This has to be great news for Republicans. Daily Kos is officially calling out the DLC, calling them sad and ridiculous. He argues that the future of the Democratic Party depends upon them tilting further to the left, towards populism, and abandoning the middle.
The DLC's principle success, the election of Clinton in 1992 and 1996, wasn't significant he argues because he only won by pluralities. He promises solid majorities for the Democrats if they abandon the middle and push progressive candidates: "We helped build this majority. Not the DLC's 350 or so members. This is no longer their party. And as such, we can look forward to finally being truly competitive for years to come." He is almost certainly over reaching in this assessment. Scandal, incompetence and Iraq won Democrats the majority vote for Congress.
They are responding to an opinion piece in the Washington Post by two leading DLC Democrats urging the party not to ignore the "vital center." Losing the center risks elections, but a strategy shutting the center out makes it easier for party activists to pass their agenda--if in fact they do win. Kos argues that this is just the party establishment preserving its position of power, and there is certainly truth to that.
But the divisiveness could well turn out to be the Democrats' Achille's Heel. Republicans will certainly do what they can to drive the two sides apart. If the coalition cannot hold, the Republicans win. They may even attempt to stake positions on issues designed to lure some of the DLC'ers off to their party. It worked with Lieberman. This National Journal story about how Karl Rove charmed a meeting of DLC friendly Democrats hints about how it may be done.
Showing posts with label dailykos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dailykos. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
Nothing Changes?
The Mainstream media has been covering the latest (physical, not cyber) gathering of fans of the Daily Kos, a left-liberal blog that has helped pull the Democratic Party--for better or worst--further to the left than it was when Clinton was president.
E.J. Dionne calls Markos Moulitsas--aka Kos--the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh, whose mastery of talk radio has never been duplicated by liberals. Many are suggesting the internet, as a medium, tilts as much to the left as talk radio tilts to the right.
Like most opinion leaders on the edges of the liberal conservative spectrum, Kos focuses as much, if not more, rage on moderate Democrats willing to compromise with the president as he does on Republicans. The more powerful they become, or seem to become, the more they can persuade candidates to stake out positions to the left.
As an indication that they are succeeding, almost all the Democratic candidates spoke before the Yearly Kos, though none attended the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC helped develop the centrist ideas that won Clinton the elections of 1992 and 1996, and Gore the popular vote in 2000. But nothing fails like success and the liberal wing, which began rearing its head with Howard Dean's 2004 candidacy (Dean was an ex-DLC'er by the way) now wants it all. Which may not be a good thing for Democrats if they want to win in 2008. There just aren't that many hard core liberals out there.
Commentators also seem to point out an irony of the yearly convention--which was aimed at the liberal blogosphere. Once you got to see them, they looked suspiciously white, male and middle aged, just like everyone else in politics.
It makes you wonder if, once the web becomes mainstream, we'll be back where we all started.
E.J. Dionne calls Markos Moulitsas--aka Kos--the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh, whose mastery of talk radio has never been duplicated by liberals. Many are suggesting the internet, as a medium, tilts as much to the left as talk radio tilts to the right.
Like most opinion leaders on the edges of the liberal conservative spectrum, Kos focuses as much, if not more, rage on moderate Democrats willing to compromise with the president as he does on Republicans. The more powerful they become, or seem to become, the more they can persuade candidates to stake out positions to the left.
As an indication that they are succeeding, almost all the Democratic candidates spoke before the Yearly Kos, though none attended the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC helped develop the centrist ideas that won Clinton the elections of 1992 and 1996, and Gore the popular vote in 2000. But nothing fails like success and the liberal wing, which began rearing its head with Howard Dean's 2004 candidacy (Dean was an ex-DLC'er by the way) now wants it all. Which may not be a good thing for Democrats if they want to win in 2008. There just aren't that many hard core liberals out there.
Commentators also seem to point out an irony of the yearly convention--which was aimed at the liberal blogosphere. Once you got to see them, they looked suspiciously white, male and middle aged, just like everyone else in politics.
It makes you wonder if, once the web becomes mainstream, we'll be back where we all started.
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