Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'

[IndianaGreen]

It is significant that the DLC's website has an excerpt from a Politico article in which Obama is quoted as being one of them. If true, this may explain a lot of things that progressives have found consternating about the Obama Administration.

The use of the term "pro-growth" is also disturbing, for I always associated that term with the rapacious capitalists in the conservative Club for Growth.

Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'

By Jonathan Martin and Carol E. Lee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Politico.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, he offered a statement of solidarity.

"I am a New Democrat," he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.

The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

Obama made his comment in discussing his budget priorities and broader goals, also calling himself a "pro-growth Democrat" during the course of conversation.

The self-descriptions are striking given Obama's usual caution in being identified with any wing of his often-fractious party. He largely avoided the Democratic Leadership Council -- the centrist group that Bill Clinton once led -- and, with an eye on his national political standing, has always shied away from the liberal label, too.

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254931&kaid=85&subid=900184

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[EFerrari]

6. It pretty much rules out hope and change, doesn't it.

[AndyA]

15. Sounds like it to me.

So much for change. We have all that with the Republicans. I guess you could say Republican Lite?

Fed up with middle of the road (which is actually right side) Democrats. We need BALANCE, not more of the same.

Obama + change = FAIL

[girl gone mad]

42. I don't even think the term "Republican Lite" applies anymore.

They're full on Republicans who pretend to give a fuck about liberal social issues rather than pretending to give a fuck about Christian conservative social issues like the Republicans who actually call themselves Republicans do.

[grasswire]

2. politico's really stirring the shite lately

Mofos.

[IndianaGreen]

3. It is the DLC that has kept the story on their website

Why would they do that unless the Politico story fits their goals, and perhaps it is even true?

[TheWraith]

48. Because the Politico story DOES fit their goals of fucking with the left.

Funny how some people here think the DLC are liars incarnate until they say something you agree with. :eyes:

[Pirate Smile]

8. This is old. The OP is stirring the shite as usual.

[IndianaGreen]

9. The DLC still has it on their website, and the DLC is the corporate wing of the Democratic Party

and they are the most warmongering of all Democrats.

Houston, we got a problem!

[nosmokes]

17. stirring the shit = telling the truth when it hurts

a word of advice: NEVER make a politician your hero, for you will be disappointed.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

37. I remember my grandmother (1885-1985) quoting her...

Uncle Joe: "Politicians are as crooked as the hind leg of a dog."


That oft-repeated caution has kept my eyes open and my expectations realistic.

It's very unwise to invest your hopes, dreams and ideals in a shape-shifter.

[Enrique]

24. this helps Obama

Obama is obviously going out of his way to be perceived as a centrist, so Politico is doing him a favor here.

If they were "stirring up shit," Obama could have protested it. We know it's possible because he has done it in the past. Back in 2003, when he was running in the democratic senate primary in IL, some progressives actually did "stir up the shit" about the DLC claiming him as a member on their website. Back then it was damaging to him to be seen as a centrist, so he told them to take his name off. Now it's another matter and he's got no problem at all with Politico or the DLC quoting him this way.

[Cleita]

4. A new Democrat IMHO is an old Republican in the style of DDE.

I think I want an old Democrat in the style of FDR.

[Howler]

5. +1 n/t

n/t

[The Hope Mobile]

7. I'd take Eisenhouwer over Obama any day though I definitely hoped for FDR

At least Eisenhouwer sensed the danger of the Military Industrial Complex and warned against it. Obama is in bed with it.

[buff2]

11. WOW

Just wow...:wow:

[amandabeech]

33. I doubt that Eisenhower would have presided over a nearly complete de-industrialization

of our country, either.

Obama and his gang of economic gangsters want to do just that.

Really, Eisenhower looks pretty good right now.

Look at Johnson, even. He was socially progressive and understood the need for jobs. He got us deeper into Viet Nam.

Obama is getting us deeper into Afghanistan, and I think we'll be in Yemen and in Africa, too, by the time the Obamas return to Chicago.

