Democrats pin hope on ‘American dream’ (new DLC initiative)

[sabra]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14010512/

Democrats pin hope on ‘American dream’
DLC sees economic proposals key to winning back power in Washington

DENVER - Moderate Democrats think they have the key to winning back power in Washington and across the country - a package of economic proposals aimed at giving every American a shot at reaching the middle class.

"We thought it was important and necessary to rekindle the American dream," said Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, a potential 2008 presidential candidate and the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist think tank.

Sadly, Vilsack said, many of America's children nowadays don't have faith in the idea of an American dream.

...

The centrist organization, best known for helping Bill Clinton secure the White House in 1992, was to unveil Monday its "American Dream Initiative," which lays out policies on education, health care, retirement and income.

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Wait, I thought their dream was to become irrelevant!

Why change horses in mid-slaughter?

[leesa]

2. I'm sure they're still pursuing it...your American Dream job will still

be at a war toy factory to prepare for the future slaughters. But the minimum wage might be higher by a buck or so.

[wordpix2]

63. I guess this dream won't include what liberals want:

snip:
Still, he and other moderates are under no illusions that every part of the party, liberals in particular, will embrace the agenda. Said From, "My guess is that there are some people who will not be happy with the ideas."

[saigon68]

65. Especially as the Fundies spend billions on Hate

Gays God and Guns

Get out your ear plugs

[benEzra]

66. If the DLC doesn't try to resurrect the ban-more-guns agenda

that they pushed so hard in the '90's through '04, then maybe the Guns issue won't be such an albatross this time around...

It's ironic that the "centrist" DLC was THE major political force pushing the prohibitionist line on the national stage in the '90's through 2004 or so.

[saigon68]

69. It lost them Arkansas and Tennessee in 2000

It will lose them Wisconsin next time

[Demeter]

68. Can't the DLC Handle Reality for a Change?

There ain't no point in dreaming when your life is going down the economic drain. You got to plug the holes, first. And put out the fires, and exterminate the rats. Then you can start remodelling.

[WCGreen]

3. Every American to dream of the middle class.....

Well, I once was a proud member of that very middle class....

So now I have something to dream for again....

[bennywhale]

The American Dream and the desire and promotion of entry

to the Middle Class essentially reveals that the Working Clas is bad and something that yu need to get out of. Not i'm going to make sure people are paid fairly for a hard days work, its i'm going help you scramble yourway over the corpses of misery to the promised land.

Its an acceptance that there will be a pool of failures at the bottome from which to draw the middle class. It entrenches massive inequality as a way to drive the economy.

[endarkenment]

4. What a damn insulting joke.

"Tax reform to consolidate existing incentives into a single, refundable $3,000 college tuition tax credit to cover 4 years of college, grad school, and training."

That's it. Wow. Knock me over. 100's billions in tax giveaways to the elites, 3,000 buck tax credit to cover four years of college. The average cost of attending a public institution for ONE YEAR is $12,127.
http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/48884.html

How about making college expenses (or at least tuition) tax deductible?

[EFerrari]

28. That's how they've always sounded to me. Insulting when

not just out of touch.

And it's funny because, individually, I find most of the people in the DLC bright and personable. As a group, they seem dysfunctional to me, anyway.

[Yavin4]

38. $3000 at Colleges Today May, I Said "MAY", Buy Your Books

for three years. Possibly, if some of them are used.

[KoKo]

5. I dunno....sounds kind of simplistic to me. I like "Had Enough?"

Unfortunately Newt Gingrich proposed that for the Dems... Josh Marshall did a little piece on it at his TPM when our Dems were proposing something like "America, we can do better."

I wonder if Bob Shrum and Donna Brazille worked on American Dream. Maybe they were trying to channel MLK on this one.

[xxqqqzme]

56. it is - TOGETHER

America can do better. It is why when you hear Howard Dean he will wrap all his talking points around 'we can do better'. Together was inserted because the neo-cons have been hell bent and have succeeded in dividing the country

[DancingBear]

6. Well, what DON"T we see in there?

Oh yes, a stand against the "war" in Iraq.

