The discussion on this has been largely from the top down. Get a non-DLC candidate in the White House 2004 for example. But I think the way to get to these guys is from the bottom up, and here's why.
The key to turning people away from the conservative Democrats is to educate them. Look beyond the talking points, to what the DLC actually stands for. (I have some examples below.) I have always suspected that many DLC members don't really understand what kind of group they are signing up with and do it for the promise of easy campaign money and support as they advance their political careers. We must also educate the non-DLC people, politicians and their supporters, so they understand what is happening around them as well.
The DLC membership goes far beyond the US Congress, all the way down through state, county and local city governments. Of the 420 New Democrat members (what the DLC members are called) only 100 are in the US Congress. The rest are local. There are also the people on the 100 New Dem Leaders to Watch for 2000 and 2003; people running for office that are committed to the DLC because of campaign financing. (links for these lists below)
I believe we need to start with the lower level members first. For one thing, they are more accessable. It's tough to get much face time with US Senators, but many local politicians have time set aside to meet with their local constituents. The other reason is they are less dependent on money for their campaigns than US Congressmen are. Maybe a better way to put it is it takes less money to run local campaigns and an activated base can do more damage. And their base is smaller - one city, county, parish or township for example - so it is easier to spread the word.
The other reason I believe we must start from the bottom up is the media. While we have been running into bricked up walls in trying to get the networks and major media conglomerates to address this, local newspapers and radio stations are not (always) under the same power structure and much more accessable and open. Especially when talking about local politics.
Let's start by making DLC membership something politicians run from instead of embracing.
-----------
Who the DLC is and what they stand for:
I encourage people to start by reading this article from the April 23, 2001 issue of The American Prospect, "How the DLC Does It."
<snip>
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."
<snip>
Though the DLC offers a nominal $50 membership to anyone interested, its mass base is minuscule. "There's a New Democrat audience of about 5,000 to 10,000 people who get our stuff on a regular basis," says Matthew Frankel, the DLC's spokesman. And with a nonexistent grass-roots presence, the DLC is generally unknown except to practitioners of "inside baseball" politics. Yet the affiliation of scores of members of Congress has enabled the DLC to establish alliances with Fortune 500 corporate supporters, particularly along the so-called K Street corridor of Washington-based lobbyists and in high-tech enclaves such as California's Silicon Valley.
<snip>
In 1996 Lieberman, Breaux, and Simon Rosenberg founded the New Democrat Network political action committee. "Our role is to add political muscle," says Rosenberg. In the 1997–1998 reporting period, its first full cycle, NDN raised $1.4 million directly, and another $1.2 million in so-called "bundled" contributions, gathered at fundraisers for individual candidates and funneled through NDN. In the 1999–2000 period, NDN more than doubled its take, raising $4 million directly and bundling $1.45 million more, plus $450,000 for GoreLieberman. Nearly $2 million of NDN's take in the last cycle came in large, unregulated soft-money chunks from companies such as Aetna, AT&T, and Microsoft and from trade groups such as the Securities Industry Association, who helped sponsor a $1.2-million fundraiser honoring Lieberman on February 13.
NDN's brochures sound like investment prospectuses. "NDN acts as a political venture capital fund to create a new generation of elected officials," says the PAC. "NDN provides the political intelligence you need to make well-informed decisions on how to spend your political capital. Just like an investment advisor, NDN exhaustively vets candidates and endorses only those who meet our narrowly defined criteria."
Much, much more:
http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.htmlIn case anyone thinks that this 3 year old article unfairly illustrates the DLC allegiance to its corporate sponsors, I suggest reading PPI's Policy report dated February 2004, "A Return to Fiscal Responsibility - A Progressive Plan to Slash the Deficit." For example, on page 20 in a section talking about forming a Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission to decide what corporate subsidies to cut and what to keep, they say this:
<snip>
The commission idea is based on the recognition that there are legitimate differences of opinion as to what constitutes a "corporate subsidy" in the budget or tax code - not to mention powerful pressures on members of Congress to defend subsidies with a special impact on their states or districts. Like the highly successful Defense Base Closing Commission, the Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission would be an independent body required to submit a package of budget and tax subsidies to be eliminated, after presidential and congressional review, on an up-or-down vote in Congress.
