Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland and DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Jr. are literally praying that they are still relevant in the wake of the netroots’ rise to influence.
As the caucuses and primaries approach, candidates will come under increasing pressure to ignore the broader electorate and appeal to the party faithful…
…A new Democratic president will have the chance to unite Americans around solutions that will make all Americans proud of their country again. For the sake of the hardworking Americans who are depending on us to fix Washington and put our country on the right track, we pray that Democrats set out to build a majority that can last.
I don’t think they have to worry about the DLC having power. Wherever there is corporate-military-industrial-complex money, there is considerable power…and the Democrats will never cede all of it to the GOP. The DLC is still extremely influential, but now that influence has been driven largely underground. If you read the column, you’ll see that Ford and O’Malley speak in code. Some examples:
Some liberals are so confident about Democratic prospects that they contend the centrism that vaulted Democrats to victory in the 1990s no longer matters.
What ‘centrism’ means here goes unstated.
The temptation to ignore the vital center is nothing new.
What is the ‘vital center’? They don’t say.
With an ambitious common-sense agenda, the progressive center has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win back the White House, expand its margins in Congress and build a political and governing majority that could last a generation.
No definition of the ‘progressive center’ is provided.
When they finally get around to defining an agenda, it lacks so much specificity that it could almost pass as Dennis Kucinich’s platform.
So far, our leading presidential candidates seem to understand that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. That’s why they have begun putting forward smart, New Democrat plans to cap and trade carbon emissions, give more Americans the chance to earn their way through college, achieve universal health care through shared responsibility, increase national security by rebuilding our embattled military and enable all Americans who work full time to lift themselves out of poverty.
The proof of the pudding is definitely in the eating and, in this column, the DLC isn’t sharing the ingredients. If their agenda can’t face the light of day, how are we to trust it?
This urgent plea to double-cross the base is transparent. The DLC agenda is not the American people’s agenda and now that they cannot monopolize the media, they cannot trick the people into thinking otherwise.
I pray the candidates will tap into the latent power of the netroots and grassroots to fashion a second New Deal, a truly progressive agenda, for the 21st century. And I pray they’ll leave the DLC for the historians to research.
Delusion is the primary mechanism by which the Netroots have convinced people that they matter. Truth is, we don’t. Right now most Americans are pissed off about having to watch CSI reruns and why Paris Hilton was let out of jail. They don’t know what the DLC is or what the hell people mean by the Netroots. Did they say Nutroots? Some nuts, no doubt. At least Hillary has cleavage. What do they have?
what’s your working definition of ‘matter’?
Wow, this really is desperate. Since none of the presidential candidates deigned to appear at their convention, they must be feeling lonely and unloved.
A couple of points:
(1) Of course the candidates are playing to the base. That’s what candidates do in the primaries. Republicans are, too. Have these guys never seen a primary?
(2) It was the DLC that enabled the political pendulum to move to the right in the first place. That was Clinton’s move; he kept moving right, so that Bush the elder had to move farther right. It worked in 1992, but won’t now.
Ever since Bush the younger took office, the DLC’s message has been that of appeasement and cowardice in the face of bullying fascism. The result of this is the democratic congress we see today, weak, toadying, unable (with a few exceptions) to stand up to Mr. 26%.
(3) Now that we’ve had six years of far-right governance (with sadly predictable results) the pendulum is swinging left again, which will be to the benefit of all.
So the question really is, will Shrum, Carville, Ford et al. support the democratic presidential candidate, or will they sabotage the movement?
Hmm…. The Progressive Center. Would that be something like the Passionate Indifference or the Dynamic Status Quo?
Wouldn’t making progress mean precisely moving OFF the center?
I swear these people are sharing bodily fluids with wingnuts.
The only candidate of the big three who consistently preaches a message that you could say hearkens back to the New Deal era has been John Edwards. Hillary and Obama are both centrist leaning, DLC approved (and corporate sanitized) candidates. And I’m not sure I trust Edwards that much (I’d prefer Elisabeth as a candidate, frankly).
Elizabeth is the women Hillary wanted to be when she grew up.
Please, what ever you do this year is DO NOT TRUST HAROLD FORD! He is one of the most ruthless men alive and will not stop doing the (rights-gop) carrying of water than most in the DLC. Just look at his voting record! Actually I am ashamed he is from the state I reside..;o(
Why, oh why, can’t I have Doug Duncan as my governor? That’s a rhetorical question, as I know why, and it was a damned good reason. It’s just that moments like these make me selfish. 🙂
I’m inclined to just laugh at this and consign them to history’s dustbin, but this comment has me steamed:”…expand its margins in Congress and build a political and governing majority that could last a generation.”
They didn’t give a rat’s booty about Congress 10 years ago. NOW they care? Whatever.
And quite frankly, I’m surprised they’re not having a sneezing fit by using that dusting off that moldy chestnut of “shared responsibility.” God, I hate that phrase. “Shared responsibility for health care?” Seriously? As if I intentionally get sick.
But that kind of talk that is infuriating. It’s insulting. It assumes that people aren’t taking responsibility for their lives, for their families when nothing could be further from the truth. And truth is, we’re shouldering ALL of it, while the DLC interests are chillin’.
There were some great things that happened in the 90s, but some things should remain in the past. The DLC is one of them.