Promoted by Steven D.
Dear Mr. Reed,
To quote from Abraham Lincoln, “I have never written to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you.”
From the missives that keep getting launched from the DLC site and DLC operatives, I feel that you are laboring under a horrible misapprehension. The Democratic blogs don’t have a problem with moderate Democrats. In fact, we don’t even have a problem with very conservative Democrats.
It’s not about positions. It’s never been about positions.
Sir, you’re fighting the wrong fight.
Why do the blogs express such distaste for the DLC? It’s because the one thing we will not tolerate is Democrats who make it their business to snipe, assault, and bludgeon other Democrats. Make no mistake, the blogs are not trying to enforce our own version of Reagen’s old “11th Commandment.” No Democrat is above criticism.
But if you make it your regular habit to attack other Democrats. If your operatives go forth to call your fellow party members “jihadists” and “members of the tin-foil hat brigade.” Well sir, no one should be expected to sit down for that.
Think for just a second. What are you possibly trying to achieve with such language? Do you really believe that belittling Democrats and calling them names is going to help? Really? Has that kind of strategy worked for you in the past? Has it worked for anyone? Do you think that being called “radical” and “fringe” is going to shame people into agreeing with you?
Just so there can be no doubt, I’m going to go over it again. Take a look through the blogs and find the articles that rail against the DLC. Are they talking about positions? Are they upset because you’re “too moderate” for the “leftist fringe?” No. The articles are there in response to verbal and written grenades that your organization seems to toss out like a trolley car puts off sparks.
Of late, you seem very upset with the blogs’ fixation on the removal of Senator Lieberman, pointing to it as another example of how we’re “leftists” satisfied with nothing but ideological purity. Look again, Mr. Reed. The blogs support a lot of candidates far more conservative than Joe Lieberman. If it was just a matter of Joe having moderate positions, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The blogs may not always like how Lieberman votes, but that’s not the core of the problem.
The real issue is that Joe always seems on hand to deflate any sense of Democratic unity. He’s always ready to scurry off to Fox and toot his own “bipartisan” horn. Only in Lieberman-speak, bipartisan seems to mean “attacking his own party and supporting the Republicans.” Joe Lieberman could be pro-life, and still get the support of pro-choice Democrats. Joe Lieberman could be pro-war, and still get the support of pro-peace Democrats. What Joe Lieberman can’t do is be Anti-Democrat and expect the support of those who think there’s real value in the Democratic Party.
For Joe Lieberman, the ship of party unity has already sailed. He’s shown himself far too willing, on far too many occasions, to sell out the Democratic leadership for a little more “face time” on Sunday mornings. He’s already shown that he feels like the Democratic voters are worth nothing but contempt. Joe’s only loyalty is to Joe, and that we will not tolerate.
So here’s the deal, Mr. Reed. You can be as conservative as you want. You can favor the trade policies that you like. You can support the candidates that you like. If you spend the time on positive messages that build up the Democratic Party, you’ll find the blogs right there with you, ready to help every step of the way.
I’d advise you to do it. Mend your fences. Take advantage of this new instrument that’s right here, waiting to be used. I’ll be first in line to toss some money in the coffers and cheer you on.
The alternative is to continue down the path you’ve been following, and the end of that road is rocky, dangerous, and perilously close. Frankly sir, the only one trying to make this a test of ideological purity, is the DLC. That’s not going to work.
To be honest, the blogs are still in their infancy. We’re not as powerful as some of us might think, but folks inside the beltway shouldn’t take that as a sign that we won’t soon be there. We’re still headed up, and we’re going up fast. Come with us.
Otherwise… here, let me give you another quote, this one from a less historical source.
Before you answer, let me remind you that I can make your life a living hell. Every single day. Hell, hell, hell, and I mean it. — Kyra Sedgwick on The Closer
If you want to carry on attacking Democratic voters for not falling within the narrow confines of your ideological blinders, we’re going to take it to you every day. 24/7/365. Your money is going to dry up. You last support is going to fade. You are going to be remembered as a wart that the party was all too glad to remove.
Because in the end, you don’t just need a nice office inside the beltway and a few old party names attached to your roster. You need the national leadership, the national and state Democratic organizations, the activists, the grassroots, the netroots, and the voters. And sir, all those things are on our side, not yours.