In essence, the commission approach would provide political "cover," and an opportunity for involvement, for many members of Congress who oppose all subsidies in principle but support some subsidies in practice.
more:
http://www.ppionline.org/documents/deficit_plan_0104.pdfGo beyond the talking points to the meat of the DLC agenda and you find these are not "Centrist Democrats," they are lapdogs for corporate special interests and support the idea of an American empire.
DLC Agenda (released July 27, 2003)
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251925&kaid=128&subid=174It is quite possible to be a centrist without supporting the DLC. For those that do, it is important that they understand who is writing the the DLC agenda and policy.
The top of the DLC internet home page has a link to the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), which was formed to create policy for the DLC. The DLC and PPI are very intertwined. Al From, DLC founder, is the chairman of PPI. The DLC website shows joint contact info for the organizations and the same person answers the phone for both (202-547-0001 PPI, 202-546-0007 DLC). The press e-mail for both DLC and PPI is press@dlcppi.org.
Will Marshall is the president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). Before that he was the policy director for the DLC. He is also one of the select people who actually signed the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) statements on post war Iraq, along with a few frequent Blueprint authors (the DLC magazine). He is also an advisor to the Committee to Liberate Iraq (CLI), who's mission is to "engage in educational and advocacy efforts" in support of liberating the Iraqi people. Translation: it serves as another "authority" to support the PNAC agenda, which it does very well. CLI is loaded with PNAC'ers, including 3 of the board of directors.
PNAC was created in 1997 and its founders include Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Jeb Bush (to name a few of the major players of the Bush administration). They issued a report in
September 2000 titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses; Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century" which is pretty much a blueprint for the National Security Strategy released by the Bush administration
in September 2002. More to the point, it lays out exactly what we are seeing - the defense budget raised to 3.8% of the GDP, multiple, simultaneous major theater wars to show the world our power, removal of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of an American protectorate in Iraq, attempts to replace organizations like the UN and NATO as the world's political leadership and "constable" - and much, much more.
Although Will Marshall (and the rest of the DLC/PPI) has been pushing a slightly sanitized, politically correct neo-con-lite agenda for years, it is just recently that he came out of the closet with his
official PNAC/CLI affiliations. The PNAC statements were released in March 2003 and CLI was formed in the fall of 2002. Like many of the neo-cons, he seems to be more brazen and open than ever before.
Read The Blueprint, the DLC's magazine for examples of the PNAC influence (note the dates):
America's New Mission
By Will Marshall The Blueprint Magazine 11/15/01
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?&kaid=124&subid=307&contentid=3916The Case Against Saddam
By Khidir Hamza The Blueprint Magazine 11/15/01
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?&kaid=124&subid=307&contentid=3926Why it's Time to Revolutionize the Military
By James R. Blaker and Steven J. Nider The Blueprint Magazine 2/17/01
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=124&subid=159&contentid=2980They were laying the groundwork for the PNAC agenda just prior to and after 9/11.
More links:
DLC website:
http://www.ndol.org/New Dem Directory:
http://www.ndol.org/new_dem_dir_action.cfm?viewAll=1100 New Democrats to Watch for 2000:
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=104&subid=210&contentid=1804100 New Democrats to Watch for 2003:
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251581&kaid=104&subid=210PPI website:
http://www.ppionline.org/CLI website:
http://209.50.252.70/index.shtmlPNAC Iraq statements:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqstatement-031903.htmhttp://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqstatement-032803.htmInfo on PNAC:
The President's Real Goal in Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 9/29/02 By Jay Bookman
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/0902/29bookman.htmlOf Gods and Mortals and Empire
By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Friday 21 February 2003
http://truthout.org/docs_02/022203A.htmBlood Money
By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Thursday 27 February 2003
http://truthout.org/docs_03/022803A.shtmlA copy of the Project for the New American Century's September 2000 report titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses; Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century" can be viewed at
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf A copy of the National Security Strategy of the United States dated September 2002 can be viewed at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
