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Showing Original Post only (View all)The marginalization of "The Left" through the years. Not hearing us now at all. [View all]
As the Republicans catered to their right wing extremists, the Democrats made sure their left wing was not given much credence. In a way they were even preceding the time that Newt Gingrich and his GOPAC made liberal a bad word.
In 1985 at the formation of a Democratic policy think tank it was made clear whom they were going to target.
1985 Blueprint for reforming the party
In his "Saving the Democratic Party" memo of January 1985, From advocated the formation of a "governing council" that would draft a "blueprint" for reforming the party. According to From, the new leadership should aim to create distance from "the new bosses"-organized labor, feminists, and other progressive constituency groups-that were keeping the party from modernizing. From's memo sparked the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council in early 1985. According to Balz and Brownstein, "Within a few weeks, it counted 75 members, primarily governors and members of Congress, most of them from the Sunbelt, and almost all of them white; liberal critics instantly dubbed the group 'the white male caucus.'"
And there was a conference by them in 1986, where it was made even more clear what they thought about liberals.
In a 1986 conference on the legacy of the Johnson administrations "Great Society" initiatives, DLC chairman Gov. Charles Robb of Virginia took up the neoconservative critique of liberalism first articulated in the early 1970s by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Norman Podhoretz, and other neoconservatives. According to Robb, "While racial discrimination has by no means vanished from our society, it's time to shift the primary focus from racism the traditional enemy without to self-defeating patterns of behavior the enemy within." This speech signaled the end of the "New Politics" of the 1960s and 1970s in the Democratic Party and the rise of a new social conservatism in the party. Robb's speech opened room for Democratic Party stalwarts to back away from political agendas that proposed government initiatives to address poverty, discrimination, and crime, and to join the traditional conservatives and neoconservatives in opposing affirmative action, social safety-net programs, and job-creation initiatives. Thus, the New Democrats of the DLC added their voices to the chorus of those calling for stiffer prison sentences, an end to affirmative action, reduced welfare benefits, and less progressive tax policies.
Actually Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Dem Network, and a founder of the DLC said it even more plainly.
freed... from positions making it difficult for us to win. Simon Rosenberg.
"Simon Rosenberg, the former field director for the DLC who directs the New Democrat Network, a spin-off political action committee, says, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party. In that way," he adds, "they are ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win."
After Obama was elected, Al From wrote an op ed. He said that the anti-war people could not be allowed to control the party.
Recently, Al From, founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, used a front page New York Times story to warn Senator Obama and other Democratic leaders that, "the antiwar people cannot define the Democratic Party."
Al From is wrong, again.
For years, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has been warning the Democratic Party about the dangers of being associated with progressive values, ideas and policies. Time and again, their advice has proven disastrous.
The truth that From hopes we'll forget is that, after years of failure using the DLC's Republican-lite strategy, Democrats took back Congress in 2006 with a progressive, antiwar message. As the New York Times reported that fall, "the vast majority of House candidates in competitive races ran as Iraq war critics," as did all six new Democratic Senators.
Then they ran differently in 2010....and lost.
When Bruce Reed took over as chair in 2009, he declared the battle won. The battle against the left, that is.
Our party should cherish its left, its liberals...not speak condescendingly toward them.
The political mission of the DLC has been largely accomplished, said Reed, whos had the groups No. 2 post since 2001. Twenty-five years ago, the forgotten middle class had serious doubts about Democrats, and now Democrats are winning the middle class, suburban voters, moderates by handsome margins. Our next challenge is to deliver on that promise and earn those votes for years to come.
Notice he did not mention the rest of the Democratic party. Not a word about those on the left.
Evan Bayh had the nerve to say the Democratic party was being taken over by the left.
Bayh has a history of sparring with the left in his party. As chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council in 2003, he warned of then-rising presidential campaign of Howard Dean. The Democratic Party is at risk of being taken over by the far left, he told DLC members in 2003. We have an important choice to make: Do we want to vent, or do we want to govern?
Blanche Lincoln was very upset with the criticisms of the left in her last campaign. Her words were not very sympathetic.
