Black Commentator article on the DLC from 2003

[reprehensor]

A Purely Corporate Edifice

The DLC doesn't represent any Democratic Party voters. Its masters include American and United Airlines, Aetna and New York Life Insurance, Microsoft, DuPont, the agribusiness and pharmaceutical industries, Citigroup and, until recently, Enron, among many others. The DLC is an organization conceived in the boardroom and dedicated to the proposition that moneyed interests trump all others. About two hundred corporations comprise its Board of Advisors (fee: $5,000), and nearly 100 pay the cost to be the boss on the DLC's Policy Roundtable ($10,000 each). For $25,000, around 30 corporate executives pretend to be Democrats as members of the DLC Executive Council. Enron sat there, along with Philip Morris, Texaco, Chevron, and Dupont.

The Democratic Leadership Council is the mother of all corporate Trojan horses, and despite its incompetence at persuading Democratic voters to come to the polls it has come to dominate today's Democratic Party. These "New Democrats" bring their corporate assets to Philadelphia, July 19, for what they call a "National Conversation" - one in which money does all the talking. Look around for the black faces - they're under contract or, as DLC founder Al From puts it, "on display":

The National Conversation is the premier event for New Democratic elected officials from around the country, where rising political stars gather to hear from leading national voices and discuss the ideas and strategies that will shape the country's future. It is always a great testimonial to the strength, depth, and vitality of the New Democrat movement. Democrats who run, win, and govern in every region of the country, including many swing states and red states, will be on display here.

DLC boss From expects about 300 "New Democrat" elected officials to show up in Philadelphia. That's about the same as the number of corporations represented in the national DLC, whose "ideas and strategies" the elected officials have signed on to serve. Theoretically, each elected "New Democrat" can buddy up with a corporate executive in Philadelphia, to carry on their own "national conversation" free from meddling by actual voters and, in Al From's words, "the narrow concerns of interest groups and activists so visible in party caucuses."

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[xchrom]

1. interesting this thread has no replys.

the assessment is correct.

[hiley]

2. Thanks for posting

this, I had not seen it yet.

[AntiCoup2K4]

3. I hear a swarm of "centrist" crickets chirping

Cut out the DLC Cancer before it kills us all. And with nutcases like the BCE in power, I mean that literally.

[papau]

4. excellent analysis - but even a stopped clock is correct twice a day

And while the DLC equates to a stopped clock, no need to toss the ideas before we read them

but I agree I read "DLC idea" and it comes with baggage.

:-)