Among Democrats, The Energy Seems To Be on the Left (BRILLIANT!)

[Khephra]

(This is where it's at in terms of telling what's happening in the Democratic Party, imo. DLCers and Centrists will disagree, I'm sure.)

Among Democrats, The Energy Seems To Be on the Left

By David Von Drehle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 10, 2003; Page A01

Ten years after Bill Clinton proclaimed a centrist "New Democrat" revolution, the left is once again a driving force in the party.

They do not call themselves "liberals" anymore; the preferred term today is "progressives." But in other ways, they are much the same slice of the electorate that dominated the Democratic Party from 1972 to the late 1980s: antiwar, pro-environment, suspicious of corporations and supportive of federal social services.

In recent weeks, the progressive left has: lifted a one-time dark-horse presidential candidate, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, into near-front-runner status; dominated the first serious Internet "primary"; and convened the largest gathering of liberal activists in decades.


snip.............

"There is a coming together of forces to try to resurrect the Democratic Party in the progressive realm," said political strategist Eric Hauser, who helped to organize the recent Take Back America conference of left-leaning activists. "What the Democratic Party stands for hasn't really been looked at for a while. The issues that people care about seem pretty clearly to be solid progressive issues."

In a party that seemed almost comatose after November's poor showing at the polls, any energy at all might be welcome by Democrats, no matter where it comes from. And the progressives themselves certainly do not feel as though they are weighing in from the margin. "We are the base," said veteran organizer Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future.

MORE.......................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35640-2003Jul9.html?nav=hptop_tb

It hits on Dean quite a bit, but I think the article has a lot of things to say about the overall state of the party that makes it worth reading for supporters of any candidate.

[JVS]

1. Good article

[stevedeshazer]

2. Good one, Kef

I really think it is our time. The breaks are starting to come our way.

[Eloriel]

3. Excellent article

I particularly liked Jeff Cohen's remarks. The DLC has gotten away with their own Big LIe for far too long -- that the key to Clinton's wins was his DLC policies. We ALL know, or at least should, that if policies were the only deterinant of who wins elections, they candidates could just phone in their policies, and we could phone in our votes.

It just ain't that simple. Charisma has a LOT to do with it, along with money, campaign staff talent, etc.

Eloriel

[ferg]

4. some journalists are starting to get it

That article was a good description, and has the side benefit of displaying Al From as the clueless tool he is.

I've been seeing more articles which more accurately describe Dean as center-left or "mixed" like this one does, which is a good thing.

[Khephra]

6. Also notice

It's a page A01 story too.

[MisterP]

5. anti-war, pro-environment, suspicious of corporations, pro-social-services

why, they're compassionate and pro-human! (two good phrases when dealing with this administration)

[Dover]

7. Reed and From are applying old political formulas to a very changed

country.
Hello?
The world has changed drastically since McGovern lost his bid for the presidency and citing that as a political model fpr failure is simply ludicrous! They are totally out of touch.

We have also been forced to face the consequences of not protecting and/or implementing many of the principles we have traditionally supported. We are LIVING the horrors of 1984 in the new millennium. These ideas were primarily just a distant fear back in the real year 1984. Bush has certainly accelerated the learning curve. We don't even have faith in the voting system itself...which doesn't seem to have alarmed either party enough to seriously investigate. We have never been readier for REAL change. We understand the status quo is what led us to this place to begin with. That and our own unwillingness to get involved in our own collective destiny.