This may be a long time coming but considering the shocking Bayh retirement and the circus show that is the re-introduction of Harold Ford Jr., and of course the long-term implosion of Senator Joe Lieberman, it seems as though the ideals of the “centrist” wing of the Democratic party aka the DLC are rapidly deteriorating.
DLC ideology and it’s popularity among the leadership of the Democratic party was all the rage in the 90s with the success of Bill Clinton who became the first two term elected Democratic president since FDR, albeit without winning a majority of the popular vote. But since his victories Democrats have see success electorally from a much more diverse group ideologically most prominently high-lighted by the election of President Obama and the Pelosi lead majority in Congress.
This is certainly not to say that moderate and conservative Democrats are completely irrelevant. The conservative Blue Dog Democratic caucus established their power in this Congress proving enormously important in close votes in the House. Yet the party apparatus seems to have shifted away from being run from purely a what’s best for the DLC approach, which is a radical departure from the Clinton/ Daschle/ Gephardt party of the 90s-2007.
What will this mean electorally for Democrats? Well that can be hard to say. Even a weakened centrist/conservative alliance among Democrats in the House and Senate can prove extremely important with the ridiculous necessity of overcoming the filibuster in the Senate and the propensity for defections among Democrats in the House both from the left and right.
However, in the crucial leadership roles, more progressive leaning elements in the Democratic Party are in a particularly attractive state for attracting more prominence in a situation where a powerful conservative faction like the DLC is in chaos. Even the Senate where conservative Democrats are given more power due to the nature of the body and the all-important filibuster “requirement” cracks may be emerging from the frustration over the slow pace and incremental approach of health care reform.
Signs of the importance of this move away from the DLC are becoming evident with a report today from CBS News that four Democratic Senators including two up for reelection in potentially competitive seats 2010 (Michael Bennett D-CO and Kirsten Gillibrand D-NY) are asking for reconciliation to be used to pass health care reform with a public option included. The two other Senators (Sherrod Brown D-OH and Jeff Merkely D-OR) are also notable for the progressive campaign platform both ran with in their defeats of Republican incumbents in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
Whether more Democrats running for reelection or competitive open seats will follow these Senators’ lead is unknown but if so it could point to a new emphasis on the part of vuluranble Democrats to run on a platform more supportive of progressive ideals rather than the mushy, centrist approach of their 1990s peers like Senator Bayh.
I would love nothing more than to see a stake driven through the hard of the counter-productive DLC once and for all. They are the reason why Democrats did so poorly in most elections in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. It wasnt until 2005 when Democrats finally found the will to fight and block Republicans until they started winning again. Now that we have another DLC administration, the party is sinking again. The DLC must be destroyed at any cost.
Bennet and Gillibrand are running for election to a full term, not reelection, as of course neither Senator was elected to the position.
since before he left office.
It started as a project to move the Democratic Party to the right on certain issues and had quite a number of luminaries. Bill Clinton won the nomination and fellow member Al Gore became Vice President. I’ll add Bill Clinton’s campaign was quite conservative though he did move it to the left to counter Paul Tsongas.
Almost all the initiatives of the DLC were passed during Clinton’s presidency including their centerpiece entitlement reform and building ties between the business community and the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party was moved towards the center. It just perhaps has not seemed that way to some because the Republican Party moved so much further to the right.
It’s death has absolutely nothing to do with the value of being left, right, or moderate. Just a product of a past era that served it’s purpose and had nothing much to do. Same way if the ADA (Americans for Democratic Action) disbanded. It would have been notable in 1950. Perhaps even in 1980. But certainly not in 2000.
My diary was designed to create a discussion about what type of messaging would be used in the 2010 campaigns not to determine what type of ideology is right or wrong because I know that’s not what this site is about. I know this is a fine line to walk and it’s fine to argue your point on what’s best but I hope people won’t find this a venue to bash various viewpoints.
First, the Iraq War just killed them as a voice on policy. The DLC fervently supported the war looooong after almost all Democrats turned against it. And while giving up their warmongering rhetoric after 2006, they never did acknowledge they were wrong.
Second, the election of Barack Obama destroyed the DLC electoral model. The DLC was formed in the first place to help push the party to nominate centrist southern white men for president. Bill Clinton was their great success. And at that time, that probably was the model we were stuck with, because the country had become hyperconservative right under our noses and most of us as Democrats didn’t realize the extent of it until in hindsight. So now we nominate a liberal black guy from Chicago who to boot was the offspring of a black man and white woman, and on top of that his NAME is Barack Hussein Obama, with direct Muslim ancestry on one side of his family and his middle name shared with a Middle Eastern Arab dictator we recently overthrew in war? That is not in the DLC playbook! And THAT guy goes ahead and wins Virginia and Indiana for the party for the first time in 44 years and North Carolina for the first time in 32 years, and picks up an electoral vote in Nebraska for the first time in 44 years? Um, looks like the DLC’s model ain’t all that.
I understand the DLC and its allied organizations still do some legwork helping ideologically like-minded politicians with intellectual support for politics and policy at lower levels, but at the federal level the DLC’s influence is now ZERO.