Sirota - A Crystal Clear Example of Democrats' Problems

[realFedUp]

(mods, came as an e-mail from David Sirota)

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=3F2F5B36-9956-7613-BC86C82BAD6314A6

A Crystal Clear Example of Democrats' Problems

snip-

The story is about the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) holding a three-day conference in Ohio about how to reverse conservatives' gains - and Democrats 2008 presidential contenders are flocking to it, as if the DLC has been a beacon of electoral success over the years (see more on that myth below). The story quotes the DLC's ultimate Beltway insider Bruce Reed saying "If Democrats can't win in Ohio, we don't deserve to win the presidency." That's a true statement. But it's ironic coming from the head of the DLC, a group that has ardently pushed the very "free" trade policy that has destroyed Ohio's job base, and has pushed that policy at exactly the right time to stab the Democratic Party in the back.

As USA Today reported during the campaign, trade is one of the most important issues in Ohio. And yet the Beltway insiders from the DLC - the very people who have used corporate money to buy Democratic support in Congress for "free" trade - is arrogantly coming into Ohio to tell Democrats there the way to win is to support their agenda. This is the kind of arrogance and lunacy that could only come from Washington, D.C.'s corporate money circles - it is totally divorced from political reality, yet these well-heeled clowns over at the DLC still claim they have a model of success. It will be interesting to see if, just as the DLC viciously attacked Howard Dean, the DLC will try to make life harder for people like Ohio's popular Congressman Sherrod Brown (D), should he jump into the state's U.S. Senate race in 2006. Brown has been a leader in pushing for fair trade, and in whipping up opposition to CAFTA – an opposition the DLC tried to undercut last week.

What's most funny/sad about this, is that these same DLC leaders told the Christian Science Monitor that they are worried that "voters know too little about what their own party stands for" - and yet absolve themselves from any blame for that. There is no awareness that when Democrats rhetorically claim to be standing up for the middle class, and then vote the DLC's way on fundamental economic issues, the public catches on and understands they are being misled.

The DLC also tells the Monitor that "If Democrats are smart, they also will avoid copying Rove's strategy of polarization, using controversial issues to whip up support from a loyal base of voters." How, may I ask, is that "smart?" Last I checked, Karl Rove has won almost every political campaign he's been involved in with that strategy, and now Republicans dominate every branch of government. How is it "smart" not to take some tactical lessons from him? I'm not saying we take our ethics lessons from Rove - but to say that he hasn't been politically successful in winning elections is beyond tone deaf: it's just plain stupid.

Maybe if I put it in corporate terms that the DLCers could understand, it would be more clear. Going to places like Ohio to tell Democrats to continue pushing the DLC's corporate "free" trade policies would be like being the guy who ran a company into the ground, showing up to give a presentation to the company's board, and telling the board that the company should keep doing exactly what its been doing, even it if means complete bankruptcy. The fact is, if you did that, you'd be fired. But in Democratic Party politics, these people aren't fired - they are venerated, as if they have the keys to success. And then we wonder why Democrats continue to lose, and lose, and lose, and lose. What's really amazing is that these professional election losers still can spew their drivel with a straight face.

DLC CEO Al From told the Monitor that there is "a lot of concerns in this country about the way Washington is run and about the arrogance of power in Washington." The same could be said about how the Democratic Party is still influenced by From and his corporate cronies, and about the arrogance of the DLC's corporate-cash power that continues to try to drive the Democratic Party into the ground.

Sources:
DLC to preach "free" trade agenda in Ohio, a state ravaged by "free" trade:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1121938334222852.xml&coll=2
The effects on Ohio of "free" trade:
http://www.policymattersohio.org/trade.htm
DLC stabs Dems in the back by supporting Bush's CAFTA:
http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=1C148B00-B99A-67B4-D0CEE576298A99FE
USA Today about the emergence of trade as an issue in Ohio elections:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-03-14-kerry-nafta_x.htm
How the DLC has used corporate money to try to buy the Democratic Party:
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html
DLC attacked Howard Dean:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0304-27.htm
Christian Science Monitor on the DLC:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p04s01-usmb.html

[Vincardog]

1. Exactly so. We need to tell the DLC to go join the Republican party

And leave our party to the Democrats. Where is the DLC on FAIR trade instead of 'free' trade? Where are they on Universal health care?
How about paying people a living wage? Does the DLC care about the environment? I think we know the DLC is bought and paid for by BIG Corporate Money, and the American public knows it too. We have to stop following them in their failed attempt to be republican-lite and return to out roots. We have to be the party of by and for the working people of this country. We have to raise our money q dollar at a time from real working people and really work for them.

