A New Politics for a New America

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=174&contentid=1926

As New Democrats, we believe in a Third Way that rejects the old left-right debate and affirms America's basic bargain: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and community of all.

We believe in free enterprise to stimulate economic innovation and growth and in public activism to ensure that everyone can share in America's prosperity.

We believe that government's proper role in the New Economy is to equip working Americans with new tools for economic success and security.

We believe in expanding trade and investment because we must be a party of economic progress, not economic reaction.

We believe that global markets demand global rules and institutions to ensure fair competition and to provide checks and balances on private power.

We believe that fiscal discipline is fundamental to sustained economic growth as well as responsible government.

We believe that a progressive tax system is the only fair way to pay for government.

We believe the Democratic Party's mission is to expand opportunity, not government.

We believe that education must be America's great equalizer, and we will not abandon our public schools or tolerate their failure.

We believe that all Americans must have access to health insurance in a system that balances governmental and individual responsibility.

We believe in preventing crime and punishing criminals and that America's criminal justice system should be rooted in and responsive to the communities it serves.

We believe in a new social compact that requires and rewards work in exchange for public assistance and that ensures that no family with a full-time worker will live in poverty.

We believe that public policies should reinforce marriage, promote family, demand parental responsibility, and discourage out-of-wedlock births.

We believe in shifting the focus of America's anti-poverty and social insurance programs from transferring wealth to creating wealth.

We believe in replacing top-down bureaucracy with more flexible public institutions that enable citizens and communities to solve their own problems.

We believe government should harness the forces of choice and competition to achieve public goals.

We believe in enhancing the role that civic entrepreneurs, voluntary groups, and religious institutions play in tackling America's social ills.

We believe in strengthening environmental protection by giving communities the flexibility to tackle new challenges that cannot be solved with top-down mandates.

We believe in progressive internationalism -- the bold exercise of U.S. leadership to foster peace, prosperity, and democracy.

We believe that the United States must maintain a strong, technologically superior defense to protect our interests and values.

[OHdem10]

1. Impressive but

when will you develop guidelines with teeth that guide DLC Senators and House Members?It was DLC ers who made it possible for Bush to pass both taxcuts., It was DLCers who sold out the Party and gave
the Medicare Issue to Republicans. It was DLCers who made it possible for Bush to get that terrible Medicare bill passed.I do not mean to flame or even be disrespectful but is taking on the New throwing out those old Roosevelt Johnson Programs--very PNAC--I would say. I used to consider myself a centrist but this years votes in Senate has sent me packing. I was probably never a Centrist anyway but I felt so betrayed I still get angry.. This is a serious problem for our party.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. no, the DLC saved the party

Clinton was DLC remember.

[Cascadian]

8. Bush/Republican Lite does not work!

It costed you the 2002 election.


John

[teach1st]

3. We believe that platitudes are a dime a dozen...

(Sorry, I'm just having fun)

We believe that fiscal discipline is fundamental to sustained economic growth as well as responsible government.

We'll say anything that sounds good as long as we don't have to give details.

We believe that education must be America's great equalizer, and we will not abandon our public schools or tolerate their failure.

Does this come before or after fiscal discipline?

We believe that public policies should reinforce marriage, promote family, demand parental responsibility, and discourage out-of-wedlock births.

Shotgun weddings are back! We believe that our private lives are the opposite of the above.

We believe in shifting the focus of America's anti-poverty and social insurance programs from transferring wealth to creating wealth.

We cut off your foodstamps. Here's a lawn mower. Start a business.

We believe in replacing top-down bureaucracy with more flexible public institutions that enable citizens and communities to solve their own problems.

Don't bother us.

We believe government should harness the forces of choice and competition to achieve public goals.

Our friends get vouchers.

We believe in enhancing the role that civic entrepreneurs, voluntary groups, and religious institutions play in tackling America's social ills.

Our friends get grants.

We believe in strengthening environmental protection by giving communities the flexibility to tackle new challenges that cannot be solved with top-down mandates.

What the hell do we care if they're dumping PCBs in Podunk? It's their town.

We believe in progressive internationalism -- the bold exercise of U.S. leadership to foster peace, prosperity, and democracy.

Eeek!

We believe that the United States must maintain a strong, technologically superior defense to protect our interests and values.

Oil...must have oil.

[ulysses]

11. *SNORT*

Coffee just came out my nose..."don't bother us" :D

[Jose Diablo]

19. LOL..Meet the new boss..same as the old boss

You got it teach. Strange how high sounding words can cover pretty much what the neocons are pushing.

"New Democrats" my ass.

[asthmaticeog]

21. "New Democrats"

... is a mis-spelling of "Non Democrats." Amazing they haven't fixed that little booboo yet.

[Ardee]

4. Words ,words, words, where's the beef?

As New Democrats, we believe in a Third Way that rejects the old left-right debate and affirms America's basic bargain: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and community of all.

As New Democrats you silence and cast out the left

We believe in free enterprise to stimulate economic innovation and growth and in public activism to ensure that everyone can share in America's prosperity.

Ken Lay believes in the same damn free enterprise that you and the DLC do, you should be ashamed of your leaderships pandering to Lay and his fellow crooks for a few shekels of campaign funds.

We believe that government's proper role in the New Economy is to equip working Americans with new tools for economic success and security.

fine speech but what are these new tools? Extended unemployment benefits as more and more Americans lose jobs and their pensions because the DLC is too cowardly to speak out against corporate abuses?

We believe in expanding trade and investment because we must be a party of economic progress, not economic reaction.

We believe that global markets demand global rules and institutions to ensure fair competition and to provide checks and balances on private power.

