Peter1469
05-01-2016, 02:53 PM
Clintonism screwed the Democrats: How Bill, Hillary and the Democratic Leadership Council gutted progressivism (http://www.salon.com/2016/04/30/clintonism_screwed_the_democrats_how_bill_hillary_ and_the_democratic_leadership_council_gutted_progr essivism/)
Salon continues to report on the Clintons and how they harm democrats, progressives and America. Read more of this informative article at the link.
The DLC was crucial to the Clinton’s rise to power, so it’s absolutely essential to understand it, if one wants to understand their politics—and that of the party they’ve so profoundly reshaped—all the way up through Hillary Clinton’s most recent rearticulation of the day.
An excellent starting point for understanding this comes via the much broader focus of Thomas Ferguson and Joel Rogers’s book, Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics (http://www.amazon.com/Right-Turn-Democrats-American-Politics/dp/0809001705). While the book makes references going back to the Carter era, it opens with a meeting of twenty top Democratic Party fund-raisers three weeks after Walter Mondale’s landslide loss in the 1984 election, where they discussed (https://books.google.com/books?id=DEJuVxXDaDwC&pg=PR2&dq=%221988+and+how+they+could+have+more+policy+inf luence+in+that+campaign,+how+they+might+use+their+ fund-raising+skills+to+move+the+party+toward+their+busi ness+oriented,+centrist+viewpoints%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtitn9u6_MAhVC7CYKHfgDAAQQ6AEIHTAA#v=on epage&q=%221988%20and%20how%20they%20could%20have%20more %20policy%20influence%20in%20that%20campaign,%20ho w%20they%20might%20use%20their%20fund-raising%20skills%20to%20move%20the%20party%20towar d%20their%20business%20oriented,%20centrist%20view points%22&f=false) “1988 and how they could have more policy influence in that campaign, how they might use their fund-raising skills to move the party toward their business oriented, centrist viewpoints,” as the Washington Post reported the next day.
It goes on to describe how, two days later, a closely-related group, the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, sponsored a similarly-themed public forum that drew national press attention, dominated by speeches given by Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt and Virginia governor Charles Robb, who, in turn, were also prominent founding members of the Democratic Leadership Council in the following spring, along with Missouri Representative Richard Gephardt and Georgia Senator Sam Nunn (https://books.google.com/books?id=DEJuVxXDaDwC&pg=PA8&dq=%22The+moderate+and+conservative+Democrats+didn %27t+make+it+past+the+first+round+in+its+primaries +in+1984+and+we+want+to+change+that,%E2%80%9D&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiamKCCt6_MAhWFSyYKHc5rCYwQ6AEIIzAB#v=on epage&q=%22The%20moderate%20and%20conservative%20Democra ts%20didn't%20make%20it%20past%20the%20first%20rou nd%20in%20its%20primaries%20in%201984%20and%20we%2 0want%20to%20change%20that,%E2%80%9D&f=false):
“The moderate and conservative Democrats didn’t make it past the first round in its primaries in 1984 and we want to change that,” said Nunn, a major Democratic proponent of increased military spending who had backed John Glenn in the 1984 race.
Right Turn makes it abundantly clear that the DLC was just one facet of a much broader mosaic of elite political reorientation—a reorientation profoundly out of step with the American people, as the book also takes pains to point out. Salon contributor Corey Robin recently illuminated this broader elite shift in a blog post, “When Neoliberalism Was Young: A Lookback on Clintonism before Clinton (http://coreyrobin.com/2016/04/27/when-neoliberalism-was-young-a-lookback-on-clintonism-before-clinton/),” citing in particular “A Neoliberal’s Manifesto (http://coreyrobin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Charles-Peters-Neoliberalism.pdf)” by Charles Peters, founder and editor of The Washington Monthly, in which “The basic orientation is announced in the opening paragraph,” Robin notes:
We still believe in liberty and justice for all, in mercy for the afflicted and help for the down and out. But we no longer automatically favor unions and big government or oppose the military and big business. Indeed, in our search for solutions that work, we have to distrust all automatic responses, liberal or conservative.
