Tony Blair, the New Dems and the Third Way Wonkfest 1998.

[madfloridian]

When the words of Tony Blair toward "the left" were posted here by DUer Emit recently, I remembered when the Clintons, Blair, and others started the Third Way.

There was no room for the left of the party. There still is not. The party leaders have been making snide comments about us for many years.

Blair's recent words offended me, considering he joined with the DLC and Bush, ignored the left's outcries, and invaded Iraq anyway. Bad choice, Tony.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that the toughest part of being a progressive-leaning politician these days is dealing with progressives themselves. Ironically, Blair says, activists on the left often assist their right-wing opponents by piling on the pols who lean their way rather than defending them against a conservative onslaught that he says is "vicious" and begins from "the word 'go.'" Blair says the politics of the day can leave ostensibly left-leaning leaders like President Obama "in an isolated position," with right-wing opponents eager to destroy them and the activist left (more often than not) happy to help.

Just another slap at the "left", "liberals", or whatever the present term may be.

There was an article in Time in 1998 called The Third Way Wonkfest

After Bill Clinton and Tony Blair finish with the elegant dinners and toasts at the G-8 summit this week in England, the real fun begins: the two leaders will lock themselves in a room with a clutch of top officials to talk about government policy for four or five hours. The Sunday meeting at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country mansion north of London, will be the third such bilateral seminar, following one at the White House, when Blair visited in February, and the inaugural 12-hr. "wonkathon" at Chequers in November, when Hillary Clinton sat in for her husband.

The lofty chatfests symbolize the intimate political relationship between Clinton, a "new Democrat," and Blair, creator of new Labour. Each claims to embody a type of politics that is not just a poll-driven centrism but a "third way," a favorite Blair slogan and a phrase that Clinton highlighted in this year's State of the Union message. "Both governments have to react to challenges like globalization and better education for workers, and we have similar perspectives on what's needed," says White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, who organizes the meetings with his British counterpart, David Miliband, Blair's policy chief.

On the agenda for Chequers are social security, welfare, crime, health policy and education, with eight to 10 participants from each side.

The fact is that Social Security and education are pretty hot topics right now. I wonder how long it has all been discussed at "wonkfests."

In the bio of Al From, a co-founder of the DLC along with the Clintons and others, there is a discussion of the founding of the Third Way.

In Al From's staff bio from 1998 we learn how it all came together.

In 1998, with First Lady Hillary Clinton, From began a dialogue with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders, and the DLC brand -- known as The Third Way -- became a model for resurgent progressive governments around the globe. In April 1999, he hosted an historic Third Way forum in Washington with President Clinton, Prime Minister Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Prime Ministers Wim Kok of the Netherlands and Massimo D'Alema of Italy.

If you go to the website of the Third Way, you will find the policies being followed by our party now.

When I think of Tony Blair, I think of George Bush. And I think of the lies and propaganda surrounding the invasion of Iraq. In 2003 Will Marshall wrote a glowing article in the Washington Post about how clever and bright they all were to have invaded and won such a quick victory.

I found the article at the DLC website. He even called them the "Blair Democrats".

The Blair Democrats ready for battle

The U.S.-led coalition's stunning success in liberating Iraq is undoubtedly a triumph for President Bush. But Karl Rove shouldn't get too giddy, because it may be a boon for some Democrats, too.

After all, four of the leading Democratic presidential contenders -- Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, John Kerry and John Edwards -- not only voted to support the war but also joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair in demanding that Bush challenge the United Nations to live up to its responsibilities to disarm Iraq. This position put these "Blair Democrats" in sync with the vast majority of Americans who said they would much rather attack Saddam Hussein's regime with United Nations backing than without it. And it puts them at odds with what Kerry called the "blustery unilateralism" of the president, which combined with French obstructionism to rupture not only the United Nations but the Atlantic alliance as well.