In a new interview with The Hill, Sen. Blanche Lincoln -- facing a tough Democratic primary challenge funded by national progressives on Tuesday -- called out her opponents on the Democratic left wing. Lincoln said she is facing criticism from a political movement that she suggested is divorced from the political reality.
"Just like the far right, I think the far left also believes that you've got to be with them 100 percent of the time or you don't meet the test," Lincoln told the paper. "I don't think there's anybody that you're going to be with 100 percent of the time -- not and be true to your constituency. My first commitment here is to Arkansas."
Trouble is that the votes taken on a national level affect people throughout the country. We must speak out if we disagree.
There was on very insulting comment made about us in the 90s by Rob Shapiro, a VP of the group.
Seems the "intellectual leveraged buyout" of the Democratic party has worked quite well.
Rob Shapiro, the DLC VP at the time, and a Clinton advisor, spoke clearly about their purpose.
What we've done in the Democratic Party," explains institute Vice President Rob Shapiro, a Clinton economic adviser, "is an intellectual leveraged buyout." The DLC, presumably, is acting as arbitrageur, selling off unprofitable mind-sets to produce a lean and efficient philosophy for the "New Democrat," as DLCers call their slick bimonthly magazine.
Unprofitable mind-sets sold off to be more efficient. We have learned through the years that a whole lot of Democratic ideals were considered "unprofitable mind-sets"...and they had to go.
That's us liberals and progressives by the way.
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The marginalization of "The Left" through the years. Not hearing us now at all. [View all]
madfloridian
Mar 2013
OP
Let's get one thing straight from the get-go: What the MSM calls "The Left" is the middle.
NYC_SKP
Mar 2013
#1
what they call the 'far left' is the middle. what they call the left is the center-
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#7
+1 It is the American People, the 99 percent, who have been sold out.
woo me with science
Mar 2013
#77
In 2004 they delivered a slap in the face to huge numbers of caring people.
madfloridian
Mar 2013
#65
As Molly Ivins said he was a "fighting centrist". Not one who shut out a whole part of the party.
madfloridian
Mar 2013
#70
"stop assigning them more power than they have" I'd like to suggest part of how that mistake is
patrice
Mar 2013
#182
During the buildup to the IWar, the centrist couldnt wait to kiss Bush's behind.
rhett o rick
Mar 2013
#209
I think the oligarch overlords have politics right where they want it. We have a wacko right wing
rhett o rick
Mar 2013
#221
"If liberal Democrats stood up and fought hard, the Party could be made to move left. Playing the
rhett o rick
Mar 2013
#103
simply, you've been anti Dem since Dean flamed out (though it wasn't his fault, it was the media).
dionysus
Mar 2013
#128
Truth about the shellackings of leftish Presidential candidates........
socialist_n_TN
Mar 2013
#163
You are correct: The Powell Manifesto set out the entire plan. Nixon's appointee to
loudsue
Mar 2013
#83
Don't forget the "think tanks" and the Federalist Society. They've gone about a very successful
SleeplessinSoCal
Mar 2013
#22
I've got a wee bit of hope owing to the very dedicated base of Occupy Wall Street
SleeplessinSoCal
Mar 2013
#18
only a couple weeks ago I heard one of the Sunday morning infotainment
Douglas Carpenter
Mar 2013
#20
I like your screen name. I may have to change mine to include socialist.
liberal_at_heart
Mar 2013
#93
The Leninist model is the only one that has been proven to actually.....
socialist_n_TN
Mar 2013
#159
yes the Leninist model is the only model that has actually taken capitalism down and was able to
Douglas Carpenter
Mar 2013
#172
I think the true American Left was tied to Unions and economic issues, now they mostly represent
whathehell
Mar 2013
#23
I don't recall anyone promoting that dichotomy, and it's definitely a wrongheaded idea,
whathehell
Mar 2013
#41
Guess what? Those like Elizabeth Warren, who voted for Ronald Reagan & 41 killed the unions
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#30
Guess what?...I was a living, breathing, thinking adult during that time and no one I knew
whathehell
Mar 2013
#40
Yes, and as I understand it, she was quite liberal in college but that's changed.
whathehell
Mar 2013
#49
Any discussion of the 1980 election that does not include the words "hostage crisis" and...
