I'm sure you all are heartbroken.
The Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist Democratic group that once dominated the party and provided much of the core intellectual framework of the Bill Clinton presidency, could be on the verge of demise.
Ben Smith at Politico reports:
The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.
Interestingly, the DLC's associated think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, appears to still be alive and well.
5 comments:
Somehow I doubt that centrist Democrats are all going to disappear. Especially with the Republicans making it so toxic for centrist Republicans, there will probably always be room in the Democratic party for centrists (at least I hope so because there are a lot of votes to be had by allying with centrists).
I find the argument that the centrist Democrats lost an intra-party conflict to be specious. It is true that some members of the DLC tilted very rightward, like Lieberman, and the party moved away from them. It is also true that a more activist wing of the party promoted youth and such with Dean in '04 and Obama in '08. But the DLC won in a broad sense. The Democratic party today is so different from the liberal party of the 1980s that talked of nuclear freeze during the Cold War, advocated the ERA, affirmative action, and blasted right-to-work efforts. The Democratic party today is very centrist. The DLC is going away because it is no longer needed.
I think LTG makes a good point. Really what we are talking about is the demise of a single PAC not the decline of an entire ideological approach.
Actually, the so called "Blue Dogs" did very well in 2006 and 2008 but got hammered in 2010. They may be back again in 2012.
The "Blue Dogs" were really moderate Republicans from rural areas trying to hitch a ride on the anti-Bush thing in 2006 and 2008. That's my opinion. They were not likely to survive. Nor are they missed.
That's being disingenuous to the "Blue Dogs." They've been around a lot longer than GW. They are a long standing and legitimate wing of the Democratic party.
Those who pursue ideological purity in a two party system like ours are doomed to failure.
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