Is the DLC smarter than we think?

[SweetZombieJesus]

Reading these "Rove supports Dean" threads got me to thinking about the DLC memos about Dean, and whether we should take them on face value either. Could it be the DLC leaked these memos in order to energize and mobilize Dean supporters to "prove them wrong", and to make Dean's star rise to the point where Rove has to make bullshit feints about him?

Or am I just thinking too hard about this?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

1. GOP runs the House, Senate, Presidency, the Courts, and most States

So, if the DLC is in fact working for the Republicans, then yes, they are smarter than we think.

[MisterP]

2. They could be unrelated:

the DLC memos can be taken at face value, while Rove was GIGGLING when he said "Dean's the one we want."
Rove is a snake, From and Reed are, well, I don't know. (Apologies to snake lovers).

[Armstead]

3. You're thinking too hard

I admit that the DLC style of centrism specializes in convoluted politics, so that trying to figure out what they are "really" saying rather than what they "seem to be" saying is often a brain-busting exercise.

"We're not really against Bush, but we wonpt criticize him because that way people will realize that we're really against Bush, when in fact we aren't but we are...." :crazy:

Trying to decipher it can lead to serious brain drain. Rather, just use your common sense, and figure if it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.

[SweetZombieJesus]

4. The right leaning tactic has always puzzled me

At first, I thought it was just an attempt by the DLC to get the Dems to jump on the "conservative bandwagon", and on face value, that is what it looks like, but sometimes I wish it were a brilliant plan to push the Repubs even FURTHER to the right to distinguish themselves to their hateful base, and give certain Dems like Dean an opportunity to use the "radical right" tack.

But again, I'm probably just giving them more credit than they deserve.

[dpbrown]

5. You're thinking too hard

40/40/20 is a hoax that only the DLC and Rove depend on.

There are 80 million non-"centrist" voters out there, on top of the 55 million that the people's President, Al Gore, got last time.

Of the 54 million or so votes that the loser of the last Presidential election got, how many are going to melt away of their own accord? The Republican voting bloc: the homophobe, racist, "states' rightist" as code for class warrior, uterus-enslaver, theocrat - is tapped.

Every single vote that Republicans get beyond their "base" will be a) because they eliminated classes of voters like Jeb and Katherine did in Florida, b) because they successfully co-opted Democratic issues (and were enabled by the DLC to do so because the DLC was only talking about the "middle 20%"), or c) because they sabotaged the voting system by implementing enough "black box" systems with no voter verifiable paper trail.

Every issue should belong to the Democratic nominee:

1. Efficient (even if downsized) military fairly deployed,
2. Efficient intelligence apparatus not stripping liberties,
3. Clean running corporations empowering individual investors,
4. Fair wages, fair profits, fair taxes for corporations,
5. Confronting secret government to make it accountable to the governed, and
6. An Apollo Project for energy indepence and a new energy infrastructure in 10 years or less.

That's it. Any Democratic candidate can win on that six-plank platform, control the debate, and put the Republican nominee on the defensive on each and every issue. Not only that, but these issues will resonate with the nonvoting 80 million enough to completely negate the DLC/Rove strategy of sniping each other's voters by focus-group politics.

It's time for a consensus-driven conviction politician to take back the White House!

[dolstein]

6. How could they not be?

After all, the average DU thinks the DLC is a bunch of idiots. Of course, the DLC is comprised of ELECTED officials, so presumably they know a thing or two about what it takes to get elected. Moreover, many members of the DLC managed to get elected in Republican strongholds. Obviously these people know a thing or two about what it takes to beat Republicans and convince a Republican leaning electorate to support a Democratic agenda.

[Armstead]

7. So do progressives and liberals

Dennis K., Teddy K, Tom Harkin, Pete Defazio, Charles Rangel, John Conyers, etc. seem to have been in theree long enough to think that they might have some sense of what it takes to get elected too.

On the level of presidential politics, the right strategy is most likely somewhere in between the "centrists" and the true-believing left. But dissing the kind of people who keep re-electing Kucinich and other liberals and progressives is not the way to build a national coalition.

[w4rma]

9. What elected offices do From, Reed and Marshall hold, dolstein?

Btw, the answer is, none. They neither hold nor have ever held any elected office.

[killbotfactory]

8. They wanted to provoke a debate on which direction the party should go

according to some of the articles I've read, and they seem to be doing it in the most arrogant way possible for some reason.