Like Bush, these Democrats did not shrink from the use of force to end Hussein's reign of terror. Like Blair, they saw the Iraq crisis as a test of Western resolve and the United Nations' credibility as an effective instrument of collective security. Their "yes-but" position on Iraq irked the antiwar left and some political commentators, who prefer the parties to take starkly opposing stands on every issue, no matter how complicated. But the Blair Democrats faithfully reflected Americans' instinctive internationalism. While neoconservatives may yearn for a new Augustan age based on unfettered U.S. power, most Americans still see strategic advantages in international cooperation.

He said the emergence of the "Blair Democrats should be no great surprise. Historically, they are lineal descendants of the party's great internationalists: Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy".

I think he makes stuff up as he goes along.

He did have one more paragraph in there, a rather gloating one.

Just as the swift liberation of Iraq has strengthened the Blair Democrats, it has weakened the party's antiwar contingent, whose worst fears failed to materialize. The outcome deals a near-fatal blow to the presidential prospects of Howard Dean, whose staunch opposition to the war thrilled Iowa's left-leaning activists but is out of step with rank-and-file Democrats, about two-thirds of whom approve of the war. Moreover, because 75 percent of all voters back the war, the odds that Democrats will make Bush's day by serving up an antiwar nominee as his opponent in 2004 seem long indeed.

I would say the "Blair Democrats" need to stop and think just who was right about this issue.

It was those of us they belittled as the "anti-war contingent" or even as "fringe activists".

And Tony Blair needs to remember that he is not one to be talking to "the left" in any country.

His legacy will be Iraq, and that is nothing to brag about.

[bluestateguy]

1. Unfortunately, in 1998 we were all a little preoccupied

Remember this colossal waste of time:

[madfloridian]

2. Indeed that was quite a time.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

3. Robert Reich wrote about Third Way in 1999. He was skeptical.

Especially about the implementation of it.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=we_are_all_third_wayers_now

Long article, just a few of his points.

"First: The Third Way rejects state ownership of the economy. This was never much of an issue in postwar America. Here, the closest analogy has been government regulation, where Bill Clinton's Third Way has largely followed the same path as his Republican predecessors' agenda, recently culminating in deregulation of telecommunications, electricity, and banking. In Britain, where state ownership had remained a glint in the eye of Old Labour, Tony Blair renounced the ambition early on. German Social Democrats used to talk about slowing down the privatization of former East German industries. No longer."

"Fourth: Social safety nets must be trimmed, and able-bodied people put to work. Bill Clinton campaigned to "end welfare as we know it," and ended up signing a law giving people a maximum of five years of welfare during their lifetimes. Tony Blair wants to move away from a guaranteed minimum family allowance. Here, too, Third Wayers in continental Europe and elsewhere are following behind, although more tentatively. They want to make the welfare state more flexible, not necessarily smaller."

"But after six years of Bill Clinton's Third Way, the wisdom of hindsight suggests some skepticism may be in order. It is not that the goal is wrong or insincerely held. It is that the politics of pursuing the Third Way are more perilous than anyone assumed. And even controlling for the uniqueness of the American political system and the obduracy of a conservative Republican Congress, those perils are likely to show up elsewhere around the globe. Any serious attempt to lead a nation toward a Third Way will have to cope with them.

Begin with the awkward lineage of the Third Way. As a political hybrid, it has no natural parents—no preexisting constituencies. This makes it vulnerable to the short-term whims and winds of politics. Political leaders can ride for a time on the goodwill an electoral victory confers upon them, but eventually they will need to count on the passion and commitment of groups who firmly believe in the direction the leaders want to take them in. Political movements may be catalyzed from the top, but they need to draw their sustaining energy from the bottom. The Third Way, however, has no grass roots."


Long article from 1999, worth the read.

[madfloridian]

4. Here are the 3rd way policies on DADT, abortion funding, civil unions

http://content.thirdway.org/publications/322/Third_Way_E-Binder_-_Winning_the_Debate_on_Divisive_Culture_Issues.pdf

Main advice, don't stand up for them. They give messaging to use. We are hearing it right now.

