I dislike the DLC tremendously and am pleased to see 2 excellent articles about, what is IMO, the right-wing, hostile takeover of the Democratic Party by the DLC.
Joe Lieberman & the Hostile Takeover of CentrismIn (David Sirota's) new book
Hostile Takeover....spend a good deal of time showing how ultra-conservative right-wingers have hijacked the terms "centrist" and "mainstream" and disconnected them from what's actually "centrist" and "mainstream" among the public.... That's no accident - it is a deliberate strategy employed by Big Money interests that run the Establishment to effectively marginalize the vast majority of the population from its own political debate and political system. It is, in short, a hostile takeover not just of our government, but of political discourse itself.
As just one example, take
Marshall Wittman. This ultra-right-wing former Christian Coalition official is now employed at the Democratic Leadership Council, and purports to speak for Democrats. He is one of the most odious icons of Washington's bought-off bipartisan Establishment - and
has made a name for himself peddling right-wing talking points, narratives and storylines wholly at odds with actual facts. Last week was no exception. He told the Los Angeles Times that the Connecticut primary "is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party" because "it will have repercussions for the 2008 presidential campaign and whether centrists will feel comfortable within the Democratic Party."
Wittman, a staunch Lieberman shill, is actually correct, though inadvertently. He's right - this is "a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party" and it will indicate "whether centrists will feel comfortable within the Democratic Party." But the actual data shows that the centrist is not Lieberman, as Wittman purports, but those opposing Lieberman. And if Lieberman wins the primary, it could mean that centrists will not feel comfortable in the party, because the actual data shows Lieberman is the out-of-the-mainstream arch-right-winger, and the movement that is challenging him represents the real center.
This is not theoretical rhetoric or cocktail party chatter, as Wittman and his ilk in the pundit class have become specialists in peddling. This is cold, hard fact, backed up by cold, hard facts (you remember - those things so looked down upon inside the Beltway). On almost every major issue, the data shows that Lieberman is far to the right of the "center" or "mainstream" of American public opinion.
Lieberman-DLC on Iraq: Stay-the-course
Americans: Roughly two thirds of Americans oppose the war and want a change in policy.
Lieberman-DLC on privatizing Social Security: Can support investing a portion in the private markets.
Americans: A CNN/USA Today poll 2005 - 59% oppose privatization.
Lieberman-DLC on health care: Not willing to raise taxes to pay for health insurance.
Americans: 69% say that they would be willing to pay more per year in federal taxes to assure every American citizen received health care coverage.
Lieberman-DLC on price controls on drugs: Opposed.
Americans: 60% favor federal government price controls.
Lieberman-DLC on trade agreements: Support NAFTA, WTO and China PNTR that were stripped of labor/wage/human rights/environmental protections and thus undermined American jobs, wages, and benefits.
Americans: 90% of Americans want trade deals to include strong labor protections and 93% want strong environmental protections
Lieberman-DLC Funding Pentagon: Vote for bigger and bigger Pentagon budgets.
Americans: Vast majority of the public is one that supports "deep cuts in defense spending, a significant reallocation toward deficit reduction, and increases in spending on education, job training, reducing reliance on oil, and veterans."
What can we learn from all of this?
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says we can see that in today's Washington "A Democrat is considered centrist to the extent that he does what Mr. Lieberman does: lends his support to Republican talking points, even if those talking points don't correspond at all to what most of the public wants or believes."Big Money interests have made an art out of eviscerating those who challenge them, and every pundit on the cocktail party circuit from Joe Klein to Tom Friedman to David Brooks has shown their eagerness to dishonestly attack populists that challenge the Establishment. But rest assured that despite all of this desperate hot air, the cold, hard data shows the public is ready to reward the real centrists - the people who have the guts to stand down the elitsts on the fringe and stand with the vast majority of America in the real mainstream center. That's the place that supports political leaders who dare to fight back against the hostile takeover. "
Joe Lieberman & the Hostile Takeover of Centrism The DLC: to the History Pageshttp://www.counterpunch.org/carmichael05302006.htmlFor a decade and a half, the DLC dominated the Democratic Party more thoroughly than any pressure group had ever controlled any political party in American history. After ten years of failure to regain the majority in Congress and abject failures in the two previous presidential elections, Governor Howard Dean led a grassroots movement of party activists to reclaim the levers of power for traditional Democratic policies: constitutional democracy, the open society, multilateralism, social welfare, a national health service, national security and homeland security realized through diplomacy rather than by military confrontation and many more substantive and socially progressive policies besides.
While Governor Dean faced a broad field of DLC-backed opponents parroting Mr. From's mantras redolent of neoconservative cant, each one crumbled like a rag doll before him. Today, Governor Dean is leading a through-going reorganization of the Democratic Party that relies on the energy provided by grassroots activists. At the same time, Governor Dean has de-emphasized the right-leaning consultancies and pressure groups preferred by the DLC.
In order to succeed with his plan for the reform of the Democratic Party, Governor Dean faces the stalwart opposition of Mr. From and his neoconservative cronies at the DLC and many powerful Democratic office holders as well, who are still under their sway. These neoconservative Democrats include: Governor Tom Vilsack, Senator Evan Bayh, Senator Joe Biden and Senator Hillary Clinton. 
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