Remember the DLC? They were the assholes that dragged the Democratic Party all the way to the Right, until a combination of the rise of the Netroots and the Dean movement provided an effective counter. It was a hard-fought battle, but we merged victories, the DLC vanquished to the margins, irrelevant and broken.
But corporate money is insidious, and they found a new vehicle to push their corrosive corporatist agenda inside the Democratic Party -- Third Way, guys who thought the DLC was too liberal and had sold out.
But unlike the DLC, these guys were smarter. They stayed low, out of the spotlight. Rather than hurl bombastic threats and attacks against progressives (which in turn gave us the ammo we needed to push back), they took congressional chiefs of staff on junkets, indoctrinating them while entertaining them. Sure, it didn't get them media attention, but it gave them something much better -- direct access to the halls of power.
Playing behind the scenes worked well for them, but they are apparently getting antsy. They want to emerge from the shadows.
The long-simmering battle between moderates and liberals for the soul of the Democratic Party is about to explode.
That presents a golden opportunity for Third Way, a five-year-old think tank that remains largely unknown outside the Beltway.
The group has spent months preparing to capitalize on this moment and take a more central role in the party.
And it’s coming down squarely on the side of centrism — and planning to vigorously challenge the left.
"The party is about to come to a major fork in the road," said Jonathan Cowan, Third Way’s president. "A left turn at this juncture is a turn toward permanent minority status."
Democrats will take heavy losses in large part because of a dispirited base, and these clowns want to double down on that strategy. Unfortunately for them, their version of corporatism will lead to a decimated conservadem ranks, as the Blue Dogs take the brunt of losses today. Serves them right for fighting back against the very things that would have improved their electoral chances -- more stimulus, a middle class tax cut, immigration reform, and so on.
But if you really want to know what Third Way is all about, just look at their Board of Trustees: 22 of the 30 come from Wall Street, including all three officers (and features the global head of equity trading at Goldman Sachs). It's nothing more than a Wall Street front group.
Their agenda can be summarized as follows:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/2/916109/-Third-Way-wants-to-come-out-of-the-shadows
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