The neoconservatism strain of Democrats actively oppose "The Left".

[madfloridian]

They never appear to define "The Left", but I believe that under that label they include everyone who opposes them. I believe advocates of that group label me "The Left", and thus find me necessary to ignore. Actually with my Southern Baptist, southern heritage, strong religious background...I would be the last they should label that way.

But Iraq changed things.

I believe a lot of those who are the nicer than Bush form of "those who push empire and the spreading of democracy."...are in think tanks and in one or two in particular.

The Right Web site has covered a lot of these groups. The one mentioned here is the Progressive Policy Institute, aka PPI.

Progressive Policy Intitute

Please note the tabs at the top. They share a website with the DLC. A partner group of theirs is the Third Way.

The Third Way

I believe this is why our party is not any more eager to get out of Iraq than the Republicans. I believe they are in control. I believe they have the media on their side because war is profitable for corporations, and corporations in large part own the media.

I believe qualified candidates are kept out of races because they are not pro-spreading democracy...or to say it more harshly...not more pro-war. I believe things happened in the 04 primary, and perhaps in the other presidential races. If the power Democrats had wanted the votes counted....they would have been counted in a heartbeat.

I believe primary games were played and won by this group because the rest of us are not able to stop them....yet. The media on your side is a powerful tool.

Florida primary races manipulated

The gist of that post is that anti-war, pro-choice candidates were booted out so those who were able to be groomed by the leadership were put in.

Here is some of the coverage at Right Web.

Right Web coverage of PPI

“Don't look now, but neoconservatism is making a comeback—and not among the Republicans who have made it famous, but in the Democratic Party,” declared writer Jacob Heilbrunn in a May 28, 2006 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. In “Neocons in the Democratic Party.”

..."Concluded Heilbrunn: “It is amusing to see that at the very moment when hawkish realists are trying to extirpate the neocon credo in the Republican Party, it's being revived in the Democratic Party that first brought it to life.”

PPI, founded in 1989 by Marshall and Al From, is a project of the Third Way Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. As the think tank for the Democratic Leadership Council, the PPI says its mission “arises from the belief that America is ill-served by an obsolete left-right debate that is out of step with the powerful forces reshaping our society and economy.” PPI claims to advocate “a philosophy that adapts the progressive tradition in American politics to the realities of the information age and points to a ‘third way' beyond the liberal impulse to defend the bureaucratic status quo and the conservative bid to simply dismantle government.”

I agree it is no longer a left-right debate, but a debate between right and wrong and good and evil. Yes, good and evil. Invading and bombing the hell out of a country that never harmed us is evil.

More on their hawkish nature and their contempt toward "The Left", that ephemeral group that remains undefined.

In June 2006, PPI president Marshall opined in the Democratic Strategist that Democrats needed to “raid the red zone” and win over Republican voters. “Security will continue to dominate national politics for the foreseeable future. It is axiomatic that the American people are not likely to give power to a party they do not trust to defend their values and keep them safe,” Marshall wrote. “Democrats therefore must close the national security confidence gap that has dogged them since the era of Vietnam protests. This requires reclaiming, not abandoning, the party's venerable tradition of muscular liberalism—the Truman-Kennedy legacy that helped America win the Cold War. Updated for new threats, it offers the best answer to the challenge of Islamist extremism today.” Marshall suggests three specific tactics: “We must put security first—and mean it … Second, Democrats must convince the public that we are ready to take over the fight against Islamist extremism … Third, Democrats must recognize that since 9/11, patriotism has become the most potent values issue in U.S. politics” (Democratic Strategist, June 22, 2006).

And the Left:

According to its press release, PPI's security strategy “takes issue with left-wing activists who routinely call for deep cuts in military spending, reflexively oppose the use of force, and embrace an anti-trade, anti-globalization agenda that would damage the U.S. economy and condemn developing nations to perpetual poverty.” From the report itself: “Progressive internationalism occupies the vital center between the neo-imperial right and the non-interventionist left, between a view that assumes that our might always makes us right and one that assumes that because America is strong it must be wrong.”

