Now we are seeing the clash of the "activist class" and the "governing class" that was predicted...

[madfloridian]

by Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network NDN.

He predicted it in 2004 after the election. Simon was one of the founders of the DLC in the 1980s. His prediction was one of the most important views I have seen yet of the direction of the Democratic Party.

I have written about this before, but just seeing it play out so blatantly during the health care debate has been stunning.

We have seen it more clearly than ever lately during the debate over health care in the Senate. The divides showed clearly and distinctly. The "governing class" made us angry, but it made us sit up and take notice that some in our party were more interested in what the Republicans thought than what we on "the left" thought. Can you say Olympia Snowe?

That divide has shown itself during the debate over the changing face of public education. The happiest people over what the Democrats are doing are Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush who are seeing their dreams fulfilled for education...while teachers and unions are not so ecstatic.

Simon said it, and he was right.

There will be a clash between the activists and those who govern.

If there's a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, predicts Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, a moderate advocacy group, it won't be the usual skirmish between the liberals and moderates of the professional political class in Washington but one between the Washington insiders on one side and the rank-and-file activists spread out across the country on the other. "What's changed over the past two years is that activist Democrats believe that Republicans are venal people," says Rosenberg. These activists "are going to be very intolerant of Democrats in Washington who cooperate with the Republicans. There's going to be tremendous pressure to stand up and fight and not roll over and play dead."

What happens to the losing team?

There was more about these two groups from the New York Times in 2005.

More words from Simon Rosenberg.

What Dean's candidacy brought into the open, however, was another kind of
growing and powerful tension in Democratic politics that had little to do with ideology. Activists often describe this divide as being between "insiders" and "outsiders," but the best description I've heard came from Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic operative who runs the advocacy group N.D.N. (formerly New Democrat Network), which sprang from Clintonian centrism of the early 1990's. As Rosenberg explained it, the party is currently riven between its "governing class" and its "activist class." The former includes the establishment types who populate Washington - politicians, interest groups, consultants and policy makers. The second comprises "Net roots" Democrats on the local level; that is, grass-roots Democrats, many of whom were inspired by Dean and who connect to politics primarily online, through blogs or Web-based activist groups like MoveOn.org. The argument between the camps isn't about policy so much as about tactics, and a lot of Democrats in
Washington don't even seem to know it's happening.

Exactly right. A lot of Democrats in DC don't have a clue what is happening. In these words we see Rosenberg's true views coming through...activists are annoying. The reporter Matt Bai lets his own opinions slip into this article as well. Activists not well-loved by insiders...that's the message.

...."The activist class believes, essentially, that Democrats in Washington have damaged the party by trying to negotiate and compromise with Republicans - in short, by trying to govern. The "Net roots" believe that an effective minority party should disengage from the governing process and eschew new proposals or big ideas. Instead, the party should dedicate itself to winning local elections and killing each new Republican proposal that comes down the track. To the activist class, trying to cut deals with Republicans is tantamount to appeasement. In fact, Rosenberg, an emerging champion of the activist class, told me, pointing to my notebook: "You have to use the word 'appease.' You have to use it. Because this is like Neville Chamberlain."

Kind of sly to slip that in about "trying to govern."

Overall though, Rosenberg's view is spot on. We are seeing it now out in the open. The governing class wants to work without too much interference from outsiders like activists.