Kos: Time for the DLC to die

Basically, he says the DLC's time is over:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/24/1712/23448


Excerpt:

Time for the DLC to die
by kos
Mon May 24th, 2004 at 12:01:29 EDT

Last Thursday, I watched in surprise as Sen. Mary Landreiu attacked her fellow Democrats. The ocassion was the New Democrat Network annual conference, and Landrieu hadn't gotten the message -- this was the new and improved NDN. The one that has ditched the DLC dinosaur and moved into the 21st century.

Landrieu was attacking Democrats for calling for the repeal of the No Child Left Behind law, while only reluctantly laying the blame squarely where it belonged -- on a Republican administration that had made a real mess of the law.

This was a vintage Democratic Leadership Council approach to intra-party disagreements -- turn the guns inward, attack internally. Without a doubt, the DLC is the most fundamentalist organization within the caucus, the most ideologically rigid, and the most destructive to the progressive cause.

NDN's Simon Rosenberg, a Lieberman and From protege, started working a couple of years ago to distance himself from the cancerous DLC. So while the DLC pushed the party establishment to discredit Howard Dean and his army of volunteers, Rosenberg praised Trippi's innovations and lauded the new activists his campaign brought to the political process. While the DLC imposed its own ideological litmus test on the party faithful, Rosenberg saw that diversity within the caucus was acceptable -- nay, required in the post-Bush ABB world.

I've been saying it ever since I made the mistake of working for them.

Pcat

<<This was a vintage Democratic Leadership Council approach to intra-party disagreements -- turn the guns inward, attack internally.>>

Funny, but isn't this also the left-wing approach to party disagreements? Many DU'ers seem far more enthusiastic about ridding the party of DLC politicians (which would, ahem, include Hillary Clinton and John Kerry)than they do about destroying the Republican Party. Personally, I think people like Kos are simply unable to cope with the fact that DLC candidates actually WIN ELECTIONS. If DLC bashers like Kos wan't to be taken seriously, how about finding liberal candidates who are actually capable of knocking off entrenched Republican incumbents?

Democrats. Democrats supply the money for the DLC

but you didn't think it was repukes, did you?

.

Wait a minute...

also? Or is it just giant corporations and wealthy people?

They aren't exactly friends.

Please read

http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_10_64/ai_65952690

A few paragraphs from that link:

"And, with virtually no debate, the convention endorsed a platform that, on the vast majority of issues, deviated radically from the views of most party members. According to a New York Times survey of convention delegates, Traditional liberalism remained the most popular ideological stance. Trade union members made up a quarter of the delegates, and people of color were better represented than at any major party gathering in the nation's history.

"We have all these progressive Democrats here ready to fight on issues of economic and social justice, Democrats who know these are the winning issues and who know that when we fail to run on them we lose," said Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Democrat of Illinois. "But, in the leadership positions of the party, we have the DLC trying to pull us in an entirely different direction."

Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone echoed Jackson's view. "There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans," he said. "I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."

It's not surprising that Jackson, Wellstone, Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, the AFL-CIO, the venerable Americans for Democratic Action, and other upholders of traditional Democratic values are aghast at the DLC. They have seen their party taken over by an ideological force that opposes almost all of what they stand for."

the DLC. Determining where their funding comes from is, IMO, critical to achieving a balanced perspective on the interests that the DLC serve.

Kos is a known whore. The Republicans are trying so hard. But nothing works.

The last paragraph of your excerpt:

NDN's Simon Rosenberg, a Lieberman and From protege, started working a couple of years ago to distance himself from the cancerous DLC. So while the DLC pushed the party establishment to discredit Howard Dean and his army of volunteers, Rosenberg praised Trippi's innovations and lauded the new activists his campaign brought to the political process. While the DLC imposed its own ideological litmus test on the party faithful, Rosenberg saw that diversity within the caucus was acceptable -- nay, required in the post-Bush ABB world.

While I am not going to discount the circular firing squads that are apparent on the left, I found it to be utterly abhorrent in the run-up to the primary season the way in which the DLC bigwigs were endorsing pre-emptive strikes and "imposing democracy" -- the kinds of policies advanced by the Republicans -- while keeping their most vicious swipes for "peace Democrats".