There is one more paragraph in this very long article, one that especially concerns me.

In a January 2004 article titled “Stay and Win in Iraq,” Marshall took a blithely nationalist view of body counts in a war in which most of the dead are Iraqi civilians. “Coalition forces still face daily attacks but the body count tilts massively in their favor,” wrote Marshall, a leading voice for the liberal hawks in the United States (Blueprint, January 8, 2004).

The Iraqi dead are seemingly unimportant. I think the same ones who were hawkish for the Iraq invasion and bombing are alive and well in our party. I fear we might only get words to pacify us, and no action on stopping the war. Because it is after all what they wanted.

[lostnotforgotten]

1. Some At DU Don't Want To See The Obvious!

eom

[ShortnFiery]

2. Well put. The people they have on cable news ID'd as "democratic strategists"

would have been considered moderate republicans if we had a machine that could time-zap us back to the 1970s.

Thanks for your clear and thoughtful commentary.

[Major Hogwash]

3. Don't even need to go that far back in time, it smells like the mid-80's to me

When we got our asses handed to us twice by Reagan.

[OHdem10]

4. American Enterprise Institute is what I call the bastion of NeoCons

I resent how they flippantly throw out that --"The Left".as if
it some disease.

Then I tell myself--these people are so disconnected, they
do not know who makes up the Party any more.

I am left of Center and proud of it. At least I am a Democrat.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. check out this book The Argument. I've heard about it and it is about

the party and the split inside the party between progressives and DLC types and the fight for the control of the party.
I have not read it but, the reviews on Amamzon is encouraging.

http://www.amazon.com/Argument-Billionaires-Bloggers-De...

[whistle]

50. That would be the Felix G. Rohatyn influence over the DLC

....Rohatyn is certainly a Nazi and problematic for the democratic party. His money will be used to desecrate the party and all the traditions for working class people the party has stood for over the past 75 years.

[unkachuck]

6. great post!

....a show-down between the war-corporatists/profiteers and us for control of the Party is coming....sooner the better....they want to take our money and votes then place us back in our box, out-of-sight....

....let's get-it-on so we'll know what to do....if there's no hope in the Old Democratic Party for peace, people and the common welfare, then it's time to build the New Democratic Party....

[melody]

7. Great post -- thanks for making it

[madfloridian]

8. They encouraged Dems to give Bush all the power on surveillance.

I just remembered this. I was really surprised to see it posted at the DLC. They said to forget how wrong Bush had been in the past and just give him what he needed to eavesdrop on us.

Idea of the Week: Fighting Terrorism Within the Rule of Law

...."We see no particular value in dwelling on the administration's past behavior.

...""For their part, Democrats should focus less on hashing over the administration's past behavior, and focus more on working with responsible Republicans to set new and reasonable rules for the new war that began on 9/11.

..."..."Democrats should take the position that they are happy to give the administration all the legal authority it wants and needs in exchange for accepting responsibility for actual results. "

There is more at the link. Just give Bush all he wants. That is whatthey said.

[AtomicKitten]

9. "Democrats should take the position that they are happy ..."

... and not focus on the administration's past behavior????"

Wow! That's a great idea. Not.

[madfloridian]

12. Don't worry be happy...give Bush all he wants.

It alarmed me when I read that.

[stimbox]

10. Awesome post!

Thanks for doing the research.

[killbotfactory]

11. They are a fifth column

bottom line. I have no tolerance for their neocon/Bush/right-wing apologist bullcrap. We followed their advice in the nineties, lost race after race, and it nearly ruined the democratic party. If Dean hadn't of shook things up so much in 2004, we'd still be following their worthless advice.

[ShortnFiery]

13. A good ole' Democratic KICK for the morning crowd.

[LWolf]

14. This is the divide I see widening by day.

When we aren't satisfied with words intended to pacify us, when we insist on actual action, when we hold Democrats accountable for democratic principles, we are labeled enemies of the party.

I don't think we are enemies of the party; I think we are the last line of defense against evolution into a party of Orwellian neoconservatives.