Much more importasnt these days to sit safely by and play Economy, The Sequel.

Meanwhile, the NAACP delegation crucifies Chimpy for not saying word one about the mess in Iraq, as it is/was first and foremost on their minds.

Way to go Tom, Hillary, Bill, etc. - once again you've placed your finger right on the pulse of what America wants to hear from the Democratic Party.

Do I really need the sarcasm tag?????

[IndianaGreen]

12. I am sure that Billary will endorse the DLC proposal

and remain mum about the cost of the wars.

[DancingBear]

15. Oh, there's a Carlyle Group appointment just waiting for him/her/them

You can take that to the bank.

Just a few more cozy meetings with George Sr., a few more get-togethers with Rupert...

Oh, yes.

[MrPrax]

7. So basically...

the DLC doesn't really have a problem with a GOP government.

The DLC, seems that when push comes to shove, they would quietly support a Republican rather than any 'alternative' democrats that might capture power anyway.

[NoodleyAppendage]

8. I'm sorry, but the Dems have hired developmentally delayed PR folks.

"American Dream" is way too shmaltzy to work in this time of strife and uncertainty. It makes the Dems come off as idealistic boobs, when what is needed is FORCEFUL AND SMART LEADERSHIP. We should be running on a platform of FORCEFUL AND SMART LEADERSHIP, not some bullshit "American Dreams" PR stunt.

People are scared shitless. They are looking for someone from either party to rise to the top and lead us out of this era of uncertainty. Unless the Dems wake up to this REALITY, I'm afraid that Guilani or Allen will capture 2008.

Sometimes we're our own worst enemy...

J

[mntleo2]

9. American Dream? What American Dream?

Ohhhhh! I see! You mean the dream where you join the military to get all that health care and education, but then when you get back from the Gates of Hell minus three limbs, oh dear, we cannot help you ~ and here's the bill for your meals while recovering in veteran's hosptial that the DLC is so silent about? The one where you are never blamed for what upper management has ordered you to do so you go to prison for the rest of you life for torturing people, because the DLC people refuse to acknowledge that the Bu$h regime had anything to do with it?? Or is the one where you are denied the vote because, well, those machines are doing just fine, thank-you, and so Bush won? Oh ... or could it be the dream where you work a McJob for the rest of your life and magically those CEOs will award you the retirement and all those bonuses you earned? Oh! I know! I bet it is the dream where you work for free because management does not count that in the budget but requires the work be done or you are fired, but then they lay you off anyway because now they are sending those jobs overseas so they can get that handsome tax break the DLC thinks is so great???

I could go on, but suffice it to say, the American Dream is dead. It died in the 1980's when Reagan and all his deadly people came into power and the Democrats went along with them for the past 25 years.

The American dream is only a dream. The DLC needs to get real. Oh and BTW, nobody in the DLC are moderates, they are Rethuglican Lite.

Cat In Seattle

[mom cat]

27. I think they would do better in promising to reverse the nightmare!

[IndianaGreen]

10. A Vaseline version of trickle down!

Hey Vilsak, unless you put an end to Bush's wars and dismantle the security apparatus that Bush has build, there won't be any money to fund any of your proposals.

[ixion]

11. The DLC: destroying the democratic party from the inside out

[IndianaGreen]

13. They don't call it American DREAM Initiative for nothing

A pipedream that fails to address the problems our nation faces.

[RCinBrooklyn]

14. It is time to stop the DLC/Republican-lite undermining of progressives!

[UpInArms]

16. the somnolence of the DLC is underwhelming me

:boring:

[gulfcoastliberal]

17. The American Dream now means competing with Chinese slave labor

In a race to the bottom thanks to the DLC "free trade" wet dream they've brought about. :puke:

[warrens]

18. If there's a middle class left to aspire to

I make a solid middle class salary, with benefits, and I am barely getting by. The "tax cut" I got was a joke (a few bucks) while the tax burden has been shifted away from the very wealthy. Unless we go after that stolen money, there will be no more middle class, just people technically making that salary, but unable to do more than just get by. Without two incomes today, you're just above poor, particularly if you are supporting a family.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

19. How about THIS dream: VOTING INTEGRITY?

If the dems don't even care enough to make sure our voting process doesn't resemble a banana republic, what makes them any different than the repubs?

