Possibly the only remotely bright spot from the vote to invade Iraq

[madfloridian]

If indeed there were/are any redeeming qualities at all about the vote to invade Iraq...one of them had to be that we began to realize our party's agenda was out of our control.

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.'”

I have looked everywhere for that full memo from 1985. I can't find it.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org:80/profile/1463

And more from the site about the founding.

"Since its founding, the DLC has aimed to subsume all Democrats under its ideological umbrella. But persistent (and resurgent) resistance to neoliberal prescriptions, neoconservative foreign policy, and social conservative domestic policies has curtailed DLC ambitions and obliged it to operate more as a powerful agenda-setting and lobbying group within the party. In effect, the DLC has focused on controlling the party's platform and leadership rather than on selling “big tent” politics to all Democratic Party constituencies."

Exactly right. They took over the party's agenda. That is the reason they have felt the need to be insulting so often to the activists of the party. They don't need or want us, they just want to control the agenda of the Democratic Party.

They are doing so.

Kenneth Baer in his book says they are still concentrating on becoming a main part of the party, not just doing the policy.

As Kenneth Baer observed in his book Reinventing Democrats, the DLC, after several clashes with the leadership of the party's progressives and traditional liberals, refined its mission to function as “an elite organization funded by elite—corporate and private—donors.” However, leading DLC voices such as Al From have continued to harbor hopes that the DLC and its think tank will one day constitute the core of the Democratic Party, not just a fifth column working within the party's elite.

Al From in 2003 put forth the ways the Democratic Party could NOT win. They are just amazing. Their tactics for winning are just so in opposition to reality in most areas.

National Purpose

Just the leading sentences from the paragraphs. Numbering for easier reference.

But there are any number of strategies that won't work for Democrats:

1."Democrats won't win a fund-raising contest with Bush." (We sure either did or came close)

2."Democrats won't win by polarizing the debate." (Yes, we can win that way)

(I have to inject this very misleading part from that paragraph here: "A recent Gallup poll revealed that on social issues, 37 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservatives, 23 percent as liberals. On economic issues, it's 43 percent conservatives, 15 percent liberals. Running to the short side of the field is not a winning strategy" End quote......Please notice there are no moderates listed at all. 40 and 42% left out...probably calling themselves moderates. Very Misleading, Al)

3."Democrats won't win by pandering to narrow interest or constituency groups. Resisting the demands of such groups is hard." (SO...we are pandering to THEIR narrow interest groups....:( )

4."Democrats won't win if they tolerate non-real candidates throughout the nominating process."(How insulting that From actually names their names)

And the ending paragraph by Al From.

Whether Lieberman has the chance to prove that will be decided by the primary voters. But the formula he has laid out for taking on the president is exactly the right one for a Democrat to follow

If it had not been for the vote to invade Iraq in 2002, many of us might never have noticed this agenda takeover. I also noticed the hijacking of my church about the same time.

So far this is the only good thing I have seen from this unjust invasion of a country that never hurt us. Awareness.