Link: "The Myth of the Democratic Establishment"

[democratreformed]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0401.confessore.html

This link was posted in a forum on Democrats.com. It has lots of information about the history of leadership in the Democratic Party. Reading this article helped me to understand the Dean campaign's and his supporters concerns about the need for new leadership within the party.

Warning: This link is from the Wahsington Monthly. I do not know if this is a conservative publication.

Excerpts:
"Reed's point is hard to dispute. Liberal Democrats are as divided as centrists; many went early for Kerry, the early "establishment" candidate who has lately flopped. Labor is split down the middle, with the old industrial unions backing Gephardt, a longtime ally, and the service unions edging towards Dean. Most congressional Democrats and members of the Democratic National Committee--who, as convention "superdelegates," could conceivably swing behind and energize an anti-Dean candidate--are less interested in challenging the front-runner than in gauging the precise moment of his inevitability. "You have to realize, these people are all followers. Not leaders," says one Democratic strategist. "They put their finger to the wind." Democratic donors are also split. After Dean, no candidate has earned a sustained edge in campaign cash. Even the Clinton wing of the party, by some accounts the puppet masters behind the "stop Dean" movement, aren't much more than an inchoate collection of pollsters, consultants, and former White House staffers divvied up among the rival campaigns of other candidates. "You could undoubtedly find an enormous number of people who would want to stop Dean," one Democratic strategist told me in December. "But there's nowhere to go with them. What are you going to do--spend the holidays convincing other candidates to drop out of the races?"

SNIP
"Democrats not only lack control of the White House and either chamber of Congress, they don't even have strong party institutions to fall back on. Not long after the 2000 elections, party chieftains installed fundraising Wunderkind Terry McAuliffe at the Democratic National Committee with a mandate to rebuild the party's long-dilapidated political infrastructure. He's succeeded about as well as anyone could, considering that after he became chairman, those same party chieftains successfully pushed through Congress a campaign finance reform which deprived the DNC of most of its income. These days, McAuliffe is reduced to bragging that his new small-donor program brings in enough money to cover the DNC's operating expenses."

See the article for more info.

[theboss]

1. That was really really interesting

Thanks.

[Nederland]

2. kick

...for an interesting thread.

[democratreformed]

3. kick

there really is some good info in here.

[WillyBrandt]

4. kick

great piece!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. The union split is very dangerous!

The Corporations are the ones doing the splitting and it's working great. Ever since Ronald Reagan, the industrial unions have been viciously attacked through old fashioned strong arm union busting, court orders, offshoring, outsourcing, and everything else. The Democrats didn't just sit by - they actively participated with NAFTA and GATT. The industrial unions went on defense and just tried to keep their jobs, and stopped organizing new members.

SEIU got active, and started organizing - but they represent mostly non profits, and their jobs cannot be exported - and add them up with AFSCME - who have never had an attack against them (until HS, which they easily won) and you have a massive split right down the middle of the labor movement. Our major unionized sector is now 100% dependent on the state, and private industry is nearly 100% anti-union. We're getting close to a second-world level of unionization.

What happened to solidarity? Don't kid yourself - you're next.

"These days, McAuliffe is reduced to bragging that his new small-donor program brings in enough money to cover the DNC's operating expenses."

It is much worse than we could have imagined.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

6. kick

:kick:

[Kolesar]

7. "Bill Clinton's" favorite magazine

I recall commercials last year for Washington Monthly where they referred to their magazine as "Bill Clinton's favorite magazine". Make of that what you will.

[Jerseycoa]

8. Thanks for posting this

Very interesting piece.

[democratreformed]

9. You're welcome

I really think it helps explain one of the themes behind the Dean campaign. Whether or not I agree that it should be a major theme, it does help me understand what some of them are talking about.