[madfloridian]

32. The divide does appear to be getting worse.

Really worrisome.

[LWolf]

37. It is SO worrisome

that I really believe that this is the political crisis of this decade. It is more important than who "wins" any election. If the new "third way" Democratic Party "wins," just what have we won?

If the Democratic Party becomes the neoconservative party, there's no point in putting them in office.

I think we need to do address this NOW, before it's too late.

[robinlynne]

42. terrifying. intersting that they mention going after republican votes, instead of moving

to the left, where the base is. And that strategy of wanting republican votes is what makes congress do more and more damage, time after time. For so long, I've wanted to scream every time they say we need more republican votes. We do not. But now it makes some sense.

[LWolf]

59. It makes a dreadful, sick kind of sense.

There's more than one way to purge the base right out of the party and replace it with a more conservative base.

[hootinholler]

15. THIS

Is why I cannot support Hillary.

-Hoot

[Totally Committed]

16. I agree. THIS

is the main reason I can't support Hillary.

She and her ilk are triangulated so far to the Right that when I hear one of those DLC talking heads on a news show "representing" the Democratic Party, I am disgusted. They sound so much like Republicans it makes me sick. Their "Bi-Partisanship", collusion with/abetting of the other side has left us weaker, and unable to pass a decent piece of legislation... maybe even PROPOSE a decent piece of legislation. I have to laugh when people say we need to elect Mrs. Clinton because of the SCOTUS. What makes anyone here think these mealy-mouthed, equivocating, bargaining losers will even GET their pick through a minority Congress? Think about it. The Bush Dogs/Blue Dogs will torpedo anyone even remotely to the left of Attila the Hun! But, the rest of the "Democrats" here will have to see that for themselves, I guess. Then they can apologize to the rest of us who saw this train-wreck coming, and tired to convince them, but they just aided the takeover of this Party by those on the Right.

Unless we can stop it now, it's coming w/ a Clinton Presidency, and then they will have hi-jacked the Party for the forseeable future.

TC

[endarkenment]

17. You misspelled 'stain'. nt.

[eallen]

18. Politics is multi-dimensioned. Parties are two. Deal.

Without taking a breath, it's pretty easy to name several major dimensions of American politics: civil liberties, government practices and accountability, economic policy, social policy, foreign policy. A person's views in one area do not well predict their views elsewhere. Because of the mechanics of our electoral system, these views all get mapped, badly, into two major political parties. Which means there is considerable range of views within each party. That's political life here in the US.

In my estimation, the GOP has greater political unity at the moment. Not total. But greater. That provides it some advantage: it's why a president like Bush can retain a faithful base of 25%. But that also carries disadvantage. The independents in this electoral cycle are pretty disgusted with that, and together we're going to give the GOP one tremendous smack down in 2008.

BTW, even on a single issue, people on the same side disagree. There are any number of reasons for opposing the Iraq war:

* Because the Bush administration initiated it and sold it with a patchwork of lies.

* Because the occupation was badly planned and managed.

* Because, as a pacifist, one opposes all war.

* Because it is not in the strategic interest of the US.

* Because it forwards global capitalism.

* Because it was a distraction from the war on Al Qaeda.

* Because it strengthened Iran.

Two individuals who oppose the Iraq war may do so for completely different reasons, and what one sees as the primary reason for opposing it, the other sees as one of the war's few pluses.

[NoFederales]

19. "...America is ill-served by an obsolete left-right debate that is out of

step with the powerful forces reshaping our society and economy.” And how scary is this? It shows just how irrelevant the citizens of the US really are to these so-called leaders.

NoFederales

[YOY]

20. But but but I'm obviously a far-leftists!

I'm for the medical care system adopted by most of the world and not in the hands of profit making corporations. I believe in protecting our nation's industry and workers from the threat of off shoring. I am against the military industrial complex and would prefer to see an investment in education and infrastructure.

You know, a total commie...

[Dr Fate]

55. If you agree with the majority and oppose wars based on lies, you are also "far-left." n/t

n/t

[PATRICK]

21. Left out

more than "left". The left out include Labor, any core group with actual people and people interest involved, any concern for justice or rights.

