Aside from a new strategy, what else is New about our New Democratic Party?

I Really want to know What makes us new, and different, and better?

If we've become something new, I'd sure as hell like to know what it is so I can get behind it...

of conservatism and decided they don't like it. That is all.

(If you're asking what are our core values, the new book "Thinking Points" is an excellent primer. You can download chapters free as PDFs here: http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints. Oh, and welcome to DU!)

NGU.

From what I have read so far this book is great!

And welcome to DU to you too.

NGU.

I didn't have a chance to read until this morning... You've given me a lot to think about!

Dean is an actual Democrat - as opposed to the Republicans at the DLC, which ran the party for the six previous elections, losing every one. I only hope that Dean can hold fast against the all-out attacks that Mrs. Clinton is apparently directing (e.g., Carville's spew).

In short, the DLC will do almost anything the Predator Class asks of it - NAFTA, "free" trade with China, minimized capital gains taxes, draconian bankruptcy bills...

Dean and the actual Democrats, by contrast, are standing up for the Middle Class.

Enormous difference.

Yep.

...of American values: equality, opportunity, responsibility.

NGU.

investigations and reviews of established Admin policies. From the subcontractor scams to the Guantanamo detainees' rights of due process to the environmental sleight of hand legislations.

That is one major change that hasn't been officially trumpeted by the Democratic party until now. It also has to do with real democracy--from the bottom up as opposed to a huge, backroom entity in D.C..

What steps do you think we'll have to take to keep backroom doors open?

That specific term, as well as the "Third Way" phrase, was the term Bill Clinton awkwardly tried to use to describe his presidency. That specific reference to the New Dem terminology implies a tacit association with the Hillary faction of the party, IMHO.

Being a Gore/Dean proponent, I steer clear of associating myself with any political lingo which might suggest my political affiliation supports the interests of the DLC -- an organization basically controlled by Bill Clinton. Al Gore disassociated himself with this organization years ago because of its failure to protect the interests of the common people.

and is disintegrating, and nearly useless in the eyes of voters at present. It can't recover a majority, except as a protest against our side getting too lazy or too energetic, or too smart or too stupid.

We stand before 40 years of stalled social law changes and other efforts to keep the country stuck in the world as it was imagined and worked in the late Sixties. The work ahead is obvious, the question is really about how exactly to manouver to do it.

The rest is mostly marketing and sales pitches, ploys and plays.

if you want to go to fundamentals, we do have a party that is split about fundamentals. Our fundamental disagreement with the other party is about enforcing and extending and living in the spirit of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. One half of the Democratic Party is willing to live with as far an extension of these civil rights and allow the economic ramifications- development, maturation, progress- as our situation can bear, and the other half wants to go slower or be a lot more passive about it.

It seems like what you're saying, and I agree with you, is that too many of our fellow Democrats still feel like they have to bargain, or set aside some of their more revolutionary and fundamentally Democratic ideas in order to succeed, even among other Democrats.

It is time for the gloves to come off and a bucket of cold water to be thrown over the DLC...

That's all I see. A party responsive to the people again.

Welcome to DU!! :toast: