The DLC Platform

[Killarney]

So I've heard here that the DLC is the evil empire and all that and I want to learn specifically why. Not rhetoric (they're DINOS, they're beholden to corporations, they eat puppies for breakfast), but actual DLC platform positions that you disagree with. I know of one (welfare to work), but I'd like to know what DLC platforms you are against. Thanks.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. The whole baby-slaughtering thing.

Seems a little too centrist for me tastes.

[madfloridian]

2. Their articles putting down those of us who were and ARE anti-war.

I am a moderate Democrat who has been ashamed of my country for an unjust invasion of another country.

The DLC has several articles on their site literally telling us to get over it and actually making fun of us.

One of them is called "Good Night, Vietnam."

Read it. www.ndol.org

People at DU used to be against this war, and it was very obvious at the time. Now it seems to be ok, so just move along.

[Killarney]

3. Wait a minute...

the DLC was FOR the war?
:wtf:

[madfloridian]

4. I don't know, honestly. They are just against anti-war folks.

Read Good Night, Vietnam. Think about it. Do a search there. The PPI, which shares offices with the DLC, has a policy called, I think, "progressive imperialism."

It is at the PPI site, which is the same site as the DLC.

[Killarney]

6. Found it.

No, I did not like the tone of that article.

[tom_paine]

7. Man, they suck! These assholes sent me a form asking for $$$

Glad I put off sending it in until I found out about them.. I oughta send them a brick with the "postage paid" part taped to it.

Man, I'm a moderate, too, and many of my positions are probably in line with theirs but what's with using the Bushevik Playbook to bash libs?!? :wtf: THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR A TIMID CENTRIST "NDOL" PARTY!

Hell, and I'm a centrist myself who is deeply disturbed that the Democratic Party is now on my right and the Busheviks are just to the left of Hitler and Himmler, up to and including their use of Nazi-style propaganda strategies.

But, for right now, NDOL is the last thing we need.

And the way they bash the libs, ESPECIALLY using Bushevik Terminology, is repugnant beyond belief.

[Warpy]

10. "Business as Usual"

That sums up the DLC. They are pro corporate, anti labor. They have turned the Dems from a grasroots party with local organizers into just another agency drumming up funds from coproations and professional groups. Their campaign style can best be seen in both the Gore campaign and the failed Congressional campaigns in 2002, a bland, "don't rock the boat" style meant to woo yuppies and to hell with the rest of us. They are magnificently able to turn off the working class core of the party and are therefore magnificently able to lose campaigns.

THAT is why I think it's time for the DLC to go.

[Cleita]

5. Health care.

They are still flogging the dead horse of private health insurance as being fine as long as there is some regulation like a patient's bill of rights. This of course will never happen because there is no profit in it. Private health insurance is for profit and does not provide adequate coverage for people who need health care the most, the sick and elderly. Only a single payer system of universal health care like Canada has will fix our broken system yet the DLC is so beholden to corporate interests that they won't address the elephant in their living room.

[madfloridian]

8. Here are a couple of revealing articles.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=251455
SNIP..."No one should dictate U.S. policy towards post-war Iraq, the Middle East, or for that matter, Northern Ireland. But Tony Blair has richly earned the right to speak, and the right to be heard. Certainly President Bush, who has shown a serious unwillingness to listen to his critics at home and abroad throughout his Administration, should listen carefully to any advice he hears from this proven ally....."
My comment, in hindsight Blair did not exactly get it right about Iraq.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=3916&kaid=124&subid=307
America's New Mission
by Will Marshall
SNIP....."The United States has no choice but to wage total war on terror; self-defense and self-respect demand it. But the moment demands something more: the vigorous exercise of American power to buttress the global community of liberal democracies and to extend the fruits of modernity -- economic opportunity, individual freedom, respect for human rights -- to the world's breeding grounds of discontent and terror.

SNIP...."What's needed now is not just a war on terror, but a broad struggle against all of these forces of global disintegration and disorder. It will be a new kind of war against a new kind of enemy. Instead of clashing armies, it will feature surgical strikes on tiny terrorist cells and suspected weapons labs. Instead of a stable front, we will fight on a constantly shifting "battlefield" that could be anywhere in the world -- even in our own communities. Success will be measured not in body counts and ground gained, but in networks penetrated, communications intercepted, bank transfers blocked, and secret weapons programs uncovered and stopped. It will be a war in which intelligence and surveillance, deft multilateral diplomacy, and heightened vigilance on the home front will matter as much as military prowess...."