But let's take a "far left" issue. The state ownership of enterprises affecting the public infrastructure and welfare. The people the DLC proposes to disdain can barely fight the DLC approved looting, privatization, and incompetence. So bad it is, approaching 19th century institutional robbery and decay, that having the government run health care(only generally proposed for the insurance end of the industry) is necessary because of the dangerous and murderous failure of the private for profit model. That is not ideolgue elitists' principle but dealing with reality without presuming that government is naturally more fit to control everything on principle unless the citizenry exercises due oversight and massive participation. Trust no one one much less the greediest most murderous exploiters and unregulated crooks. It is not about one elite(RW greedaholics) matched against dogmatic socialist elites engineering a passive system. It is about progressive populism, participation and the public good- facing specific crises and specific private enterprises that have moved beyond the natural failure stage to actual cancerous threats to both nation and most individuals. And to their own purported capitalist underpinnings.

The "far left" is only the territory the people have been pushed toward in order to mount an effort to respond and regain control of their lives and societies. WE created the main strength of communism among the despairing exploited peopels of latin America. It is not doctrinaire. It is more Darwinian than the fantasy island crowd of remote exploitation enthusiasts. Reality. People. This is why in actual political skills and performance and in economic policies and legislative prowess those disdainful of both reality and the people are so bungling, irritable and irritating and incompetent. And losers compared to dedicated criminals. The clowns wear the big shoes so they won't fall over. They think it makes them powerful kickers and that the horns on their belts give them god voices. Too dysfunctional to see the reality. Just clowns posing absurdly as "new" elites crunched between amused plutocrats and unamused plebeians. Not dressed for the occasion of responsibility or irresponsible power. Hiding behind the tyrant's guns.

They choose what to prop and what to despise. What reality to recognize. It is always shallow, often false, always shortsighted, often dumb, always insulting, often vicious. The common wisdom about patriotism after long and bitter weariness with its various reincarnations accompanying fear and falseness is that granting it overweaning respect is just plain stupid. The fact that the poor participate, give money online, that people protest the war and have a majority support of reform agendas and responsible taxation, and despise the core and false flag values that fraudulent GOpers manipulate with media support, that people KNOW things the elite doesn't concern its imaginative powers with... those are all embarrassments rewarded with silence, fear and distrust, disdain, betrayal and absurd movement to full DINO status rather than lead the party even in their wonted semblance.

If the people were that far left these false leaders would the first concern, the ones worth purging and crying to heaven for jobs as toll booth operators. Then, if they were taking our money, we'd know our highways might have a chance of being repaired. A tangible social benefit, a real citizen worker self respect, rather than an intangible disguise of being "new" Democrats. The few, the loud, the maroons.

[stimbox]

22. Kick!!!!

[Vidar]

23. Another great post, madfloridian. Recommended.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

24. Yup, there it is.

It's shitty having to fight a war against corporatism on two fronts -- one being in your own damned party.

[antigop]

35. Yup, it's "shitty having to fight a war against corporatism on two fronts". Yup, it is. n/t

[rudy23]

25. This is the new paradigm in American politics. The real left, vs. the sellout left. (or Third Way)

The true left will not be represented in DC anytime soon. The sellout left is the faction that takes impeachment off the table, funds the Iraq war, and wants to perform surveillance on every U.S. citizen.

[madfloridian]

26. Fringe, nutroots, loony left...

All words used too freely by our own party. Many here at DU use them freely in their posts and at their own blogs.

Centrism is God.

If you are not on board with the moral center, sensible center, and I forget all the other names...your opinion does not count.

Nutroots was a term used first at a DLC blog. Kind of insulting.

[Zodiak]

27. Yeah...the language is reminiscient of freepers.

It's the one thing that DLC-types and freepers agree on....that "the left" has no place in American politics.

Their adherents plague my ignore list because they are just too insulting to debate in good faith.

[nikto]

36. Centrism...

...does not actually exist (except in a few people's minds).