JHB
Mar 2013
#51
Yes...In fact it was not long ago at all that BOTH parties called Social Security "The 3rd Rail"...
whathehell
Mar 2013
#215
Yes, I think you're right. I'm a member of Progressive Democrats of America
whathehell
Mar 2013
#219
If it is liberal democrats' fault for social justice issues losses, who's fault is it that we have
liberal_at_heart
Mar 2013
#33
you better believe actions have consequences and just as you blame me for social issue losses I
liberal_at_heart
Mar 2013
#35
JFK so truely said "Ask NOT what your country can do for you, ask what YOU can do"
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#39
Liberals could make that demand of centrists if Liberals/the Left could SUCCEED. They don't succeed
patrice
Mar 2013
#198
I remember too. & If HHH had won, Nixon wouldn't have split Labor & choked all of the poorer unions
patrice
Mar 2013
#199
A lot of us in my generation remember how the unions were largely pro-Vietnam war
Fumesucker
Mar 2013
#32
Considering my age and where I live the likelihood of me ever being in a union is nil
Fumesucker
Mar 2013
#95
I think he said pretty clearly that the unions were for the Vietnam war....
socialist_n_TN
Mar 2013
#72
The Democratic party will continue to swing to the right as long as the left lets them,
MadHound
Mar 2013
#44
They are the victim. The people quoted in the OP made them victims. Deliberately.
madfloridian
Mar 2013
#59
+1 THAT's what keeps what calls itself "the Left" marginalized & hence from becoming what would
patrice
Mar 2013
#203
When the left fights back by not voting for the centrists the centrists claim 'victimhood".
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#119
K&R The Democratic party now seems like just a branch of the Republican party.
forestpath
Mar 2013
#48
oh, wow. I have heard of the progressive caucus but had no idea there were 70.
liberal_at_heart
Mar 2013
#88
They have been trying to communicate about their budget proposal. Petition link in my post #205
patrice
Mar 2013
#206
Yet, the 3rd Way/DLC types still expect us to vote for their candidates and blame us when they lose.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#75
The democratic party has left the poor people behind and they embrace corporate
southernyankeebelle
Mar 2013
#85
Reed: "Our next challenge is to deliver on that promise (to the middle class)"
progressoid
Mar 2013
#99
Alex Cary documented the 'leveraged buy-out' of Mass Media in his History of Propaganda...
Octafish
Mar 2013
#102
Maria Gilardin is TOPS and TUC Radio is an amazing resource, an antidote to MSM...
Octafish
Mar 2013
#180
I loved Kucinich. Everyone laughed at him but he was one of the only ones with the courage
liberal_at_heart
Mar 2013
#108
Democrats know that they do not have to earn our vote...that it's already locked in
davidn3600
Mar 2013
#124
Pres.Obama is the #1 greatest president since LBJ.MOST democratic voters LOVE HIM
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#151
"Hey, Hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" Weren't words of love for a "great" president.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#166
Eisenhower started the war. Soundbytes sound nice, but are very misguided, dontchathink?
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#167
And, your "liberal" hero escalated it to the point of killing millions and refused to end it.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#170
What a whitewashing of history. LBJ was far to the left of McCarthy & McGovern put together.
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#175
Oh, right. LBJ was a real peacenik. "Losing was not an option." But, he did lose.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#185
1968 showed what happened (prior to 2000) when some 3rd party ruined things.
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#207
Very well done, thank you for posting on this issue, you missed very little, the Koch connection
Dragonfli
Mar 2013
#137
What is described here is just the latest installment of purging the left from US politics.
limpyhobbler
Mar 2013
#142
I believe the military has been running the country since Truman stood up to
mountain grammy
Mar 2013
#179
AGREE! That was demonstrated also because Henry Wallace lost the nomination to Truman.
patrice
Mar 2013
#183
Not that Al From cares, but liberals hold him in even more contempt than he holds us
Samantha
Mar 2013
#191
The marginalization of the left is made easy by rigid, zealous ideologues...
Generation_Why
Mar 2013
#204