You believe in moving the means of production offshore to places where clean air and clean water is not an issue, where sweat shops chain workers to their benches for 10-11 hours a day.

We believe that fiscal discipline is fundamental to sustained economic growth as well as responsible government.

then why are you silent about the theft of billions and the control of foreign policy by crooked and selfish CEO's?

We believe that a progressive tax system is the only fair way to pay for government.

yeah we agree but I fail to see any tax reform efforts by democrats and I DO see them voting for the inequitable Bush tax breaks for the wealthy.

We believe the Democratic Party's mission is to expand opportunity, not government.

We believe that education must be America's great equalizer, and we will not abandon our public schools or tolerate their failure.

words are cheap votes are on the record. How many democrats voted for the obscene No Child Left Behind bill and then remained silent when Bush gutted over 6 billion from it?

We believe that all Americans must have access to health insurance in a system that balances governmental and individual responsibility.

where are the plans? where is the resistance to Bush's privatization of Medicare that leaves all of us vulnerable to ever increasing costs?

We believe in preventing crime and punishing criminals and that America's criminal justice system should be rooted in and responsive to the communities it serves.

you believe in tiptoeing around the prison guards lobbies and remaining silent while innocent people are incarcerated and executed. You believe in avoiding the issues of privatized prisons , abuse of inmates by sadistic guards using illegal restrain techniques and cheap convict labor.

We believe in a new social compact that requires and rewards work in exchange for public assistance and that ensures that no family with a full-time worker will live in poverty.

We believe that public policies should reinforce marriage, promote family, demand parental responsibility, and discourage out-of-wedlock births.

We believe in shifting the focus of America's anti-poverty and social insurance programs from transferring wealth to creating wealth.

three important issues that you give lip service to but no bills or reforms are on the horizon for any of these three important issues.Clinton threw people off welfare without providing for either job training or child care some great reform!

We believe in replacing top-down bureaucracy with more flexible public institutions that enable citizens and communities to solve their own problems.

We believe government should harness the forces of choice and competition to achieve public goals.

We believe in enhancing the role that civic entrepreneurs, voluntary groups, and religious institutions play in tackling America's social ills.

yeah ,so does George W......why are you different?

We believe in strengthening environmental protection by giving communities the flexibility to tackle new challenges that cannot be solved with top-down mandates.

We believe in progressive internationalism -- the bold exercise of U.S. leadership to foster peace, prosperity, and democracy.

We believe that the United States must maintain a strong, technologically superior defense to protect our interests and values.

Which candidate has assured us that he will lower the defense budget, most of which is wasted on extravagant overcharging? Why it isn't the DLC candidate its Dennis Kucinich and he remains alone in this promise.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. we can't cling to the policies of the past

Communism doesn't work - the free market does.

[Cascadian]

7. The free market works better when workers rights and safety are counted!

The Adam Smith "Wealth of Nations" trickle down theory has been tried and it has failed. I am not talking about Communism to replace capitalism. I am talking about having a fair playing field so everybody can benefit from a free market society and also have an obligation to help one's community now and then.


John

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

10. whoa, hold on there!

"The Adam Smith "Wealth of Nations" trickle down theory has been tried and it has failed."

First of all, Adam Smith did not say anything about "trickle down theory" in the Wealth of Nations. Let's get that out of the way.

We have a fair playing field - anyone can start a multinational corporation and get rich in America! We are the land of opportunity. Sure, some people are born with wealth, but what's better - to sit around complaining about it, or to start doing some hard work to make yourself successful!

[greatauntoftriplets]

12. Please explain how the free market works.

And if the free market works, then why are so many people jobless? Why have so many given up looking for work?

:shrug:

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

13. they need to be retrained

to get the skills they need in the New Global Economy. Let's face it - if you are still making buggy-whips, you'll be out of a job. They should get retrained to program computers and the like.

[ulysses]

14. BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Retraining again?

Remember what everyone was going to be retrained to do ten years or so ago? Remember when IT was going to be our salvation? You're still talking about it, but guess where those jobs are going!

edit: ok, yeah, I get it. ;-)

[Tinoire]

15. The same jobs being exported to India?

The DLC's not making much sense there. Can't wait to explain this "re-training" idea to all the programmers in my area.

Or maybe the idea is just to teach them Hindi? :shrug:

Another winning idea from the same organization that signed PNAC letters!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

16. Let India do the grunt programming!

Americans will continue to innovate. It's no great loss if the lower skilled software jobs go to India, as long as we keep innovating with newer and better technologies!

[greatauntoftriplets]

17. I don't know anyone who makes buggy whips.

How about an accountant who has been out of work for more than a year? A friend.

And why do I know programmers and computer engineers who are out of work? Seems to me that that particular market niche has been flooded to the point of too many.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

18. Some people will be hurt by the inevitable change to a global economy

That's why New Democrats strongly support job retraining and incentive for businesses to hire Americans. There will be a period of adjustment, but in the long run it will work out for everyone. What we cannot do is cling to the policies of the past, and go back into protectionism.

[Beam Me Up]

20. What's "free" about it?

Who controls THE WEALTH OF NATIONS? Shure as hell ain't us.

[Cascadian]

6. If you want to change the Democratic Party...

don't try to mock the Republicans. If there is to be a centrist party as opposed to a right-wing party, then there needs to be something on the left.


John

[wyldwolf]

9. WOW! I believe in all that!

Where's the problem?

[cryofan]

22. well, you have certainly memorized every globalist riff, haven't you?

congrats on your spoof thread.....

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

23. It is NOT a spoof!

Damn it, not all of us are afraid of change, you know. We will ALL have to get used to moderation after the primaries are over.