[brentspeak]

32. Sounds like you haven't been following the news

There are plenty of Democrats who are trying to reform the voting process (ie. John Conyers.)

So, uh, why are you trying to get people here to equate the Democrats with the Republicans?

[meganmonkey]

20. The American Dream is a myth anyway

Rekindling something that never actually existed for most people anyway? So appropriate for a load of 'ideas' that will translate into nothing even if the Dems win in 2006.

:(

[Solly Mack]

30. I'm sitting in the yeppers pew

[meganmonkey]

31. Hey SOLLY!

:hug:

I'm glad I speak your language, LOL - for a second I was like "yeppers pew"? :wtf:

:rofl:

[Solly Mack]

37. LOL

I'm glad you speak it too! :)

I'm an odd cookie I guess :)

[GeorgeGist]

21. The 'American Dream' is so...

Twentieth Century.

[Doremus]

22. Bah. What about the majority of us who are just trying

to STAY middle class?

More lip service from the do-nothings.


Strong talk and clear positions go farther than vagaries about the pollyannish 'American Dream.'

But then that would actually require some straight talk. The masters of equivocation just can't get their minds around that.

[Malva Zebrina]

23. This is the best they can do>? The American dream has been shattered

by the Bush administration amd anyone who is paying attention knows it will take at least a decade to restore what he has destroyed.

Where is the DLC coming from? The American Dream? If they run Hillary Clinton we can assume that the dream is to take over little small countries, lie about the "threat" it presents to the United States,a nd support an ignorant man and try to one up him by saying that increasing the size of the troops will fix it all in Iraq.

Can they get anymore looking like a wet noodle?

Who is advising this insanity from the DLC? Hillary? I bet so.

[SOS]

24. Smoke and Mirrors

In April 2006 Vilsack met with the AFL-CIO. The union said they wanted card check, to enable union establishment without waiting for an election. This delay is where corporations bust the union organizers through threats and intimidation.
It's now July.
The DLC never responded.

Empty slogans don't put food on an apparel workers table.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

25. DLC = GOP co-opting

...and you know it.

[brentspeak]

33. Who's "you"?

[VegasWolf]

40. Yes, but the DLC sucks at message. 3,000 for college, whoa!!! Then what,

between the insourcing of cheap labor and the outsourcing of white collar jobs it will be hard to find a job. Even the medical communinity is insourcing Taiwan low paid nurses.

[Pithy Cherub]

26. MLK has the Dream!

The DLC version is a future nightmare packaged in a corporate marketing dream New Coke brand.

[krkaufman]

29. Pro-globalization happy talk

This is all cover for continuation of the Clinton-esque/DLC pro-globalization dismantling of the middle and lower classes. The buyer must beware whenever they see the following DLC rallying cry...

"... if we're going to compete in the global economy, we're going to have to do things differently."

What they mean is, the working class needs to make sacrifices in order to increase the profitability for shareholders. Had enuff?

Also, here's an interesting snippet from the article...

By double-digit margins, a recent AP-Ipsos poll showed Americans more inclined to vote for Democrats than Republicans at a time of rampant federal spending, soaring gas prices and continued bloodshed in Iraq.

So, if the public wants to elect Democrats, why are the DLC members trying to become Republicans?

[brentspeak]

34. Agree with you on that

The DLC/neoliberal love for free-trade is a disgrace. The other Democrats in Congress have to demand that DLC drop it -- immediately.

[yurbud]

35. the key is whether the words are backed by substantive

action, and not just a GOP-like excuse to throw pork to cronies.

This echoes the best of Bill Clinton who said we ought to reward those who "work hard and play by the rules."

[cosmicdot]

36. were Howard Dean and the DNC invited to the ribbon-cutting?

Hillary Clinton was tapped to Chair this a year ago.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4771471

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/hillarys-american-d_b_4738.html

[Yavin4]

39. THIS IS WHY THE DEMOCRATS LOSE ELECTIONS

Half-assed solutions like $3000 for college DOES NOT INSPIRE THE SINGLE WORKING CLASS MOM TO FIND THE TIME TO VOTE FOR YOU!!!!!

