"Progressive" does not mean what many seem to think it means.

[No Elephants]

The DLC started as a group of forty-three elected officials and two staffers, Al From and Will Marshall, and shared their predecessor's goal of reclaiming the Democratic Party from the left's influence prevalent since the late 1960s. Their original focus was to secure the 1988 presidential nomination of a southern conservative Democrat such as Nunn or Robb. After the success of Jesse Jackson, a vocal critic of the DLC, in winning a number of southern states in 1988's "Super Tuesday" primary, the group began to shift its focus towards influencing public debate. In 1989, Marshall founded the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank which has since turned out policy blueprints for the DLC. Its most extensive series of papers is the series of New Economy Policy

<snip>

2003 invasion of Iraq

The DLC gave strong support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the war, Will Marshall co-signed a letter to President Bush from the Project for the New American Century endorsing military action against Saddam Hussein. During the 2004 Primary campaign the DLC attacked Presidential candidate Howard Dean as an out-of-touch liberal because of Dean's anti-war stance. The DLC dismissed other critics of the Iraq invasion such as filmmaker Michael Moore as members of the "loony left".<14> Even as domestic support for the Iraq War plummeted in 2004 and 2005, Marshall called upon Democrats to balance their criticism of Bush's handling of the Iraq War with praise for the President's achievements and cautioned "Democrats need to be choosier about the political company they keep, distancing themselves from the pacifist and anti-American fringe."<15>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council

(As an aside: I call bullshit on the paragraph of the wiki article that I quoted as the first paragraph, above. The Democratic Party IS the l"eft and the Democrats of the 1960's were certainly no more "left" than the Communists and unionists who voted Democratic in the 1920s and 1930's. You don't "reclaim" the Democratic Party from the left. You simply turn the Democrat Party into GOP lite for the very first time.)



Will Marshall went on to found the Progressive Policy Institute, which calls itself the place for "pragmatic progressives." The website of the DLC featured and promoted many of his writings and the writings of others who wrote for the Progressive Policy Institute.

ProgressiveFix.com is the new face of an outfit that’s been around for two decades: the Progressive Policy Institute. Younger readers may not know that PPI was the main purveyor of policy innovations to Bill Clinton’s New Democrats — break-the-mold ideas that also migrated to Britain and other democratic countries around the world under the rubric of the “third way.”

Those ideas are now woven into America’s civic fabric: national service; a social policy that expects and rewards work; a “shared responsibility” model for universal health care now embraced by President Obama; performance-based and fiscally responsible government; a “second generation” of environmental policies that move beyond command-and-control regulation; public charter schools and accountability in education; and a tough-minded progressive internationalism that harnesses America’s strength to defend liberal democracy.

http://progressivepolicy.org/about-us/who-we-are

Will Marshall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Will Marshall is one of the founders of the New Democrat movement, which aims to steer the US Democratic Party toward a more conservative orientation. Since its founding in 1989, he has been president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council.

He recently served on the board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization chaired by Joe Lieberman (I) and John McCain (R) designed to build support for the invasion of Iraq. Marshall also signed, at the outset of the war, a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) expressing support for the invasion. Marshall signed a similar letter sent to President Bush put out by the Social Democrats USA on Feb. 25, 2003, just before the invasion. The SDUSA letter urged Bush to commit to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Marshall

IOW, Will Marshall, a co-founder of the DLC and the founder and President of the Progressive Policy Institute is barely distinguishable from a neocon; and "progressive" means DLC-style. "Progressive does not mean "liberal" or anything close to it.

While campaigning 2007-08, both Hillary Clinton and Obama have dubbed themselves and/or their policies as "progressive."

I believe they meant the term "progressive" exactly as the the DLC intended the word "progressive" to be used. I also think the DLC was very happy to have the word "progressive" misunderstood by classic and liberal Democrats; and none of the DLC or Hillary or Obama are in any rush to clear up that misunderstanding.