Yet, Obama doesn't seem to care one whit about jobs for regular Americans.

Yes, Johnson looks good to me now.

I'm still looking for a new FDR, and I'm not seeing him or her anywhere. I doubt that he or she will show up until after we fix our scandalous corporate-sponsored elections.

[suzie]

51. FDR, that the same guy who hung out with Staln and interned

Japanese-American citizens?

Yeah, he was perfect in all kinds of ways that Obama isn't.

[Name removed]

55. Deleted message

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[suzie]

59. My only point was that FDR was not perfect, for those constantly

saying that they want a new FDR, a new LBJ, a new someone that they can compare Obama unfavorably with.

Any president will have done things that we disagree with, but it seems that Obama is being constantly held to a standard of absolute perfection.

[YOY]

60. If you act as though meeting with Stalin was an "imperfection" then you are sadly mistaken.

n.t.

[ThomCat]

50. +1

I agree.

[FiveGoodMen]

65. Agreed.

(sadly)

[YOY]

14. +1

n/t

[GreenArrow]

34. A new Democrat is an old Republican in the style of RWR

Ronald Wilson Reagan.

[Cleita]

36. No, I believe RWR was the vanguard of the new Republican nutjob, religious

model that has emerged full grown from his brain.

[GreenArrow]

38. The religious nutcasery was only part of Reagan's legacy.

The real problem with Reagan was his dismantling of social programs in favor of corporations and defense, a model which has been followed by Presidents of both parties since. Another nasty leftover from the Reagan era is the continued move right by the Democratic party in its attempt to reclaim the "traditional values" voters that voted for Reagan. The left was strong after Ike; it has weakened itself increasingly post-Reagan.

[Goldstein1984]

39. RWR was a ventriloquist's dummy.

When Ronald Reagan spoke, you could see Donald Regan's lips moving.

[Nite Owl]

10. No wonder they seem to hate Dean

and refuse to give him any credit.
Guess I'm apart of the democratic wing of the democratic party and not a fake republican! He sure didn't run on being a "New Democrat". We were used.

[Jennicut]

12. This article is originally from March 11th.

[IndianaGreen]

13. and very much relevant today

Thank you DLC for keeping it on your website. I guess that has some meaning for the DLC ringknockers.

[Jennicut]

16. So Obama is part of the DLC or the DLC wants him to be part of the DLC?

My own rep, Chris Murpy is part of the New Dem coalition but his votes have been very good and he is well liked in his district in CT. He is even talked about as possibly running against Joe Lieberman in 2012. Is this supposed to prove that Obama is evil or something?

[dionysus]

29. you're just wasting your breath.

:hi:

[Vidar]

18. Boss Tweed is a very old model, Obama!

[cornermouse]

19. At this point I'd rather have an Old Democrat.

You know, the kind that believed in right of privacy, rights for women, gays, and other minorities, saw unions as a part of the party membership rather than an obstacle to be destroyed. Yep. I'd rather have an Old Democrat.

[QC]

35. Hell, even an old Republican would be a step up.

Nixon was to the left of Obama in many ways.

[Goldstein1984]

40. All most any pre-1980 make and model would be nice.

[QC]

41. Very true. That's when everything really fell apart, isn't it?

That's when the great assault on the public good began in earnest.

[Goldstein1984]

44. And it's been trickle downhill ever since

[nightrain]

20. knr. Thanks for posting this! I hadn't seen it, didn't know there was a "New

Democrat Coalition". On the one hand it helps me ferret out Obama's values, they've been rather mysterious to me this past year. I thought I had a pretty good sense of him during the campaign.

On the other hand, I fear for what these values portend for governing. Is this the switch part?

[rocktivity]

21. "Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Politico..."

:boring:
rocktivity

[Oregone]

22. Hm. If only he was referring to the Canadian party

[ProSense]

23. Damning. n/t

[Odin2005]

25. The original Fascists called themselves the "Third Way", just like the DLC.

[Cleita]

30. They are the friendlier and

lighter version of fascists. Melding business and government is fascism by any definition. They really have no business in the party of the working class and poor.

