The DLC believes that Americans see Democrats as wusses who are afraid to defend the country. I think the DLC's cowardice and spineless inability to take principled stands, choosing hypernuanced BS, weasel words and flip-flopping instead, are the cause of the problem with the Democratic Party's reputation. Democrats have fought wars before and they can and will again, as needed. The problem is with the Democrats' approach to defense, it's with the DLC's approach to the Democratic party, how they've been sabotaging it and its principles and its core constituent issues and values.
Thom Hartmann has been talking about this a lot on his radio talk show and David Sirota has been writing a lot about this topic:
Beltway Dems Regurgitate Right-Wing B.S. on Iraq; Grassroots Fights Backa>
and more at http://davidsirota.com/
Sirota has recently been covering the story of how a group of supposedly Democratic representatives in congress repeatedly support legislation that totally violates their constituents' interests.
We need to take a very close, careful look a the DLC and then get rid of it, routinely rejecting their positions, demanding that politicians state their disaffiliation from them.
Don't expect this to be an easy process. They lie and use subterfuge, just like the right wingers they act like and want to turn the Democratic party into functioning like. Take for example, their official think tank, Progressive Policy Institute, which shares their website http://www.dlc.org/ at the top of the website header page. How dare they call themselves progressive?!?! They send out reports that sound like typical right wing think tank tripe.
If you haven't studied the DLC website, you should. Get to know who their people are in congress. See for yourself how they water down strong, solid Democratic visions and ideas. You have to wonder if they are really just working for the Republicans, just another kind of dirty op, like the swift boat ads, the detectives hired to dig up dirt on strong democratic candidates, etc. It sometimes seems that the DLC is sabotaging the Democratic party.
Then we have DLC celebrity Senator Schumer from New York, deciding that he's going to help us decide who will run as Democrats in the next congressional and senatorial election cycle of 2006. He thinks he's delegated the Pennsylvania candidate to run against Rick Santorum, and he's bragging that he and his people are taking the decision making process out of the hands of the people of Pennsylvania and, I guess, out of the hands of the people in other battleground states, where he thinks his opinion of who should run is more important than THE PEOPLE's opinion.
In PA, Schumer picked a good old boy""Bob Casey, jr., son of a former democratic governor-- a guy who opposes abortion, who would have voted for the Iraq war and who probably opposes stem cell research, contraception and sex education (though we don't know, since he's running a stealth campaign, probably because his handlers know that the more we in Pennsylvania see him, the less we'll like him.
But I digress. My point is that Schumer picked a candidate for the biggest, most visible election of 2006, who basically sells out the right to abortion that women have fought so hard to get. Selling out abortion is like pulling out the ground from beneath the solid footing of the women's movement. If Casey wins, the DLC will use the victory to argue that all Democratic candidates should sell out women and who knows what else. I can't imagine the Democratic women of New York state supporting Schumer after he's pulled such a treacherous, betraying move. His hubris should be his undoing and I hope he faces a strong challenger come his next election. (I hear he's a very vindictive politician""another reason to get rid of him.)
Don't get me wrong and suggest that I am pushing the Democratic party to the far left. I do not say that the Democratic party should be extreme liberal or even progressive. But there are reasonable middle ground values, positions and leadership perspectives that represent the people the Democratic party has traditionally represented""fairness, democracy, control of excesses of big business, access to justice, protecting and maintaining the commons, prudent resistance to entering wars that don't need to be fought, fighting for rights, protecting people who are being treated unfairly or wrongly".
The DLC is more of a rubber-stamper of Republican policy, with an occasional spineless whine. We need to get their influence out of the mainstream of the Democratic party. It will take talking about it and getting it into the open to make it happen. Sirota and Hartmann and OpEdNews.com are doing it. Tell your friends. Tell your local precinct, township, county and state committee people you don't like what the DLC stands for or the people they choose. Make it clear that you know the positions they DLC takes and you don't like them. The DLC doesn't belong in the democratic party. It belongs in the Republican Party, like Zell Miller. It won't be a loss. It will not cost the Democrtic Party votes. It will gain the Democrats votes as the party becomes more consistent, more strongly principled political organization.
