by Andrew Zajac
Eager to have a hand in setting the Democratic Party's fall election agenda, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council heads to Chicago this weekend for a "national conversation" about where the party and the country need to be heading.
The DLC applies the term 'progressive' to its positions, but it tends to rely on middle-of-the-road market-oriented solutions to policy issues. Critics charge this gives the corporate business perspective too much sway in Democratic circles.
The DLC, in turn, worries that the identity and interest politics of the party -- think race, gender and environmentalism, for instance -- turn off voters and make it harder to win in more conservative areas of the country, like the South.
As a general rule, the DLC thinks the party should steer clear of populist positions, which translates into staunch support for free trade, wariness of market regulation and opposition to universal single-payer health care.
Among other things, the DLC is anxious to make sure likely Dem presidential nominee Barack Obama has a strong, clear national defense message in his campaign.
Here's the group's announcement about the upcoming meeting:
Groundbreaking Gathering of Democratic Officials in Chicago
** DLC's National Conversation trails only National Convention in size **
In this historic election year, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is proud to host the largest gathering of Democratic elected officials from all levels of government, outside of the Democratic National Convention, for one weekend of policy breakouts and discussion of the ideas that will shape the country's future at its 12th annual DLC National Conversation at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Chicago, Illinois, June 28-30.
Policy workshops, panel discussions and a general session will look towards the 2008 election, the most pivotal fight for the political center in a generation, and beyond the election to the policies of a successful administration. The weekend will also focus heavily on legislators discussing progressive policies that work around the country on the state and local level and how those can be implemented in other regions.
The DLC will be joined by over 300 elected officials of all levels, ranging from State Delegate, to Governor, to U.S. Senator, with such attendees as Sen. Tom Carper (Del.), Gov. Phil Bredesen (Tenn.), Gov. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.), and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (Kan.).
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Comments
heads to Chicago this weekend for a "national conversation" about where the party and the country need to be heading.
With 82% of Americans unhappy with where the country is headed, I can't see how another 4 years of Bush like politics will thrill Americans.
Posted by: bill r. | June 24, 2008 8:06 AM
Food for thought for DLC dels as they head to Chicago:
From "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-republicans-have-already-figured.html
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
What the Republicans Have Already Figured Out: "Arrogance" Equals Allowable Racism
What you will be seeing in the coming days:
The Republicans have already figured it out.
They know that precisely because Obama's greatest strength is in the fact that he offers something new, a change from long-held traditions of the past--that it is also his greatest weakness.
They know that the fervent bubbly enthusiasm is a concern--deeply buried ambiguities about race, deeply held racism, especially among older voters.
For a time, they were caught by the dilemma that Obama seemed invulnerable--that any attack, particularly the attacks that they have honed and used for so long, steeped in insinuation and vicious invention, would be regarded as racist.
Hence, the dilemma for the usual swift boat strategy.
Now they have found it. They have realized that:
1) Americans want to be free of the burdens and division of racism;
2) Many of them--including many of those who wish to be free--are not;
3) Republicans cannot raise racist issues frontally, because many people hold such views at the same time that they do not wish to see themselves as holding them;
4) They need a substitute--distanced enough from overt racism to be acceptable to those who wish to see themselves as egalitarian but still hold deeply seated racial prejudices, and fears, yet close enough to evoke those very doubts and fears--yet one that they can claim is *not* racist--with the traditional smug pose of Republican innocence, hands up, pleased at their cleverness at providing one message while claiming another, the tradition of attack over thought and truth that carried us all the way to Iraq--and beyond.
The substitute is "arrogance".
As the 527's gear up, look to see "arrogance" and "elitist" used again and again as this cycle's dark touchstone to evoke the deepest and unspoken doubts and fears, as they work in the mental demilitarized grey zone between racism and rationalization, calling up the vitriol with that classic combination of the pose of "clean hands" inevitably broken though by the barely contained, smug, blunt, adolescent glee of insinuated attack.
Elitist. He who grew up with a single mother. Who earned his academic progress through scholarships. Who turned down top law firms for the streets of Chicago.
No matter--the term itself will be enough to unleash the self-satisfied vitriolic scrawl--just enough of a peg to hang itself on to loose the traditional and safest prejudices, as always, so boldly feeling their unloosed anger as they ironically turn to the most familiar and comfortable shibboleths.
"Arrogance" equals acceptable racism here. One that can always be disclaimed. In other words, hiding truth behind a known facade, in the most common and seemingly pleasurable Republican tactic--fear inducing insinuation behind a known facade--and pleasure and pride in the manufacture of the known guise.
Wise up. Don't buy it. Turn such insinuated doubts away. If they need to manipulate you to stimulate your belief, question their motives.
If you didn't do it for Iraq--if you fell for the directed manipulation of fear, of the use of innuendo to stir undemonstrated and unrelated fears--you now have a second chance.
Do it now.
Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-republicans-have-already-figured.html
Posted by: Marie Stewart | June 24, 2008 8:32 AM
Who cares if the DLC is coming to town? Since Barack Obama clinched the nomination for President, these losers have little more influence on the course of events than the members of the flat earth society!
Posted by: fedup dem | June 24, 2008 9:54 AM
I do have something against market- based solutions to our multitude of national problems. It actually compounds the already existing problems, from cost, accountability to patronage. There are very few of our national problems that I can see, that can be handled by corporations, without the gouging, the malfeasance, fraud, bribery and, above all, the unaccountability!! That is the essence of the beast !! Do we really know, with a fairly good amount of confidence, what the actual amount of profits the Oil Corporations took in last year ?? It is said that they took in 123 BILLION DOLLARS in profits, last year. I, for one, don't believe those numbers, I think their profits were greater and the same can be said of the Movie Corps and the Financial Corps. They are in the business of making money, however they go about doing it !! Enron is the classic example and look at the damage it visited on many of the people that worked for that Corporation. There are too many national problems to be left to the Corporations and they shouldn't be invited to rob us some more !!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | June 24, 2008 11:29 AM
Fitz the economist chimes in,
Do you know how EnRon's accounting practices were discovered? It wasn't a gov't agency that discovered the accounting shanigans, it was teh WSJ - a private company. Are you using a gov't produced PC to type these pearls of wisdom? Is you car gov't made? How about your clothes? How about your house - was that built by the gov't?
You are a product of the CPS correct?
Posted by: Terry | June 24, 2008 8:10 PM