This captures neoliberalism in a nutshell: a disavowal of New Deal liberalism in the posture of open-mindness, which (“Ooops, I did it again!”) repeatedly lends itself to conservative cooptation. It quickly became a popular stance in the Democratic donor class, spread further by the publications they financed and other political infrastructure.
Salon continues to report on the Clintons and how they harm democrats, progressives and America. Read more of this informative article at the link.
The DLC was crucial to the Clinton’s rise to power, so it’s absolutely essential to understand it, if one wants to understand their politics—and that of the party they’ve so profoundly reshaped—all the way up through Hillary Clinton’s most recent rearticulation of the day.
An excellent starting point for understanding this comes via the much broader focus of Thomas Ferguson and Joel Rogers’s book, Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics (http://www.amazon.com/Right-Turn-Democrats-American-Politics/dp/0809001705). While the book makes references going back to the Carter era, it opens with a meeting of twenty top Democratic Party fund-raisers three weeks after Walter Mondale’s landslide loss in the 1984 election, where they discussed (https://books.google.com/books?id=DEJuVxXDaDwC&pg=PR2&dq=%221988+and+how+they+could+have+more+policy+inf luence+in+that+campaign,+how+they+might+use+their+ fund-raising+skills+to+move+the+party+toward+their+busi ness+oriented,+centrist+viewpoints%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtitn9u6_MAhVC7CYKHfgDAAQQ6AEIHTAA#v=on epage&q=%221988%20and%20how%20they%20could%20have%20more %20policy%20influence%20in%20that%20campaign,%20ho w%20they%20might%20use%20their%20fund-raising%20skills%20to%20move%20the%20party%20towar d%20their%20business%20oriented,%20centrist%20view points%22&f=false) “1988 and how they could have more policy influence in that campaign, how they might use their fund-raising skills to move the party toward their business oriented, centrist viewpoints,” as the Washington Post reported the next day.
It goes on to describe how, two days later, a closely-related group, the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, sponsored a similarly-themed public forum that drew national press attention, dominated by speeches given by Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt and Virginia governor Charles Robb, who, in turn, were also prominent founding members of the Democratic Leadership Council in the following spring, along with Missouri Representative Richard Gephardt and Georgia Senator Sam Nunn (https://books.google.com/books?id=DEJuVxXDaDwC&pg=PA8&dq=%22The+moderate+and+conservative+Democrats+didn %27t+make+it+past+the+first+round+in+its+primaries +in+1984+and+we+want+to+change+that,%E2%80%9D&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiamKCCt6_MAhWFSyYKHc5rCYwQ6AEIIzAB#v=on epage&q=%22The%20moderate%20and%20conservative%20Democra ts%20didn't%20make%20it%20past%20the%20first%20rou nd%20in%20its%20primaries%20in%201984%20and%20we%2 0want%20to%20change%20that,%E2%80%9D&f=false):
“The moderate and conservative Democrats didn’t make it past the first round in its primaries in 1984 and we want to change that,” said Nunn, a major Democratic proponent of increased military spending who had backed John Glenn in the 1984 race.
Right Turn makes it abundantly clear that the DLC was just one facet of a much broader mosaic of elite political reorientation—a reorientation profoundly out of step with the American people, as the book also takes pains to point out. Salon contributor Corey Robin recently illuminated this broader elite shift in a blog post, “When Neoliberalism Was Young: A Lookback on Clintonism before Clinton (http://coreyrobin.com/2016/04/27/when-neoliberalism-was-young-a-lookback-on-clintonism-before-clinton/),” citing in particular “A Neoliberal’s Manifesto (http://coreyrobin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Charles-Peters-Neoliberalism.pdf)” by Charles Peters, founder and editor of The Washington Monthly, in which “The basic orientation is announced in the opening paragraph,” Robin notes:
We still believe in liberty and justice for all, in mercy for the afflicted and help for the down and out. But we no longer automatically favor unions and big government or oppose the military and big business. Indeed, in our search for solutions that work, we have to distrust all automatic responses, liberal or conservative.
This captures neoliberalism in a nutshell: a disavowal of New Deal liberalism in the posture of open-mindness, which (“Ooops, I did it again!”) repeatedly lends itself to conservative cooptation. It quickly became a popular stance in the Democratic donor class, spread further by the publications they financed and other political infrastructure.