[suffragette]

5. And here's info on some of the disastrous results

of Blair and the change from Labour to New Labour. I think part of his legacy is also the fracturing of the Labour party.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9086223

[madfloridian]

12. Thanks for sharing that. I had missed the post.

I just recommended. I had not realized all that. :hi:

Heading to read the links more now.

[laughingliberal]

6. Thanks for trying, madflo. K&R but still

[Catherina]

7. Rec'd but still 0. Go figure, we have Blair neoliberals unreccing this. n/t

[Diane R]

8. Okay. Happy to be the first Recommend for this thread.

[girl gone mad]

9. Neo-liberal know-nothings.

I've tried to engage with members of this crowd on occasion. Their political philosophy is a mile wide and an inch deep, all primarily in the service of a small cadre of wealthy individuals, yet they pretend, and perhaps believe, they are do-gooders. History will not look kindly upon them.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

10. This is one of the reasons why I voted against Labour

I felt Labour increasingly pandered to the Republicans when the war occurred. I was severely disappointed in Blair for siding with Bush on Iraq as I held him with regard with the Good Friday Accords.

[Demeter]

11. Somehow the Third Way Became the Same Old Wrong Way (Regressive)

and now 2/3 of the nation are going backwards....

If the Third Way had dragged the Neanderthals into the 21st Century, that would have been good.

But instead, the Neanderthals dragged Clinton and the DLC so far to the Right (mainly by refusing to move at all) that we have no alternative but to reform the Left without any DC participation aside from a few throwbacks like Grayson, Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Kucinich...and always fear that they will be co-opted by the Powers-that-think-they-know-better, and the Moneybags.

[madfloridian]

13. Agreed, the 3rd way went the wrong way.

I think you are right about the refusal to move at all. We let the other side make all the moves and went along.

[Dr.Phool]

14. There was a movie on HBO recently called "The Special Relationship".

In the end, it has Blair chastising Clinton for not being the "good progressive" that hey were both supposed to be.

I didn't know whether to laugh or scream at the TV set. "Neither of you two assholes were progressives"!!!!!!!!!

Non-wing nut does not = "progressive".

[madfloridian]

15. I saw a link to that, but never saw it on HBO

Is it worth looking up to view?

[Dr.Phool]

22. Nah, it was a major crock.

[madfloridian]

23. I figured that it would be.

So I won't even bother.

[blm]

16. I remember clearly when Bill Clinton advised DC Dems to call themselves Blair Democrats

and its all because BILL was Blair's top American advisor urging him to side solidly with Bush. Exactly what Clinton was urging DC Dems to do and using his privileged access to 'Iraq intel' he supposedly 'saw' when he was president. Focking con man for BushInc.

[madfloridian]

17. I hate that term, I really do.

Blair Democrats...ready to invade a sovereign country that did us no harm.

Wonder if they are bragging about that name now?

[blm]

18. And no one remembers to point out WHO was urging Blair at the TIME. How convenient for Bill, eh?

.

[madfloridian]

19. Nor do they remember...

whose former advisors were advising the 2004 presidential candidates to support the Iraq invasion.

[molly77]

21. Tony Blair can't do book signings because

people are throwing things at him.

Karl Rove had the same problem.

Hillary Clinton went around to small diners when she was campaigning for president. People didn't seem to want to look up from their food to shake her hand. Yet Chris Mathews was saying she was the inevitable president.

If it were not for a poorly functioning justice system and the US going fascist, all of these people would be in jail where they belong.Pick up a tube of tooth paste at the Wal Mart and walk past the check out without paying , you could land in jail.Destroy the economy and entire countries , you are on TV talking about the Third Way.

The Clintons finished off the democratic party. The bushes did the same for the republican. No wonder they are such good friends.

[SOS]

20. Before an election, there is no third way

We are informed that this is a two party system and that any vote outside this construct is wasted.

Then, magically, a third way opens up for the candidates elected in the two party election.

This third way consists of doing whatever Wall Street tells them to do.