[democrank]

26. See reply #19.

[nightrain]

27. okay, things are beginning to add up now for me about this "New

Democrat Coalition". There's a website--

http://ndc.crowley.house.gov/index.php


You can search for members, and there they are, among them my House Rep. No wonder there's been such a disconnect there too. This guy ran as a progressive, used "progressive values" in his latest solicitation for funds, and his voting record is hardly progressive. Now I get it. More bait and switch.

[Bullet1987]

28. I guess we can stop calling him a Progressive now?

[nightrain]

53. yes. Now I see where he's coming from, not that I like it...

we need to know MUCH more about their philosophy and values.

[TheKentuckian]

31. Bring back the old Democrats and down with the new DLC

[Krashkopf]

32. WTF DLC!

The DLC represents everything that is WRONG with the Democratic Party. Its the same old same old corporatist bull shit.

[Goldstein1984]

43. This is all amazing to me.

Ten years ago, when I changed my registration from Democrat to Nonpartisan, it was just because I saw the Democratic Party wandering off to the right without me. I just started voting principles and issues, without a thought given to party platform or what the party was doing. I ceased being a Democrat and became just a democratic voter.

For most of my life, I've carried an image of what the Democratic Party should be. That image was built during the Civil Rights Movement, the farm workers strikes, and the Vietnam War Protests. All of this "DLC" and "New Democrat" and "Third Way" stuff in no way resembles what the party should be.

I've spent the last month here reading and responding to the posts of others, and writing my own posts and pouring over the replies. This former democratic activist trying to jump start a new career in activism is learning something new every minute, much of it a major disappointment.

This OP makes all the sense in the world to me given what I'm seeing in the nation and the world (and on DU). Progressives, regardless of how they are demonized, seem to be the only group remotely resembling what a Democrat should be.

I'm not playing the party platform game; I won't follow the lesser-of-two-evils voting model. As of this day, and not solely based on this good OP, I am looking for an alternative to what we have. I want a better presidential nominee for 2012. Something other than a "New Democrat," which seems to me to be nothing but a Neoconservative repeating democratic soundbites out of one side of his mouth and conservative soundbites out of the other.

I won't know how I'm going to vote in the future until the future gets here. A lot can happen. But, if the future looks anything like the present, then I'm opposed to it, and I won't vote for it.

If better only waits for us on the other side of much worse, then let's get it over with so the smoke settles in time for my granddaughter to have a decent life.

Agree or disagree. (This is where I would like to be able to write: It's a fee country.)

[Ildem09]

45. uggh we were hosed.

I thought Obama was supposed to be the death knell for the DLC, little did i know he was a sleeper agent for them

[shopgreen]

72. that is the beauty of those sleepers.

[EndElectoral]

46. I wish Obama would be more like FDR, but unfortunately he's not.

[hulka38]

47. It's the DLC trying to relabel the DLC.

Obama can still say, “I am not currently, nor have I ever been, a member of the DLC”, and he'd be technically correct.

[Skittles]

49. the New Democrat sucks

[Romulox]

52. New Democrats = Old Republicans. Simple as that. nt

[dflprincess]

61. +1

[invictus]

71. +2

[Hippo_Tron]

54. Nothing really new here, Obama's policies have been third way since the campaign

New Deal style Democrats aren't viable without a New Deal coalition and that coalition dismantled when the bigots in the coalition decided that keeping black people from having equal rights was more important than economic issues. Ever since then the party's coalition is made up of minorities, women, social liberals, and middle-upper class suburbanites who don't like the religious wrong but wouldn't benefit from returning to pre-Reagan economic policies.

Until somebody figures out how to get working class white people to stop voting on social issues, we are going to be stuck with third way Democrats.

[LWolf]

56. Which was obvious to the small fraction

of us paying attention during the primaries, and why the "He's not DLC!!!!!" declarations of so many DUers seemed so ludicrous at the time.

