need to CUT the Pentagon budget and we need to spend less on exorbitant, pro-corporate weapons systems and we need to spend MORE on personnel ... and those personnel need to be able to rapidly respond to smaller scale crises ... we are not still fighting the Cold War against the Soviet Union and yet our military budget remains at the same levels as when we were ...

From and his macho muscle boys have it wrong yet again ... safety for Americans will be far more likely when our foreign policy reflects an appropriate sensitivity to the community of nations and does not cater to the trans-national corporations that seek only to exploit that community ... the "muscular interventionist" policies From advocates will make America less safe and this is an excellent recipe for political defeat for the Democratic Party ... doing the right thing for America, making America safer not tougher, makes the best political strategy ...

[Totally Committed]

18. I need information, please...

does anyone know where Dean, as head of the Democratic Party, stands on this "manifesto"? I would be interested to know.

Thanks, ahead of time, for the info!

TC

[Lexingtonian]

19. our Copperheads

It's too late for them, though.

[OneBlueSky]

20. well, if that's the direction the Democrats decide to take . . .

they'll be doing it without me . . . and, I suspect, without many, many other progressive voters who have supported them in the past . . .

[Toots]

22. Ok, Roosevelt had WWII to deal with

He had a hell of a lot more than that to deal with..Ever heard of the Great Depression? He was president for fourteen years the war only lasted four years...He was re-elected three times and the right wing had to get a law passed to term limit Presidents or he would have been re-elected forever if he had lived. His was all about doing right by the American people. they came first and corporations were a quite distant second. We went on to become the most powerful nation on earth because of Roosevelt and now the GOP is destroying that. DLC is helping the GOP do that. We need to get rid of the DLC and let true Americans decide for a change instead of the 'inside the beltway boys'.

[reprehensor]

26. Absolutely.

I meant in terms of 'muscular progressive internationalism.' WWII was already in full swing, not like the pre-emptive adventurism the current administration is involved in, all the time financing the adventures with imported capital.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. *blowin a big razzberry in the DLC's general direction*

[kodi]

24. not a word about what yields real national strength >> good paying jobs

the US was strong enough to fight the cold war because our economic system was demonstrably able to show it worked better than communism and provide for more guns AND butter.

what good is the continuing insanity from nitwits like Al From that preaches a national policy of big guns, but ignores the butter?

the biggest attack on the strength of US is coming from the trade policies of our alleged allies who are using trade as a weapon no less deadly for americans than bombs.

[katsy]

25. DLC or gop wannabes

""To win back the White House in 2008, our party must change. We must be willing to discard political strategies that may make us feel good but that keep falling short. We must finally reject the false choice between exciting our base and expanding our appeal, because unless we both motivate and persuade, we'll lose every time," said DLC founder Al From and President Bruce Reed in a new manifesto for their party."

---------------------------------------------


Someone tell this DINO that they'll keep losing elections until they stop mimicking the gop/pnac war on terror bullshit and offer America a sensible alternative to endless warfare. Get the troops back here to guard our country and its borders because going to war when a jihad was declared on us has FAILED. Attacking Iraq under the pretense of fighting terror was and remains a criminal action.

Someone tell this DINO that they'll keep losing elections until they put terrorism into perspective. What good is it to save us from foreign terrorists when the wealth gap / healthcare & drug costs / education / outsourcing / decaying infrastructure / tax cuts to the richest / poisoned environment will kill the American Dream more assuredly than OBL. OBL may kill 10,000 or 100,000 instantly, but gop policies slowly torture to death millions of Americans.

Someone tell this DINO that they'll keep losing elections if the "liberal base" of the dem party just doesn't show up for election 2008.

:eyes:

[Zhade]

28. "Will the Military be powered with BioDiesel?"

Excellent line in an excellent post!

That said, this IS the Washington Times, so who the hell knows how accurate this is. We do know from past experience that the DLC leadership, if not the rank-and-file, likes to castigate the anti-agressive-war crowd on a regular basis.

If accurate, the DLC can fuck off (not that they're all that relevant anymore, with more people every day turning away from their policies and rhetoric).

[Jesus Saves]

29. Muscular, progressive, internationalism is not necessarily a bad thing

It's ok to stand up for values around the world. It does not necessarily lead to a conflict like the Iraq war.

There's a lot we can do. There's a lot we should be doing right now, but we're so bogged down in Iraq, draining all our resources, our options are limited.

[democrank]

30. The DLC should hang their heads in shame, but

instead they`re out flaunting their Joementum.