YOU HAVE TO ARTICULATE CLEAR AND SIMPLE SOLUTIONS THAT THE HARRIED WORKING CLASS CAN UNDERSTAND QUICKLY LIKE:

SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE BY EXPANDING MEDICARE TO EVERYONE.

TAX DEDUCTED COLLEGE EDUCATION UP TO $12,000 FOR FAMILIES MAKING $50,000 A YEAR OR LESS.


CLEAR SIMPLE INITIATIVES FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!

[VegasWolf]

41. Yes, and don't forget we can't talk about impeachment, might rile the

pukes Hillary thinks are going to vote for her.

[Justitia]

42. Jesus H. Christ How very 1950's marshmallow meringue! We're running

around a burning bldg looking for the emergency exits and these clowns have their heads in the clouds wistfully imagining "American Dream" memes!

Milquetoast, and lukewarm at that.

[OKNancy]

43. kick

[IDemo]

44. Democratic leaders lay out vision for success in 2008 election

By Phil Yost
Mercury News

DENVER - Concentrating on the concerns of the middle class -- college, health care, retirement -- is the ticket for Democrats to regain control of Congress and the White House, Sen. Hillary Clinton told a national gathering of moderate Democrats on Monday.

``We've seen what it's like to have a Republican administration that puts the middle class last,'' said the New York senator and presumed presidential candidate. ``The strong got stronger and the rich got richer in the mistaken belief that the rest of the country would eventually get our share.''

Clinton was the star in a lineup of prominent centrist Democrats who rolled out the ``American Dream Initiative'' of the Democratic Leadership Council to 700 civic activists and elected officials at its annual national convention in Denver. The council, established in 1985, is best known as the incubator for the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.

Sen. Clinton said the DLC's initiative can ``unite Democrats and elect Democrats.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15112584.htm

[Vincardog]

45. I am not supporting any Corporatist in the primaries.

[VegasWolf]

49. Or any war-monger, which basically is the same thing! nt

[IndianaGreen]

46. The second half of the Billary team spews her DLC crap!

The DLC is promising something that none of their propagandists can deliver! As long as the US continues to wage Bush's wars, and support Bush's clients, there won't be any money to do anything for anyone.

To the DLC there is no war in Iraq, or Lebanon, or Afghanistan. It's just as 2600 Americans were just raptured away without anyone noticing, instead of coming back in bodybags from Iraq and Afghanistan.

[peacebird]

47. I'm more concerned with Iraq, the environment , equal rights for all and

protecting American civil rights, the Constitution & Bill of Rights from the neocons and fundies.....

But then again - I never expected Hillary or the DLC to represent me or my concerns.

[madfloridian]

48. Not really Democratic leaders....a think tank.

I hate it when they masquerade as the party, even by letting the media do it for them.

[HereSince1628]

50. This is why the DLC'ers named it the DLC. It gives the impression

of being something that it is absolutely not. _THE_ leadership of the party.
It's an absolutely diagnostic trait of the pretentiousness of the folks that put that corporate suckling abomination together.

[ecoalex]

51. You can take your DLC and Shove it Hillie

[AlamoDemoc]

52. I will never support any politician who blindly supported...

...the killing of innocent civilians and the destruction of Lebanon.

[rodeodance]

53. I will read it. Sounds good to me at the moment.

`American Dream Initiative''

[robcon]

54. They are promising exactly what Bill Clinton delivered.

I support this program.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

60. Both of you, please read my commentary below

This is a timid, lame attempt to send more money and power to the corporations while pretending to favor ordinary working Americans.

Yes, I said "pretending."

This platform is the Beltway yuppie idea of what America needs.

[MGKrebs]

55. I am becoming more and more convinced that "centrist"

is now more of a marketing strategy than a position on the political spectrum.

It tells us little about the beliefs or principles of the subject, it just tells how they intend to talk about things.

In fact, the "centrist" gestalt now seems to be designed to avoid taking a position based on principle. You take a position that will a.) be non-controversial, b.) Is a policy or program.