In actuality, in today's America,

CENTRISM="LEAN-RIGHTISM"


So the term has no actual meaning anymore (if it ever did).

[Johnny Noshoes]

44. Sign me up..

If fringe nutroots loony left means in favor of single payer national health insurance, a rational foreign policy based on reason as opposed to fear knowing that force is the last option not the first because the first person to use a gun is the one who has run out of ideas, that people need jobs that pay a living wage and if all the decent paying jobs are shipped offshore how do you survive as a civil society and so much more - well then sign me up for the fringe nutroots loony left brigades.

[Dr Fate]

56. I could name the DUers who insulted those opposed to the war with those names.

It was also what they callled people who supported the Alito Filibuster, impeachmnet talk or who wanted elected DEMS to talk about election fraud-etc,etc.

It was insulting to me b/c I'm actually pretty moderate- I just believe that supporting wars based on lies and FIGHTING rightwingers rather than caving to them (AKA "Dry Powder") isnt "centrist" at all- it's helping the far-right.

These currenty active DUers also "used to" support the war and "used to" support Joe Lieberman (I-3rd party)-so they tell me.

I'll stop short of naming them as not to excite the mods too much.

[Progressive Friend]

28. Excellent post

[Me.]

29. This Info Needs To Be Repeated & Repeated

Until it's common knowledge. Excellent 'recap'.

[AntiFascist]

30. K&R, Democrats have their own brand of neocon...

they are called neoliberals.

[puebloknot]

31. Great, informative post. Thanks for the hard work! Appreciated. nt

[bonito]

33. Great post! It's exactly whats going on

And there are a minority here on DU with that BIG MOUTH agenda as well.

[antigop]

34. Oh, my, madfloridian -- I wish I could recommend multiple times. Well done...

So glad there are others who have figured it out.

[madfloridian]

38. Hey, I don't mind...

if you can figure out the recommends.

I think we should be alarmed.

[jcrew2001]

39. The word "liberal" is a dangerous word for many people

because it automatically implies "Revolutionary Change" that many Americans may not be ready for or want.

I think Progressive is a strong and powerful label, that signifies a willingness to progressively change/improve at a moderately acceptable pace. After all, Teddy Roosevelt labeled himself a progressive.

Just as in the GOP, the Dem Party has a more moderate/social-conservative wing and a more liberal wing.

As much as I have a distaste for "conservatism" I can see why centrist voters would choose doing nothing and keeping things the same versus transformational change.

I just think humans are lazy by nature unless change is absolutely needed.

[tomp]

40. ya think?

actually, this goes waaaay back. nothing new. "centrists", hawks, and "moderates" have always dominated the progressive left.

[Forkboy]

41. Some dems care about winning but not what they're winning for.

Useless and scary leeches who will wreck the world if given the chance, as surely as Bush is, only slower.

[ProudDad]

43. Kick

From the "far left"!

[Norrin Radd]

45. kick

[NoFederales]

46. Kick

NoFederales

[L0oniX]

47. Indeed ...and the neoconservative democrats are on DU as well

[valerief]

48. If you can't beat 'em, become 'em. nt

[whistle]

49. Who are these neoconservative democrats, give us names, faces

...and let us examine what they say, vote on and most importantly who they associate with. The democratic party does not need to be infiltrated with FIFTH COLUMN Nazi types. This goes way beyond DINO!

[donkeyotay]

51. Maybe we should start our own Left Behind series

I'm not getting any younger, and the Greatest Generation is dying off, but what I know of that generation, people who served in the military, were lifelong Republicans, they wouldn't subscribe to what our country has become let alone what the Republican party has become. And, if you read the words of what used to be the Left, heck, they were so more radical than even today's Left is. If the world moves any further right, we're going to fall off the solar system.

Thanks for the post. K&R

[cachukis]

52. Good post.

Lot's of money in Florida.

Cachukis

[ChiciB1]

53. Thanks Madfloridian... You Continually Work Your Butt Off For The

good of the people. I admire you for ALL the information you present and applaud all your effort!

