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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDLC = Koch Bros?!?
I am not very familiar with the modern structure of the Democratic party. However, I have seen some on here make claims that the. DLC was funded or otherwise controlled by the dark side. In 2008 I worked with people from the DLC and they seemed o.k., and I get mailings from them yet. So could someone please explain the controversy to me? Is the DLC really a committee to block progressive canidaates? What if any connection to the Koch brothers. I find this hard to believe.
Dewey Finn
(176 posts)unionworks
(3,574 posts)Dewey Finn
(176 posts)Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)on my Captain Midnight decoder ring.
Something about Ovaltine and seeing how far the envelope can be stretched.
tabatha
(18,795 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)here you go
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism.html
I find Treanor's work short, concise and self explanatory.
Some may even have relationships with the Koch brothers, but it is truly about six degrees of separation and very common ideology.
PufPuf23
(8,689 posts)Deregulation
Privatization
Anti-democratic in that politics are based on $ rather than votes
Maximized profits for the few over maximized utility for society
Globalization
Labor arbitrage and loss of power by labor
Upward redistribution of wealth, income, and political power.
State and corporate violence to spread and maintain the status quo of neoliberal policy.
Unfortunately in the USA, both the Democratic Party and GOP are are dominated by neoliberals.
Think Friedman.
Klein's Shock Doctrine is a good primer.
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)The reality: the DLC was--note the past tense, as it no longer exists--a think tank designed to promote "pro-business" Democrats. It was, at it's height, a minor fad in Washington.
The fantasy, of course, is that the DLC is some kind of super secret army of infiltrator Republicans intent on destroying the Democratic Party. And that every Democratic elected official is a member, and that ever one that ISN'T a member is really secretly a member. In other words some people believe that the DLC is the bogeyman, capable of being everywhere, doing everything, and controlling every aspect of American politics in a nefarious scheme to end liberalism. And I'm sure that if the DLC had ever actually held one percent of the power those people attribute to it, it's creators would have thought they'd died and gone to heaven.
msongs
(67,199 posts)FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Look at who they were. Oh, why did they rebrand as the Third Way?
bvar22
(39,909 posts)[font size=5]
The DLC New Team
Progressives Need NOT Apply
[/font]
(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254886&kaid=86&subid=85
Some of the founders of the DLC were also signatories of PNAC.
Their purpose was to reduce the influence of Organized LABOR in the Democratic party
by opening the door to Republican funding sources by promoting Pro-Business/Anti-LABOR policy.
You can actually find a statement to that effect in their founding documents.
They have also been very effective at directing Party Money (DSCC/DCCC) to Anti-LABOR Conservatives in Democratic Primaries.
That trend is STILL in effect.
SEE: Arkansas Democratic Primary 2010
Like all reptiles, the DLC simply shed their old skin when people started finding out about them,
and repackaged their shit under a different label.
You CAN fool some of the people ALL of the time.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green][center]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)deminks
(11,006 posts)to make certain right wing ideology was pervasive in both parties.
http://mydd.com/2006/12/13/tom-donahue-the-gang-of-6-and-red-america
(snip)
Donahue is really smart, and the Chamber isn't going away. If you read the full article, you'll see that he hired Al From, head of the DLC, to make sure that right-wing policies succeed in both parties.
(end snip)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64725-2005Feb4?language=printer
(snip)
The chamber has hired the Swiss Guard of paid consultants from both political parties. Several showed up at a recent dinner hosted by Donohue at the chamber, including Al From, chief executive of the Democratic Leadership Council; Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, who was White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration; and Scott W. Reed, who was Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign manager.
(end snip)
Koch money? Probably. The Dark Side? Most certainly.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)unionworks
(3,574 posts)...to research and digest this. I do have to wonder - after all the blood sweat and teaars we put in to the 2008 campaign... we handed them the keys to the power to implement long lasting change... I was expecting Bushco to be put on trial ala Watergate,.. and two fucking years the bastards are back again like they were never gone, more belligerent than before. Something is really wrong.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)now morphed into The Third Way.
[a href="http://www.americablog.com/2010/08/koch-industries-gave-funding-to-dlc-and.html"]Koch Industries gave funding to the DLC and served on its Executive Council[/a]
http://www.americablog.com/2010/08/koch-industries-gave-funding-to-dlc-and.html
And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC's executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively--meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.
The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included.
Fitting, isn't it? The entity that tries to undermine the progressive agenda from within the Democratic Party was getting funding from the guys who are trying to destroy the Democratic Party from the outside.
This explains how confusing it has been to see Democrats so on board with policies that are or should be abhorrent to any true Democrat. Which is why we need to be working extra hard to rid the party of these people and replace them with real Democrats.
unionworks
(3,574 posts)The Democratic party had the power to put the republicans out of power for a decade. We. Held our collective breathes and got - ???
If the bluedogs need replaced with real democrats, how to you do that? Joe Sestak primaried DINO Arlen Specter. Sestak was defeated by Citizens United corporate contributions flowing into Looney Pat Toomeys coffers. How do you fight unlimited funding?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Make Corporate funding a huge issue in the next election. In every state, OWS can help with that. Most people were not aware of this huge problem.
Eg, if a real Progressive decided to challenge Max Baucus, but was refusing or could not get Corporate funding. Normally that person would not have a chance. But what if fliers and other methods are used to list Max Baucus' Corporate donors alongside the Progressive's refusal to accept them. With the question 'Which one of these candidates will be working for the 99%'?
Iow, make Corporate funding a big issue in this election. Maybe even challenge all candidates to refuse it.
Grover Norquist demanded a pledge from Republicans not to raise taxes.
How about a challenge from Progressives that is made very public, to candidates that they renounce Corporate money in their campaigns? And if they do not, use it against them. That would give the Progressive candidates more of a chance, and a real issue to attack their opponents with, to level the playing field.
unionworks
(3,574 posts)It beats doing nothing. Let's hope it works. I tend to lean toward pessimism, but to do nothing is to accept defeat.