Fondly,
Devilstower
| originally posted on Political Cortex |
Very nice letter.
Off-topic: I have been wondering lately if promotion is actually a positive thing. It seems like Booman Tribune is the rare place where front-page articles get far fewer comments than recommended diaries, I assume because topics scroll down the front much faster than the recommended list. Am I just imagining this? If I’m not, is it a problem in some way?
the diaries which are front paged can still be recommended and stay up on the ‘recommended diaries’ long after it scrolls below the fold of the average 1024×768 monitor and ultimately off the front page entirely.
The high level of diary to front page chatter is actually one of the things that makes this site more community based than many blogs. Quite an accomplishment in my book.
I guess what I’m saying is that my first reaction is not to recommend something that has already gotten the big recommend from a front-pager. Judging by the fact that this diary isn’t on the recommended list, that seems to be other people’s reaction too. I’ll work on changing my instinct in the future.
Absolutely the best diary I have read in the past six months.
Bravo!!
<quote>Joe Lieberman could be pro-life, and still get the support of pro-choice Democrats. Joe Lieberman could be pro-war, and still get the support of pro-peace Democrats. What Joe Lieberman can’t do is be Anti-Democrat and expect the support of those who think there’s real value in the Democratic Party.</quote>
This sums up my entire attitude towards the DLC.
Thanks Devilstower, you’ve summed up pretty well a lot of the feelings I have when the DLC comes up, but with me, it ends up as a string of expletives.
The DLC can move over to the Republiklan party.
I do not consider it leftist to want to raise the minimum wage, to set up single payer government health insurance, to extend unemployment insurance benefits past 6 months so these people still count as unemployed when they continue to seek work after 6 months of looking, to repeal that awful meager prescription drug discount of 2003 and replace it with a real 80 percent coverage of medication under Medicare Part B with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no coverage gaps, no means tests and no late sign up penalties, to require the 50 states to enact vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servatns with civil servants registering voters and keeping track of registrations, to end this Nazi type invasion of Iraq, and to investigate George W Bush for provoking the 9-11 attacks by secretly threatening to invade Afghanistan in July 2001 after the Taliban terrorists which whom Bush was negotiating in secret refused to allow the US to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, etc., etc.
Join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States of America.
http://groups.myspace.com/liberaldemocraticpartyoftheunitedstatesofamerica
The DLC is not Republican-Lite because of the more conservative positions its members take than positions “real” democrats take. The DLC is Republican-Lite because, like Republicans, the DLC is bought and paid for by corporate America. There is no better poster boy for the DLC than Lieberman.
I linked to it at Good Nonsense. As I said over there, it blows my mind that this isn’t common sense to everybody. The blogosphere worshipped Paul Hackett, and I’m pretty sure he’s more conservative than Joementum. Anyway, I echo your thoughts 100%.
Dear Devilstower,
I think each of us runs into problems when anyone of us purports to speak for the rest of us.
For me it is and always will be about the positions. To me the party is only the means to an end — an end in which votes are counted, individuals matter as much as corporations, foreign policy is not necessarily synonomous with military action, and in which civil rights and liberties are protected.
This statement just blows me away.
Do you seriously believe that? And if so why do you think so?
I know this is a response to the Lieberman love-fest held recently by the DLC, and I strongly dislike Joe Lieberman – hold him in great contempt.
But I think people should be paying close attention to what is happening in the Democratic Party between the NDN and the DLC – are they “making nice”? And just where do us regular folk fit in to the plan?
I’ve tried to engage people on this subject over the past week at Daily Kos with no real interest, but I am convinced there is more to the picture than meets the eye.
I’m holding out as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but in light of the undying support for Lieberman, I’m wary.
Re the NDN/DLC; I suspect these two groups together exemplify the meaning of the term; “a distinction without a difference”.
I say, get out of DC and smell the air Reed. It doesn’t smell very sweet right now and the dems are faulted just as much as the repubs by a lot of folks. Dems are seen as 1) not fielding good candidates ( primaries could help us there, so stop fighting primary fights!) 2) not having vision (really really really – do you think being a carbon copy of the repubs makes it seem as if you have vision?? Get real!!) 3)Dems eat their young (All those tasty meals you’ve had, don’t you think a fast is in order?)