Could you tell me how this is different from the PNAC goals?

[Bandit]

9. Maybe you could tell us what you believe their platform is so we can

reply to how we feel about it. From everything I have heard from them it is just "Get Over It" attitude that is what the US is telling Haiti right now.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Don't forget the bit about cozying up to corporate money

[CTLawGuy]

12. the DLC is the POISON

that infects our party. They destroyed Howard Dean in conjunction with the Corporate media.

[madfloridian]

14. Yes, everyone should do a search there on Howard Dean.

Again, the website is www.ndol.org

You will be amazed at their contempt of him.

[struggle4progress]

15. Yeah ...

Their attack on Dean looked like it was designed to splinter the party. It looks like Lieberman's still reading out of their playbook. I don't mind honest disagreement, and I've supported plenty of folks who I don't see eye-to-eye with, but they'll never get a penny from me.

[Lars39]

13. Here's some info on the DLC:

Courtesy of IkedWarnedUs and Eloriel:

The DLC is a Trojan Horse for the neo-cons


I saw your other thread asking questions about PNAC. I hope you read through the links and info there to understand why this is so alarming.

The neo-cons have been putting their cabal together for many, many years and they have covered a lot of bases. They developed unholy alliances in the media, military, foreign governments, corporate world and have taken the Republican party to a place many traditional Republicans find uncomfortable. And, through the DLC, have infiltrated the Democratic party as well. As evidence I offer:

PNAC has issued a number of official statements, including their Statement of Purpose (6/3/97), Letter to Clinton encouraging him to attack Iraq (1/26/98), Statement on Post War Iraq (3/19/03) and their Second Statement on Post War Iraq (3/23/03).

Each of these statements were signed by 20-30 people. Among the signers are:

Will Marshall, the president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and former Policy Director for the DLC is a signer on PNAC's two statements on Iraq. PPI was created to set policy for the DLC and is very closely connected to the DLC.

Tod Lindberg, published by The Blueprint (DLC magazine) also signed both PNAC Iraq statements, as did James Steinberg, Deputy National Security Advisor to President Clinton.

Marshall Wittman, another Blueprint author, is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute (Richard Perle, trustee) and former aid to Ralph Reed.

There is another group, The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) that was formed in the fall of 2002. Its Mission Statement says:

"The regime of Saddam Hussein has attacked its neighbors, acquired weapons of mass destruction, and directed those weapons against innocent men, women, and children. It has supported international terrorism and has savagely murdered and repressed the Iraqi people. The current government of Iraq poses a clear and present danger to its neighbors, to the United States, and to free peoples throughout the world."

Where have we heard that before?

It says they "will engage in educational and advocacy efforts" in support of liberating the Iraqi people.

Translation: it serves as another "authority" to support the PNAC agenda.

Who are The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq?

CLI Officers

Chairman of the Board Bruce P. Jackson

Executive Director Randy Scheunemann

Treasurer Julie Finley

Secretary Gary Schmitt

(Jackson, Scheunemann and Schmitt all signed the PNAC Statements on Iraq. Schmitt is also a founder of PNAC.)

Advisors include PNAC'ers Dr. Eliot Cohen, Robert Kagan, Peter Galbraith, William Kristol, Will Marshall, Josh Muravchik, Richard Perle, Danielle Pletka and James Woolsey. All were part of the select few who put their names to one or more of the PNAC statements above.

Note, Will Marshall, policy director of the DLC, is an advisor to CLI.

(Link to CLI website: http://209.50.252.70/index.shtml )

Finally, take a look at what the Blueprint (the DLC magazine) had to say right after 9/11.

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=3916


The Case Against Saddam
By Khidir Hamza The Blueprint Magazine 11/15/01

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?&kaid=124&subid=307&contentid=3926


And this one from well before the 9/11 attacks:

Why 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=2980


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The Blueprint speaks and you can hardly see Perle's lips move.

I'm sure many of the New Democrats (what DLC members are called) joined on for funding support and without really understanding what the DLC's agenda really is. Most of the DLC's message is spun to sound like it challenges Bush, but look at the core messages and you find them more closely alligned with the neo-cons than it appears on the surface.

When you realize this, Congressional Democratic support for the Bush administration's policies (out of control military budget, tax cuts and war, war, war) makes more sense.

That's the problem I have with the DLC.



One more point: there's some VERY rightwing money (Bradley Foundation and others I think) in the funding of DLC too.