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. Yeah, talk to any affluent progressive and you'll realize they've successfuly redefined the term

In the minds of most people using it to mean:

pocketbook progressives.

I.e. affluent members of the "information class" who vote liberal down the line on social issues and are solidly opposed to traditional liberal values on economic issues.

The only thing separating them from the right-wing libertarians (Ron Paul fans) is that they are Statists. Which is admittedly a pretty big thing.

The only thing separating them from the Constitutionalists (Tea Party) is their hatred for right-wing social values. Which is again a big thing.

So you have an entirely new ideological landscape with these three groups competing for oxygen with a fourth group, the right-wing 1% bipartisan Permanent Government Elite. As first described by an ex-republican lobbyist turned populist -- but also by Thomas Frank (back when he was a radical populist writing for the Baffler -- both of which writers have since been co-opted by the Party machine, of course, following the purge of Deaniacs from the party machine.)

Occupy is a necessary fifth faction. Radical populism.

[No Elephants]

2. Interesting but I don't think they are all necessarily Statists.

I think that write up is assuming a universal degree of self awarness and a knowledge of poliitics that may be well beyond what occurs in most cases.

I also think that saying all affluent Democrats are all one way is a mistake as well. That tends not to be how the world actually works.

Many people, Democratic or not, never heard of the DLC and don't realize how the Democratic Party has changed, or maybe they know in some vague way that the Party or politics has changed, but don't know why. I peronally broke the news to a summa cum laude graduate of Barnard who reads a minimum of two newspapers a day, one of them being the NYT and also watches TV news daily. So, I am not talking about only dummies or folk who are, in general, uninformed.

Many people pick a political party based upon parents or extended family or friends made up to senior year in college. I am guessing some lovers of the DLC are in that category.

It's not that they love the DLC per so, but it's a matter of "My Party: may she always be right, but, right or wrong, my Party." They would no more think of switching absolute and total political loyalties than a kid who grew up in Boston thinks about becoming a Yankee fan.

And the DLC happens to be in charge of the Party now, which they may or my not realize. (The opposite can also occur--a Party chosen in rebellion against parents, extended family, etc.)

Many are Democrats because they are repulsed by the religious or social or economic agenda of the Republicans, or some combination of those three things.

I think some of the prominent Republicans who endorsed Obama in 2008 ("Obamicans") are in that category--and the switch was made easier by the degree to which Democrats have become similar to old time Republicans.

If you are to the right of Nixon on a number of issues, maybe it's not so hard for a Julie Nixon Eisenhower or Nixon offspring to endorse you, let alone a Michael Smerconish. Heck, even Dead Intern Joe Scarborough has been talking recently about how the Party is to his right on the trans vaginal probe thing and the contraception issue.

And so on. And some people. like me, have bits and pieces of all of the above. If I am a statist, it's because "my" Party is associated with that, not the other way around. (I chose the Democratic Party very long before I ever heard the word "statism.")

Anyway, for purposes of this thread, it is important to know that the current powers that be in the Democratic Party do not mean "liberal" when they say "progressive."

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. I'm sort of left-libertarian, but I believe strongly in civil society and the public commons

I guess that makes me a "civil libertarian". ;-)

So when I pontificate about Statists I'm usually referring to the increasing trend (starting with post-60s yuppies but accellerating with the millennial generation after the brief Gen X interregnum -- my generation was, if nothing else, civil libertarians) of anti-civil libertarianism... of basically endorsing the notion that the gov't is there to take proactive action to protect the property rights of the majority against the interests of the down-and-out -- "deadbeats" as they are now termed in Party circles. In business these folks are known as "late adopters". In a monopolistic economy you can use carrot and stick strategy to COMPEL deadbeats to purchase the exact same product that the majority has endorsed. the Party and local officials is simply adopting similar techniques. With the rise of homeowners associations the two actually come together.

[No Elephants]

4. I know wiki is not perfect but you might try glancing at the article on statism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statism

I am not sure today's right is much more or much less statist than what passes for today's left.