Why not pledge that when we get power back no company that sends good paying jobs overseas gets another Government contract?

Why not pledge that when we get power back no company that sends good paying jobs overseas gets tax breaks for doing it?

Why not pledge that when we get power back no company that sends good paying jobs overseas gets amy form of corporate welfare?

Why not pledge that when we get power back no company gets to contribute any money to political campaigns?

Why not pledge that when we get power back we will reinstate the Fairness Doctrine?

Why not pledge that when we get power back FAUX 'New' will be correctly labeled Right Wing Propaganda?

Any other suggestions?

[realFedUp]

2. good post, thanks. nt

[Vincardog]

3. WElcome

[annabanana]

11. Lets take that idea all the way home..

A company is NOT a person, and it doesn't have the same protections as an American Citizen.

[realFedUp]

4. Kos has written about the DLC today also...

www.dailykos.com

snip

Keep chasing the "vital center", and you'll prevent the Democratic Party from standing for core principles. The GOP polls to find the best ways to sell their agenda, the Democratic Party polls to find that "vital center", and then demands its politicians chase after those popular positions.

Yet time and time again, the public rewards those with convictions (Feingold, anyone?), and punishes those who wanter the political landscape aimlessly, with no moral compass or overarching core philosophy.

The netroots and grassroots both get it. The DLC doesn't. Instead of working as a team, they want to divide. They want to excommunicate certain Democrats from the party. They are as bad as the single-issue groups they love to decry. They are the enemy within. And Democrats that associate with them are telegraphing who they stand with.

[wli]

5. The DLC are just AEI/GOP moles.

[madfloridian]

6. Never forget this statement about it's founding as a group:

"Simon Rosenberg, the former field director for the DLC who directs the New Democrat Network, a spin-off political action committee, says, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party. In that way," he adds, "they are ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win."


.."ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win."

Well, that just says it all about why we are where we are today.

http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html

That means they don't have to pay attention to women, to minorities, to labor unions. They only have to pay attention to the desires of the big donors.

This is the year they sell out women. See if I am not right. All the signs are there.

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. Also don't forget that From & Marshall said the 1994 theft of congress...

...was a "liberation" of the Democratic party from the legacy of that evil liberal FDR. And sure enough, both the Republicans and their DLC moles have been trying to "liberate" us from the New Deal and every other progressive reform in the last century ever since.

They are not Democrats. They are not moderates. They are enablers of the neocon agenda which is a cancer killing this country.

[Hippo_Tron]

9. Do you have a link to that statement?

[mrgorth]

8. I fucking hate the DLC!

The got the fucking formula backwards!

[annabanana]

10. "BD" (before Deibold)

Once upon a time, while a rich man had a million bucks and a poor man had just one, there was real comfort in the knowledge that the poor man had the same number of votes as his weathy countryman.

Even if we can get our thousands of "poor men" back, will it help?

[Al-CIAda]

12. Ohio?! Are they going to the scene of the crime to expose the stolen

election?

DLC are the cancer to this party.

[bvar22]

13. The Curtain is being pulled back,

and the DLC and their apologists and professional spinmasters are being exposed.
I used to believe that ANY Democrat in office was better than a Republican, I'm not so sure anymore. I am insulted by the politics of the republicans, but I am betrayed by the politics of the DLC.

There has been a resurgence of the "meme" ANY Democrat is better than a Republican. We MUST vote for the CorpoWhores so we can take back the Senate and House.

There was even a thread recently that said we NEED to support the DLC whores so that Conyers could get to head a committee!!!!! (Talk about tortured spin).

What do the American People gain if Congress is repopulated by CorpoWhores with a "D" after their names? The Working Class will be destroyed more slowly than under the Republicans?

[bvar22]

14. WHOA! Forgot to recommend....

and kick!

[Ksec]

15. To win we have to villify Conservatives

Make the word synonymous with bad economy, no jobs, war without reasons, hatred of anything that aint white and Christian and a bad reputation around the world .

No Neo Cons. No Right wingers. Conservative. Make that word as ugly as theyve made the word Liberal.
Make the word "conservative" a bad word which is the reason things are as fked up as they are. Its true so you dont have to lie like they did. Dont use neocon. Dont use right wing. Use Conservative, period.