Ari Berman (The Nation): Going Nowhere -- The DLC Sputters to a Halt

From The Nation
Dated Thursday March 3

Going Nowhere
The DLC Sputters to a Halt
By Ari Berman

In May 2003 the centrist Democratic Leadership Council published its yearly list of "100 New Democrats to Watch." The DLC frequently puts out these lists as a way to publicly solidify its identification with the New Democratic movement within the Democratic Party. The 2003 list, however, contained a number of questionable additions, including then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. As a state senator, Obama had continually passed progressive legislation--a record that he vowed to add to when he began his run for the US Senate on a platform of clear opposition to the Patriot Act, the Iraq War and NAFTA, all positions anathema to the DLC. The puzzling addition caused The Black Commentator magazine to wonder, a month after the DLC list came out, whether Obama had been "corrupted" by the centrist group. Obama's reply to the Commentator was indicative of how the DLC plays the "New Democrat" card.

"Neither my staff nor I have had any direct contact with anybody at the DLC since I began this campaign a year ago," Obama wrote. "I don't know who nominated me for the DLC list of 100 rising stars, nor did I expend any effort to be included on the list.... I certainly did not view such inclusion as an endorsement on my part of the DLC platform." After realizing that his name appeared in the DLC's database, Obama asked to have it removed. The message was clear: The DLC needed Obama a lot more than Obama needed the DLC.


ADVERTISEMENTToday, the same is true for many politicians. After dominating the party in the 1990s, the DLC is struggling to maintain its identity and influence in a party beset by losses and determined to oppose George W. Bush. Prominent New Democrats no longer refer to themselves as such. The New Democratic movement of pro-free market moderates, which helped catapult Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992, has splintered, transformed by a reinvigoration of grassroots energy. A host of new donors, groups and tactics has forged a new direction for Democrats inside and outside the party, bringing together vital parts of the old centrist establishment and the traditional Democratic base. The ideological independence of the DLC, which pushed the party to the right, has come to be viewed as a threat rather than a virtue, forcing the DLC to adapt accordingly. Corporate fundraisers and DC connections--the lifeblood of the DLC--matter less and less: Witness the ascent of MoveOn.org and Howard Dean's election as chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). "It's not that the DLC changed," says Kenneth Baer, who wrote a history of the organization. "It's that the world changed around the DLC."

Today's DLC is a far cry from the anti-establishment organization created by New Democrats who captured power within the party in the Clinton era by distancing themselves from the party's traditional base and liberal candidates. After co-founding the DLC in 1985, former Congressional aide Al From aggressively expanded what had been an informal caucus of Southern and Western Congressmen into a $7-million-a-year operation at its peak in 2000. By that time it had 5,000 members, who paid $50 a pop to join; and politicians, policy wonks and lobbyists flocked to its annual conferences. The DLC's tough free-market positions, connections to big business and early media savvy enticed Clinton into becoming chair in 1990. Although the organization always took more credit than it deserved for his 1992 victory, downplaying Ross Perot's impact and Clinton's own charisma, that election nevertheless institutionalized the DLC's rising status. DLC strategists William Galston, Elaine Kamarck and Bruce Reed became top domestic policy aides in the Clinton White House. After the Republican Revolution of 1994, From told the Democrats to "get with the program." The DLC quickly became the new Washington establishment, launching state chapters, creating a New Democratic Coalition in Congress and expanding its Progressive Policy Institute think tank. A top aide to Jesse Jackson groused of the post-Clinton Democratic Party, "The DLC has taken it over."

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This ought to be in GD: Politics.

I had really thought to myself that Dean's ascendency to the DNC Chairmanship pretty much marked their demise. Glad to see I'm not alone in thinking them passe now.

:toast:

!!

Reposted from last night.

I really think the progressives and moderates should have a dialog rather than a shouting match. The most recent display of hoof-in-mouth disease from Mr. From was his diatribe against Michael Moore and MoveOn. If the DLC is truly committed to expanding the Democratic Party, then Mr. From should be seeking ways to accommodate them rather than alienate them.

In 2000, Michael Moore voted for Ralph Nader. With that, he earned the ire of many who blamed Nader for Gore's defeat (never mind that Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris had more to do with it). In 2004, Michael Moore voted for John Kerry. Yet now Al From wants to blame him for Kerry's defeat because he is too far to the left. Never mind that Fahrenheit 911 is credited with changing a number of minds in Kerry's favor.

Many progressives who voted for Nader in 2000, your humble servant as well as Michael Moore, felt defeating Bush was important enough that we supported a candidate we thought far less than perfect. And Al From still wants to read us out of the party? Good grief, does he want our votes or doesn't he?

So what is a progressive to do? It's clear we're not going to get a fair hearing from Al From. However, I recognize that the DLC was not always as doctrinaire as it now is. In the eighties, it had a moderating influence at a time when it was needed, but it welcomed progressives rather than dissing them.

So let's forget Al From. Let him howl in the night lie a sick cat, if that makes him feel better. The rest of us need to get on with the business of building a coalition to defeat neoconservatism.

How do we go about it?

Like the far-right cousins, the neodems don't really care what progressives think, IMO.

We progressives are not going to get a fair trial from Al From, Bruce Reed or Will Marshall. However, that does not mean that there are not moderates out there who want to reach out to all factions of the Democratic Party and work together to defeat neoconservatism. We must seek them out and be prepared to work with them.

This is absolutely necessary and any progressive who doesn't realize it is as dense as Al From. Moderates alone or progressives alone are not strong enough to defeat the coalition of far right elements that have taken over the government.

We must unite and defeat neoconservatism. The alternative is more election fraud, more right wing judges on courts, more women running to back alleys, more young Black men in prison, more workers making inadequate incomes, more schemes to redistribute hard-earned wages and pensions to the wealthy, more offshore tax shelters, more offshore torture chambers and more resource wars justified by lies. That is what neoconservatism is about. That is with what there can be no compromise.

We just managed to elect a progressive Democratic Chair for NC Dem Party over the wishes of DLC Governor and former Governer (both Dems...Big Business Repug Lite Dems) and it was down to the wire to see if we could pull it off. But, Gerry Meeks made it, and he spent his own time going to the Western Part of the state connecting with the Grassroots Dems that no one had ever bothered to visit before. Charlotte, the Triad and Triagle pretty much run the government. The other areas are considered "poor/rural" and, not of much consequence.
Making the effort to visit them was crucial.

He had total support from those of us who were Dean/Kucinich and some Nader workers. We are also pushing like hell for Election Reform and meeting with every one who will listen. It's not easy because our numbers are so small, but the free time, money and effort we put in is paying off. Our Dem Leadership has been asleep so long they almost didn't see us coming. That's why this "Nation" article is so good. Although I felt it didn't quite go into what the Left Progressives are about as much as it could have...I understand that the point of the article was the DLC and how Dean challenged them.

The Progressives are angry...so we aren't looking right now to be inclusive to DLC hacks. In the red states, inclusive means something it doesn't elsewhere. We have to fight hard or they will push us back into the old system. It's important to keep our differences until we win back the House and Senate. Then we can talk about inclusive. Trashing Mike Moore isn't going to win any friends or build bridges with most of us who saw him as a hero for telling the truth against all odds.

What is important to know that we're not dissing all moderates, just pigheaded ones like Al From. I thing most moderates know that Michael Moore delivered more votes to Kerry than he lost. I'm sure Kerry appreciated every one of them, even if From doesn't.

It is unfortunate that people like From get into positions of responsibility and use it drive people away from his cause (which, I think, is winning elections for Democrats).

I'm sure there are moderates and progressives who want to work together for a common goal. We should seek each other out.