Rosenberg seems to be someone who recognizes that it's not just about winning the next election, it's about forging long-term alliances in support of a long-term strategy. While I think that Messrs From and Reed will likely go the way of the Dodo in the near future, due to their adoption of inflexible "centrist" ideology much akin to the inflexibility of certain elements on the left whom they like to whip so much, someone like Rosenberg could represent the rebirth of a more viable centrism, one which seeks to be a movement of new ideas and strategies rather than continually harping, "Clinton was DLC. Clinton won two terms. Therefore, the DLC is the answer to all the party's problems."

eom

I've said this stuff for 6 years.

and who didn't....

At least three posters here are going of the orignal post, rather than reading the entire Kos diary....

If you had, you would see that the critism is directed against head idiot From, who spends all of his time undermining fellow Dems....don't believe me, he is still attacking Dean while Dean is out working his ass off for the Party's nominee and down ticket Dems...

Sounds like a group that has the Party's best interest in mind....

Kos has also continued to raise money for Kerry and other Dem candidates...something that has yet to be done here I might add, though it has been proposed on several occasions...

I was pushing the ePatriots fund back in August 2003 and the main response from people around here was..."I have to wait and see who the eventual nominee is..."

And if you check around.....people who were DLC members are not now....the whole group has moved to the right and member after member has drop their support of it...

And as to the candidates they got elected.....what candidates? SInce the DLC has ascended to power we have lost the House, Senate, Presidency, governor mansions, state houses.....the Dem Party is in full retreat.....

The collapse of Bush in the polls wasn't done by Dem candidates supporting Bush policies, it was attacking the Repugs policy positions...stating clearly what our policies are (which most Americans support).....yeah the DLC has been wonderful for the Dems....

I don't think this country can take much more DLC success stories.....

affects Dem policy and promotes candidates or whatever else they do?

Love the slight Lieberman dishes to the WSJ's readers to slurp up about rallies.

Sick sick sick... smacks of Strauss, even, in his obvious disdain for the 'rhetorical flourishes' thrown casually (and insincerely, as Joe would seem to be suggesting) to the hoi polloi.

:nuke:

to be marginalized. An historic seachange is brewing (I think). People WANT health care, energy independence, a green world, etc...they are tired of democrats being 'free traders', etc...

Democrats need to get back to their roots of caring about the people in THIS country...taking care of US. The various constituencies of our Party are tired of being thrown a few bones when we win, and then being served up a main course of Naftaa, no health care, welfare 'reform' (actually a near complete gutting of programs for women and children), warnings from Greenspan that Social Security benefits are going to have to be cut (twenty damn years before we can even draw them!)...AND ON AND ON!

If we win in November, I don't want to be told we have to be like Republicans to not lose next time! That shit has not worked! We wind up passing legislation against our OWN constituencies that the GOP could only dream of! Like welfare 'reform', and Naftaa. And babying China while they take our jobs. Fuck all that, and then some.

When we win, a progressive agenda needs to be pursued. Health care, energy independence, a green world, education, support for labor, minorities, women and children!

Lets go to the polls based on our success at pursuing OUR agenda, not in fear being judged as not being enough like the Republicans! People are sick of their phony horseshit. From now on, it will be the kiss of death, to be like them.

George Bush has destroyed the aura of invicibility their philosophy has enjoyed since Reagan. The tide is going out on all of that, and our time has come again. If I wanted to be like THEM, I would BE one of them. And I would be getting my ass kicked this fall.

When we win in November, there better by God be something in it for US!

Clearly she is out of touch with reality.

I really think we would be slughtering the shrubster now if the dlc hadn't bullied the party into rejecting Dean.

The gospel of ABB is on the rise within the party coalition, leaving little room for From's brand of self-destructive and fundamentalist ideological purity.

(emphasis added)

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

the Deposed Losers Cabal long ago lost whatever relevance it had (and as far as i can figure, it only existed to get From and Reed back in White House jobs.) Joe Lieberman's their lame poster boy, which should tell us all we need to know.

Trouble is, newspapers publish their op-ed pieces as if the DLC had some standing, and even some lower echelon party officials (heaven help us) think this is some kind of official body. When I see one of their self-serving think pieces I write to the editor suggesting they be properly identified as an unofficial self-selected group.

Viva Rosenberg! :toast:

with Zell Miller.

Good to hear there are some people in leadership positions who are interested in building unity!

:thumbsup: