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Showing Original Post only (View all)Center-right Democrats finally face a formidable challenge -- and that has them terrified [View all]
Last December, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler of the Wall Street-funded think tank Third Way penned a widely-discussed op-ed for the Wall Street Journal warning Democrats of the perils of economic populism, which Cowan and Kessler called a dead end for the party. The piece lambasted prominent progressives like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, asserting that their focus on income inequality and their unwillingness to back savage cuts to social insurance programs was both irresponsible and politically foolish.
The piece triggered a fierce backlash against Third Way, and even two co-chairs of the organization disavowed Cowan and Kesslers anti-populist screed. But the plutocratic wing of the Democratic Party hasnt breathed its last, and the latest centrist attack on progressive populism is a real doozy.
It comes courtesy of a Politico Magazine essay by Progressive Policy Institute president Will Marshall. A co-founder of the now-shuttered center right group the Democratic Leadership Council and a onetime aide to former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Marshall has long been a leading agitator on behalf of a more right-leaning Democratic Party. Aggressively hawkish on foreign affairs Marshall was associated with the erstwhile neoconservative group the Project for a New American Century and was a big booster of the Iraq War Marshall also harbors distinctly center-right views on economic issues, joining deficit scolds in railing against so-called borrow and spend policies and championing entitlement reform and corporate tax cuts.
Marshalls central thesis is that to win power, Democrats must capture the loyalties of moderate voters. Given the high number of Americans who tell pollsters that theyre moderate in their political orientation, it sounds sensible enough. But Marshall proceeds to simply ascribe to rank-and-file moderates the center-right views of the Beltway punditocracy, the better to make his case that progressive populism is a losing prospect. To win moderate voters, Marshall writes, Democrats must shun leftish orthodoxy on by supporting trade agreements, real accountability in education, changes in entitlements, development of Americas shale-gas windfall and efforts to lower regulatory obstacles to entrepreneurship. The party must refocus its efforts toward reducing the budget deficit and national debt, and it must place a higher priority on economic growth, not redistribution to achieve equality.
From a purely political standpoint the vantage from which Marshall is primarily writing this is nothing short of bunk. <snip>
Link: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/10/the_progressives_are_coming_why_the_latest_attempt_to_%E2%80%9Csave%E2%80%9D_democrats_from_populism_is_so_pathetic/
The piece triggered a fierce backlash against Third Way, and even two co-chairs of the organization disavowed Cowan and Kesslers anti-populist screed. But the plutocratic wing of the Democratic Party hasnt breathed its last, and the latest centrist attack on progressive populism is a real doozy.
It comes courtesy of a Politico Magazine essay by Progressive Policy Institute president Will Marshall. A co-founder of the now-shuttered center right group the Democratic Leadership Council and a onetime aide to former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Marshall has long been a leading agitator on behalf of a more right-leaning Democratic Party. Aggressively hawkish on foreign affairs Marshall was associated with the erstwhile neoconservative group the Project for a New American Century and was a big booster of the Iraq War Marshall also harbors distinctly center-right views on economic issues, joining deficit scolds in railing against so-called borrow and spend policies and championing entitlement reform and corporate tax cuts.
Marshalls central thesis is that to win power, Democrats must capture the loyalties of moderate voters. Given the high number of Americans who tell pollsters that theyre moderate in their political orientation, it sounds sensible enough. But Marshall proceeds to simply ascribe to rank-and-file moderates the center-right views of the Beltway punditocracy, the better to make his case that progressive populism is a losing prospect. To win moderate voters, Marshall writes, Democrats must shun leftish orthodoxy on by supporting trade agreements, real accountability in education, changes in entitlements, development of Americas shale-gas windfall and efforts to lower regulatory obstacles to entrepreneurship. The party must refocus its efforts toward reducing the budget deficit and national debt, and it must place a higher priority on economic growth, not redistribution to achieve equality.
From a purely political standpoint the vantage from which Marshall is primarily writing this is nothing short of bunk. <snip>
Link: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/10/the_progressives_are_coming_why_the_latest_attempt_to_%E2%80%9Csave%E2%80%9D_democrats_from_populism_is_so_pathetic/
Is economic populism really a "dead-end" in the Democratic Party? I had always thought such to be central TO the Democratic Party. What happened?
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Center-right Democrats finally face a formidable challenge -- and that has them terrified [View all]
NorthCarolina
Oct 2014
OP
You don't fight amongst yourselves when there are barbarians at the gates
Mister Nightowl
Oct 2014
#3
Agreed but 1st throw the 3rd Way douchbags who infiltrated Our house out as they're not one of US.
Tommymac
Oct 2014
#7
" If the Democratic Party ceases to be a liberal, progressive, populist party and becomes the party
kath
Oct 2014
#17
At that point, the democrats might as well just join the republican party. Some, it seems,
RKP5637
Oct 2014
#51
I don't think it's about having no guts or being spineless, it's always been a self serving agenda..
2banon
Oct 2014
#66
I agree. The Turd Way should stop undermining the real Dem party, immediately.
Doctor_J
Oct 2014
#43
It's necessary to expel the traitors from your midst before you can effectively fight the enemy.
rhett o rick
Oct 2014
#49
The Barbarians are IN the House, just as we thought. So we were right all along. Now it's time
sabrina 1
Oct 2014
#73
If you poll these so-called moderates on policy they choose progressive policy.
MontyPow
Oct 2014
#72
And you sure can't win without your base. And the country is liberal on issues as has been
sabrina 1
Oct 2014
#92
Which is why I vote for/against policies and principles rather than party or politician.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Oct 2014
#11
Yep. You have to sift through a lot of bullshit to get to the part about issues.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Oct 2014
#23
I think we shouldn't be distracted by the Democrat/Republican division. The real war is between
rhett o rick
Oct 2014
#50
I think the only thing that makes them Democrats is the "D" after their name.
NorthCarolina
Oct 2014
#38
Short answer: they think fiscal right and social left equals "NEW Democrat" now with 50% more Reagan
Dragonfli
Oct 2014
#81
Think about it, if you are the ultra wealthy attempting to control government, can you
NorthCarolina
Oct 2014
#39
see post 81 above, their strategy (which includes calling themselves Democrats) is well known
Dragonfli
Oct 2014
#83
Chasing the mythical "moderate Republican" while ignoring the 50% of the electorate who don't ....
Scuba
Oct 2014
#16
"subterfuge policy enacted by conservatives who have infiltrated the Democratic Party"
Nay
Oct 2014
#24
Unfortunately, it seems the guiding economic philosophy for the dem right doesn't
HereSince1628
Oct 2014
#26
Excellent post, therein lies the flaw inherent in the Chicago school of economics
Dragonfli
Oct 2014
#84
Do you suppose our current state follows from the creation of a "non-productive" economy?
HereSince1628
Oct 2014
#85
I am certain of it. It is all just a bunch of paper at this point fictionalized into profit
Dragonfli
Oct 2014
#86
It's a separate issue, a very serious one. Basically there are firms that gamble money they don't
Dragonfli
Oct 2014
#88
Priceless and very illuminating - "I thought this is DEMOCRATIC Underground not Left Wing
djean111
Oct 2014
#40
I guess I missed what I am supposed terrified. I do not see any gain in trying to make the DNC
Thinkingabout
Oct 2014
#54
America has gone to hell because the center right Democrats hijacked the Democratic Party
AZ Progressive
Oct 2014
#58
The problem with third way is that they have lots of complaints but no solutions.
craigmatic
Oct 2014
#62