This seems to me to be opposite the insights of George Lakoff, who has said that we have been getting beaten because while we are talking policies, they are talking values, and values will trump policy every time. That makes sense to me. If the argument is being framed as "good vs. evil" or "life and death", we are going to have a hard time beating that with college tuition credits.

[xxqqqzme]

57. yet another misleading headline

the dlc is NOT the DNC; the DNC sets the message not the other way around. lieberman losing will be a major set-back for the dlc.

[Deja Q]

58. Good, so they know how to stop offshoring and bring America back?

:rofl:

They'd better be damn careful. Should they win: One slip and they'll ruin the Democratic Party, DLC, DNC, or any other abbreviation forever.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. These proposals sound good until you actually look at them

Every American should have the opportunity and responsibility to go to college and earn a degree, and to get the lifelong training they need.

And a $3,000 college tax credit is going to do that? In the 1960s, it would have been perfect. Not anymore.

Every worker should have the opportunity and responsibility to save for a secure retirement.

This sounds like "replace Social Security with private accounts and more defined contribution accounts instead of defined benefit accounts from employers." Show me how it doesn't.

Every business should have the opportunity to grow and prosper in the strongest private economy on Earth, and the responsibility to equip workers with the same tools of success as management.

The same tools of success as management? What the hell does that mean? Are they going to send the rank and file workers to get MBAs?

Hey, DINOs, the only "tool of success" that the average worker needs are a living wage, health care, sufficient vacation time, and a secure retirement.

Every individual should have the opportunity and responsibility to start building wealth from day one, and the security and community that come from owning a home.

"Building wealth" presupposes a living wage. I know from experience that it's REALLY hard to save money and build wealth when your car keeps breaking down and your teeth need attention and you have student loans to pay off. As for "owning a home," it can be a trap and a path to financial disaster if local housing prices are out of line with the average wage.

Every family should have the opportunity to afford health insurance for their children, and the responsibility to obtain it.

Yes, another sop to the insurance companies. For all the talk of "competition in health care," the insurance companies in any given area charge almost exactly the same for people in the same demographic. They need some real competition created by opening up Medicare and Medicaid coverage for purchase by any legal U.S. resident on a sliding scale based on income.

This agenda is transparently an attempt at "kinder gentler Republicanism" and will not inspire anyone to vote.

How about this agenda:

1) Improve K-12 education not by relentless testing but through small classes, better working conditions for teachers, and a president who sets an example of learning and encourages the entertainment media to promote learning.

Reverse the budget cuts imposed on state universities that have forced them to raise tuition far above the rate of inflation. Require any university receiving federal aid to have no more than a certain number of non-teaching administrators per number of students.

2) Save Social Security by removing the income cap on top earners. Give companies tax benefits for instituting defined benefit plans and ban any company that has raided its pension funds from getting government contracts.

3) Mandate a living wage, a pension, and a minimum of two weeks of vacation time for all workers, to be prorated for part timers.

4) Where there is no affordable housing for the average working class person, make sure it gets built, whether through direct federal programs, tax credits for building affordable housing (which must be paid back with interest if the owner ever makes the property market-rate), or cooperation with Habitat for Humanity and similar charities.

5) Universal single-payer health care

[enki23]

61. why do they hang the DLC on "democrats" in general?

wait, i know the answers. i just had to ask the question anyway.

[Vidar]

62. Forward into the past!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

64. It's not even the past, though

In the past, college was affordable, health care was affordable, almost everyone supported public schools, unions had rights, workers had pensions, nobody questioned Social Security, economics textbooks considered 2% unemployment to be "full employment," and a factory worker could buy a house and car on one income.

Aside from the racism and sexism, it was a pretty good time economically.

What the DLC are proposing is a scam like that of New Labour in Britian: mouth the right platitudes,but continue the dirty work of the right wing.

[ryanmuegge]

67. Enough of the sentimental bullshit

How about a serious plan, including real-world benchmarks, to tackle the energy issue? That's the core issue of our time, the foundation to which all others are connected.

A plan to deal with the twin deficits would be nice also.