If the DLC wants to see why the Democratic Party is in trouble, all they have to do is take a good look in the mirror after their next corporate-sponsored cocktail party.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Real national strength:

1) A crash program to develop alternatives to oil and to create an infrastructure that makes a large percentage of car trips unnecessary. This will also create blue collar jobs building rail lines and retrofitting cities for better mobility for pedestrians, wheelchairs, and bicycles. This will have a trickle up effect on the whole economy as previously unemployed people indulge in long deferred spending.

2) Fence mending with former allies. Find out what they can teach us.

3) Equalize education around the country so that every school district can offer the equivalent of what is offered in the most affluent suburbs.

4) Institute national health care

Fund all of the above by cancelling Star Wars and all other unnecessary weapons programs and closing military bases in Europe. (Like, who are we defending Germany from? It's fellow EU members?)

[Generator]

33. The DLC has it's head up it's ass

That line it's a "delusion to think that if we just turned out our voters, we could win national elections," is so offensive to all the people that worked their asses of the last elecion and still believe they can't answer all the questions about it. Assholes. Try winning an election when people don't think their votes count anyway!!

I totally agree with what Reprehnsor's comments.

Be the better fear party! No-JERKS be the party that doesn't lie to the people every second. Iraq has not made us safer and it's all an illusion based on propaganda. Also-the bread and butter of the Dems-especially as the Republicans will have had eight years to send as many jobs away as possible and turn the country closer to a bananna republic as possible-will even more than ever be JOBS.

After the draft(oh you know it's going to come if they keep letting neo-cons in there) and a few thousand more dead and gas at $5 a gallon and unemployment at record levels-nobody will give a shit about terrorists anymore. How safe do you feel when you have nothing to do but join the army anyway?

The DLC has no vision. See where there head's are.

[Dr Fate]

34. The forces that lost 2000, 2002 & 2004 are giving US advice?

We were RIGHT about the WMDs and 9-11 connex- the "centrists, republicans & media were 100% WRONG.

What part do they not understand?- they are losers who have been WRONG about EVERYTHING.

[bettyellen]

45. How fucking laughable they are.......

[RaulGroom]

36. It isn't about "winning."

I welcome this fight (which is real, these guys are all over the place right now badmouthing antiwar democrats - NPR, Sunday morning talk shows, etc.) What they are basically saying to me and people like me is "we don't need you." Which is a little bit hard to hear after 10 years of them telling me I was some kind of traitor if I left the Democratic party, but I guess it's time to have the argument once and for all about what the Democratic Party is.

If the Democratic Party embraces the idiotic, counterproductive GOP quest to cause widespread war in the nuclear age, I don't really care how many elections it wins them. They won't be my party. I guess what the DLC is saying is, that's fine by them. And to be honest, after many, many years of being a staunch Democrat, I'm starting to realize it's fine by me too. You guys and the Republicans deserve each other. Blow the planet up in peace. But you'll have to fight me for the right to call yourselves Democrats while you do it.

[TankLV]

64. Thank you for putting in writing what I find hard to compose.

My sentiments exactly.

Only I will not exactly sit down and shut up - I will not sit by while they "blow up the planet" - but they can count me out forever.

[fishwax]

37. Al From?

thanks anyway :puke:

[Fleshdancer]

39. What evidence do we have that their approach is working?

In what f*cked up universe do people lose every branch of government thus having no checks and balances and think "hey, we should keep doing EXACTLY what we've been doing! This MUST be the right strategy!"

Rove couldn't have written a more ridiculous plan for the Democratic Party. I can't decide what pisses me off more, the terrible direction the idiots over at the DLC have taken the party, or the fact that they obviously think we're too damn stupid to realize they are full of sh*t.

[Larkspur]

40. DLC = Democratic Losership Council

This statement shows you how much they don't know about Howard Dean's position on foreign policy
In an attack on the party's dominant left wing, anti-war base, and a warning for new Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean "to do no harm," the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council said it is "a delusion to think that if we just turned out our voters, we could win national elections."

Instead, the DLC called on the party to dramatically change its message to "recapture the muscular progressive internationalism of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy and convince voters that national security is our first priority."

Howard Dean always said that morality and belief in human rights should govern our foreign policy. Pre-emptive strikes against nations that pose not threat to us but have lots of oil is not a moral use of our power and in the long run will jeopardize our nation's security. Howard Dean also always said that he would use military force to defend this nation, if necessary, but that he would never put our children, parents, and siblings in harm's way based upon a lie.

Dean was never a pacifist and the DLC know it, but to them opposing any war that the Repukes and/or Israel want is pacifism.

I say give the finger to the DLC. They deserve worse, but it's a start.

[Dr Fate]

42. I suggest they find "centrists" to volunteer for the 2006 elections.

Good luck with that one.

