Democrats & Bowing Down to Those Who Undermine

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Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:13:16 -0500

Fw: Democrats & Bowing Down to Those Who Undermine

 

 

 

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Bowing Down to Those Who Undermine

 

More food for thought about the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)

and the future of the Democratic Party...Can you imagine if an

organization existed that purported to speak for Republicans, yet

whose entire premise was undermining the conservative base of the

Republican Party? Do you think GOP presidential candidates would be

flocking to address that organization's meetings? The answer, of

course, is no, they wouldn't - and you can bet the GOP leadership

would crush that organization before it ever got off the ground. But

on the Democratic side, the story is far different.

 

Democratic presidential contenders go suck up to the DLC, an

organization whose for the last two decades has done everything it can

to undermine the Democratic Party - even going to great lengths to

attack Democratic presidential candidates it doesn't like. Then,

hilariously, these same Democratic politicians who genuflect to the

DLC claim to be shocked - shocked! - that the public has no idea what

the Democratic Party stands for anymore.

 

Just look at this Knight-Ridder story detailing the agenda the DLC

rolled out yesterday - it reads like Republican talking points:

 

- Topping the agenda [DLC President Al From] wrote with former Clinton

White House adviser Bruce Reed were several proposals on national

security. " It's a toughness issue. We have to prove we're willing to

pull the trigger, " From said. In other words, the DLC argues that

Democrats must show they are willing to indiscriminately bomb, kill

and maim people in order to win elections, even though the public now

fully opposes what we're doing in Iraq.

 

- The DLC wants to " allow military recruiters unrestricted access to

college campuses. " Again, the American people oppose what we are doing

in Iraq, and the DLC's response is to push for more militarization and

to push for more recruitment of young people to send them off to fight

overseas in wars based on lies that the DLC helped justify.

 

- The DLC wants " to cut the federal budget deficit, they proposed

cutting congressional and nondefense government staff by 10 percent.

Cutting " Nondefense " is a nice way of saying cutting things like

health care, labor rights enforcement, housing, etc - cuts the GOP is

already proposing. In other words, the DLC wants to hack into the

social progress that Democrats have fought for for the last fifty years.

 

And remember, this says nothing about the DLC's willingness to

continually undermine every Democratic Party effort to make sure trade

policy starts working for ordinary Americans.

 

I'd like to believe that the Democratic presidential candidates who

came to make nice with the DLC yesterday only did so because they

didn't want to be attacked for not kissing the Beltway gliterrati's

rings. Because, frankly, the DLC has become the poster-boy for

unprincipled stand-for-nothingism. Because of that, the DLC is

becoming more and more of a political liability to candidates for

national office, especially with the rise of the populist Democrats

and the rise of alternative fundraising sources that allow candidates

to circumvent the DLC's high-roller political donors.

 

Sure, the DLC will technically exist forever - there are always

corporate funding sources available to preserve an insular Washington,

D.C. organization that shills for Big Business and the Republican

Party agenda. But politically, the DLC - and its constant undermining

of the Democratic Party - is on its way out in terms of real relevance.

 

Sources:

DLC attacks Howard Dean:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0304-27.htm

Knight-Ridder on the DLC now pushing a GOP agenda:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12213473.htm

Americans now oppose the Iraq War:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-12-poll_x.htm

DLC helped justify and advocate for the Iraq War:

http://nypress.com/17/48/news & columns/taibbi.cfm

GOP already proposing many of the draconian spending cuts the DLC

calls for:

http://www.house.gov/appropriations_democrats/press/pr_050623a.htm

DLC undermining Democratic Party opposition to CAFTA:

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