[NorthCarolina]

57. If you are just now realizing Obama is DLC, you really haven't been paying attention

He was listed on their membership roster the entire length of his Senate term, only asking that his name be removed from their roster after becoming a candidate for President. There is no way he, being the shrewd politician he is, would have been "unaware" of being listed as a DLC member. It's all politics. The bright side in all of this, if there is one, is that more Democrats have become aware of the DLC, and whose interests are actually represented by the DLC (and it isn't the voters)...perhaps now the voters can work to reclaim the Democratic Party as an advocate of the people, and leave the Corporatists to the GOP.

[sabrina 1]

63. Good post. I remember Obama being featured on the DLC

website and the uproar it caused when it was discovered. Apparently Progressives were not being ignored back then as their votes were needed. So the DLC removed Obama from their site.

His choice of SOC however, was a clear signal that he was not from the progressive wing of the party.

I too agree with it is very beneficial to finally understand why the Dem Party no longer fights for the issues they claim to fight for.

The DLC has been described by Dean as the 'Republican wing of the Democratic Party'.

Knowing what we now know, that the DLC intends to continue to move the Dem Party to the right, it is easier to plan a strategy to organize progressives and support candidates that will replace DLCers in Congress and defeat them when they run.

Right now eg, Jane Harman, DLCer is being challenged by Marcy Winograd, progressive. The Party Machine is supporting Harman. When they did that in the last election, it was hard to comprehend considering Harman's record. Now, it's easy. I believe if progressives, who helped get a Dem majority by using their considerable skills and donations, get behind people like Winograd, it is possible to turn this Congress around. I prefer knowing what we are dealing with. Now we can demonstrate whether the progressive wing of the party, once they are focused and organized, is 'irrelevant' as Rahm and his cabal of DLCers have said.

[NorthCarolina]

64. Voters need to be able to know who the DLC candidate is, and when there is a primary challenge from

a Progressive. I think too many simply assume that if they are running as a Democrat, they are "Progressive". This couldn't be farther from the truth of course, but there needs to be a concerted effort to educate voters on the difference between the DLC candidate versus his/her Progressive challenger, rather than the DLC candidate slipping by for the simple fact they are incumbent, and have a "D" after their name. An educated electorate is the only real path for wresting the Democratic Party from Conservative control.

[mmonk]

58. Thanks for that. I may use it sometime soon

on my blog for analysis. Of course, we were told that the DLC would be where policy is determined by Harold Ford I believe sometime back.

[ieoeja]

62. While I am anti-DLC/neo-lib/whatever ... this is a post about internal Party issues.

As a Green Party member, this is really none of the OP's business.

If you want to post progressive complaints about given Democrats in an effort to lure folks to the Green side, knock yourself out. But as a non-member, you have no say in how Democrats organize ourselves.

[IndianaGreen]

66. FAIL! I am not now, or ever been, a member of the bourgeois Green Party.

I will point out that unlike SPUSA or DSA, there are no party dues, or membership cards in the Democratic Party. Anyone that votes in the closed Indiana Democratic primary is by definition a Democrat.

BTW, RED is my favorite color!

[ieoeja]

70. So you're a Democrat who just hasn't ever met a Democratic pol she liked?

You sure as heck didn't vote for Obama or Clinton in that closed primary. Was anyone still on the ticket when it got to Indiana?

[IndianaGreen]

74. The level of your ignorance matches that of Sarah Palin

Why don't you do a search of my posts during the primary season, or take a short incursion into the Indiana forum, before you post another stupid comment.

[seeinfweggos]

67. boring

pretty funny you think this is controversial. this whole thread is textbook example of an echo chamber so far removed from real life that it really should be studied by anthropologists ,ones who like a good laugh.

[Raine]

68. "New" Democrat = same old shit

as we've been enduring for years. x(

[harun]

69. lol, got that right!

[DailyGrind51]

73. I am an Old FDR/JFK Democrat!