[kerrygoddess]

43. FYI

There are more centrists in this country than liberals. Of course we lost a lot of them to the Republicans over the years since they've been working on the ground under the wire for decades now.

"Goodbye to All That"
The first lesson for any opposition movement today is that the ’60s were actually the decade of the right’s triumph. - http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=9366

[ulysses]

48. then let the DLC do it without the left.

Yes, there are probably more centrists than liberals in America. If Al From can harness all those passionate souls to drag the party to glory all by themselves, fine!

However, I don't want to hear a single gripe the next time a significant number on the left vote third party.

[Dr Fate]

50. I agree with you .

It took forever, but I have to agree with you.

[ulysses]

51. heh!

I'd say something like "welcome to the dark side", but I won't. ;-)

[Dr Fate]

54. Hey, I never changed sides- I'm the same as ever...

...but you already know that.

I'm a moderate on many issues- I just know that making excuses for bad strategy and refusing to attack your opponent is never the way to win.

[ulysses]

55. yeah, yeah. I know.

:D

[Dr Fate]

58. How is the home state?

???

I'm in CA now, if you did not know...

[ulysses]

59. yeah, I knew you'd gone west.

GA hasn't changed much. Ok, at all. You were expecting something different? ;-)

[Dr Fate]

49. Good- then ask THEM for money & volunteer time in 2006. Good luck.

I hope those swing voters spend as many hours as I did manning phones, knocking on doors, organizing rallies, etc.

As I said, good luck.

[kerrygoddess]

61. You're dreaming if you think plenty weren't!

It wasn't just the far left liberals out there, even though most don't want to admit that.

[ulysses]

62. a thread for you, then.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1705300

[ulysses]

65. why does this get so few answers?

:shrug:

[LimpingLib]

44. This doesnt mean they are leaving us does it?

Shucks.

Guess despite how much they hate the partys base , they just keep gracing us with their prescence and jewels of wisdom.

[ChiciB1]

47. I Read A Great Article In Rolling Stone This Month

In the National Affair section there was an article titled "The End Of Oil" by Howard Kunstler. Don't know if he's related to the other one, but in the article he wrote something that summed it ALL up for me.

While the article was about our depleting oil reserves, he quoted Carl Jung who said "people cannot stand too much reality."

All of a sudden this one statement seems to sum up EXACTLY what's going on in America! To face REALITY would mean to admit FALLIBILITY!! Something Americans have been duped into thinking isn't AMERICAN!! We are the GREATEST, THE BEST, NUMERO UNO... but beneath all the shining veneer you will find a bit of REALITY! And it does spell chaos!

The DLC has lulled far too many into this form of "sleepwalking"! Also a statement from the article. This is an article EVERY American or person would read. Sorry it's not totally on topic, but it kind of made sense to me, because staying in the middled of the road, is the road to ruin, IMO!

[nickshepDEM]

53. Im with the DLC on this one too. n/t

[depakid]

57. Well, I left the part over the DLC's constant pandering

and persistent stupidity. If the sell out on the Telecomunications Bill- which virtually handed all control of the media- not just most of it- to the Republicans, and the more recent sell out on the Bankruptcy Bill- which just added milions to Republicans' coffers isn't enough-

unless the apologists around here haven't noticed-

the party's been losing elections with the DLC's so called "strategy" for over 10 years.

People need to get their heads out of their conventional wisdom asses and look at the facts- rather than bloviating generalities. Being 'moderate' or progressive- those are more often than not just labels.

I say what it's come down to is either having the integrity and the courage to support rational policies for the good of the many or being corrupt and cowardly and signing onto irrational policies that benefit only a very few- to the detriment of us all.

[Don1]

60. Huh?

At the end of the article:
But party liberals last week dismissed the DLC's advice as warmed-over Republicanism.

"I can't tell the difference between the positions the DLC puts forward and Republican policy," said Jack Blum, counsel for the liberal Americans for Democratic Action.

"I've read this before and I am not carried away by it. Nobody in the Democratic Party, and that most especially includes the liberals in the Americans for Democratic Action, opposes fighting the terrorists."

Yeah, you go liberals! Tell those centrists that you will not sell out your anti-war base. Wait a second. Okay, nevermind. The liberals and the DLC actually agree with one another.

[NightOwwl]

63. How do we get rid of these people?

Seriously, who the fuck do Al From and Bruce Reed think they are?

In an attack on the party's dominant left wing, anti-war base, and a warning for new Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean "to do no harm," the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council said it is "a delusion to think that if we just turned out our voters, we could win national elections."

I have news for them. The party's "dominant left wing, anti-war base" is the true center of the party. And if they don't like it, then they can take their macho-man, chest-thumping, struttin' selves and march right on out the door.