My only problem with this is... because I've seen/read so many of your posts, and my sentiments are all on your side, I'm TOTALLY DEPRESSED! My anger keeps building and my fear is ever present. Most of all, even with all the information I feel there IS NO HOPE!

We are "leaderless" and we seem to be almost invisible to those in power, and the Democratic Party has morphed into "more of the same"! Steny Hoyer says "he's MAD at the base" of the Democrats and we're supposed to just sit back and take a good whack because we THOUGHT our Party was different! If this is what they have become, then I don't know who to identify with!

I keep seeing endless LISTS that people post here stating that all of these INFLUENTIAL people support Hillary Clinton, so tell me WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE this "left of center" person???

[madfloridian]

57. I know what you mean. I find it depressing also.

I told my hubby the other day that I always wrote depressing stuff it seemed, though I did not mean it to be.

He said I made a difference on the Florida primary issue, and not to forget just one voice can get attention to a subject. But it is depressing to a pretty sedate, moderate, really kind of oldfashioned person like me to be spoken of by my own party as a lefty. Not that I mind being called a lefty, just that they don't even see who all of us really are.

They do it here in our area to anyone who speaks out.

I figure as long as they put us down, someone will have to call attention to it. But it is not pleasant. Hang in there.

[Dr Fate]

54. The DLC's support for Joe Lieberman (I-3rd party) -and oppositon to Lamont (D) proves this as well.

And dont let DU's own DlCers lie to you about it- they supported Joe Lieberman after he threatened to run as a 3rd party if Lamont won. They also defended Joe's actions from time to time even after we won his seat as a member of a 3rd party.

As a fun experiment, ask them about it- it's funny as hell to watch them play Judas to their boy- they will deny their support for this conservative 3rd party threat and eventual run up and down.

In any event many, most high-ranking DEMS of the DLC, including their top man, Harold Ford even endorsed Joe AGAINST Lamont (D), the DEM nominee.

I love to remind DU's high & mighty DLCers of these facts.

[autorank]

58. Look what happened to progressives in Florida 2006. How many

got funded? Neocons & others oppose progressives. They claim it's because the progressives don't meet fund raising requirements to make them contenders or because they have an opponent. Does Bowman have an opponent in his district for 2008, Russell in his, Frank Gonzales in his? Of course, they all did pretty good on NO money from FDP but this time, instead of using their name recognition, there's now a primary opponent, one more reason to not give money.

[stimbox]

60. Bounce

[redqueen]

61. What are you gonna do? Vote green?

Neener Neener Neener!

God this shit makes me so sick...

Great post. I'm about out of hope waiting for more of the dem electorate to wake the hell up.

[ShortnFiery]

62. Same old intimidation mantra that rears it's ugly head every two years.

You know, it rings hollow since, IMO, the DLC has hijacked our beloved party for over a decade. This time we say "Hell NO! We will not submit." Go ahead and blame the base for not winning - that should work.

[madfloridian]

63. The Senate spoke against free speech today.

And none of us were surprised at the ones who did it.

[nealmhughes]

64. Come now, the DLC is invitation ONLY. That means they are right . . .right?

Not for we mere mortals who are uninitiated to question our betters! We loony leftists are simpletons who think we can have our cake and eat it too! Not in touch with reality. . .moonbats. . . simplistic working people and intellectuals, the worst mixture in history!

No, a diaper wearing old washed up actor pulled a fast one on the US because we ran a guy with dignity and it didn't work out well for us, then a guy of whom hardly anyone knew, so by adopting a centrist manner and kowtowing to capital, we get Clinton Mod1 and 2. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. DLC must be the ONLY way to go, right?

Plus it Pays so damned well, why bother running with a platform when there is all that corporate money just waiting to be scooped up? Idiot Leftists, what with your peace and education and living wages and ecology and what all. . . next you'll want to get a bed and a shower for everyone in the country and a guarantee of health care! Dreamers, what is this? France or something? Hell's bells, you leftists probably speak and read French!!!

This ain't France! USA! USA! USA! USA! Vive la Republique! oops, my true intent just slipped there.

[stimbox]

65. Bounce!