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unionworks

(3,574 posts)
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 02:52 AM Dec 2011

DLC = 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.

20 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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DLC = Koch Bros?!? (Original Post) unionworks Dec 2011 OP
Post title needs more punctuation marks n/t Dewey Finn Dec 2011 #1
?!?!?!?!?!?,,,,..,,,!m!?!? unionworks Dec 2011 #2
Thanks! Dewey Finn Dec 2011 #4
Just translated that Summer Hathaway Dec 2011 #10
I highly doubt it. tabatha Dec 2011 #3
The DLC are neo liberals nadinbrzezinski Dec 2011 #5
Neoliberalism in a nutshell PufPuf23 Dec 2011 #19
You're right not to believe it. It's simple nuttiness. TheWraith Dec 2011 #6
with the perpetuation of the bush agenda, the DLC is irrelevant now nt msongs Dec 2011 #7
What was DLC's influence in NAFTA? - for $100 Alex FreakinDJ Dec 2011 #14
LOL hootinholler Dec 2011 #15
Yeah. Minor fad. bvar22 Dec 2011 #20
This article claims that the Koch brothers did donate to the DLC... Luminous Animal Dec 2011 #8
The DLC was hired by the US Chamber of Commerce under Tom Donahue deminks Dec 2011 #9
Yes, the DLC has been funded by the Koch Brothers. sabrina 1 Dec 2011 #11
I need time unionworks Dec 2011 #12
Yes, something is very wrong. Here's some more on the Koch Bros and the DLC sabrina 1 Dec 2011 #13
In January 2009 unionworks Dec 2011 #16
It wasn't possible to fight then. But now, maybe it is. sabrina 1 Dec 2011 #17
Great Idea unionworks Dec 2011 #18

Summer Hathaway

(2,770 posts)
10. Just translated that
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:55 AM
Dec 2011

on my Captain Midnight decoder ring.

Something about Ovaltine and seeing how far the envelope can be stretched.

 

nadinbrzezinski

(154,021 posts)
5. The DLC are neo liberals
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:18 AM
Dec 2011

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)
19. Neoliberalism in a nutshell
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:45 PM
Dec 2011

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)
6. You're right not to believe it. It's simple nuttiness.
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:30 AM
Dec 2011

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.

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
20. Yeah. Minor fad.
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 04:13 PM
Dec 2011

[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]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

deminks

(11,006 posts)
9. The DLC was hired by the US Chamber of Commerce under Tom Donahue
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:43 AM
Dec 2011

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.

 

unionworks

(3,574 posts)
12. I need time
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 04:18 AM
Dec 2011

...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)
13. Yes, something is very wrong. Here's some more on the Koch Bros and the DLC
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 04:27 AM
Dec 2011

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




But, here's a key piece of information: the Kochs haven't just given to right-wingers. Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect's Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC):

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)
16. In January 2009
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 12:15 PM
Dec 2011

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)
17. It wasn't possible to fight then. But now, maybe it is.
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:01 PM
Dec 2011

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)
18. Great Idea
Wed Dec 28, 2011, 03:45 PM
Dec 2011

It beats doing nothing. Let's hope it works. I tend to lean toward pessimism, but to do nothing is to accept defeat.

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