General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I love the new meme: FDR Democrats are hurting the 99% by focusing on Snowden [View all]DissidentVoice
(813 posts)"Third Way" Democrats are chiefly a product of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council.
After the electorate shifted so far to the right in the 12 years of Reagan/Bush Senior, with Walter Mondale and Mike Dukakis getting trounced by Lee Atwater's GOP machine, a faction in the Democratic Party believed that they needed to be more "centrist" to get candidates elected.
Between the lines, that reads:
1. Stop pushing for universal, single-payer health care, because there isn't the "political will" for it.
2. Go along to get along with cutting taxes for the top 1%.
3. Jump on the Republican bandwagon on "welfare reform" (cf. Bill Clinton, 1994).
4. Show that you're just as "pro-military" as any Republican.
5. Cut social programmes to prove you're pro-"individual responsibility."
6. Be cautious with your embrace of organised labour but pay lip service to it.
7. Trumpet how pro-"private sector" you are.
8. Show that you're "tough on crime" by supporting the death penalty.
9. Show that you're "tough on terrorism" by supporting the USA Patriot Act.
10. Distance yourself from the Great Society and New Deal but pay lip service to it.
The best examples of these "Third Way" types I can think of are the late Paul Tsongas, the Clintons, Evan Bayh, Claire McCaskill and Kathleen Sebelius.
In Britain, Tony Blair and his so-called "New Labour" got him out of a job for being George W. Bush's unstinting supporter of the Iraq War.
The current Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, is a Third Way adherent.
The Liberal Party in Canada is largely Third Way, and even the formerly-socialist New Democratic Party has adopted some Third Way stances.
They call themselves the "radical centre"...to me that's trying to please so many people that you end up pleasing almost nobody.