Screw the DLC

I was going to leave the Ferraro issue alone after she quit the campaign last night. But after watching Keith Olbermann's rant against Hillary Clinton (and a well deserved one) I had to make some comments about this small but very influential group called the Democratic Leadership Council.

The DLC whose most influential members include Bruce Babbitt, Chuck Robb, Dick Gephardt and the late Lawton Chiles, has single-handedly managed to take over and nearly destroy what was once a very proud party in the United States. They have done this by arguing that populism is not the way to win elections; citing the crushing defeats of George McGovern and Walter Mondale. Thanks to the DLC, Democrats in the key leadership positions are no longer the party of Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt. They are, in point of fact, a centre-right party disguised as a liberal one. This is largely due to the groundwork done by a number of rightist Democrats in Congress but best exemplified by Bill Clinton.

It's not that the DLC is all bad. Quite the contrary -- the Third Way gave new vigour to a party that was disspirited during the Reagan era. But like any think-tank, ideas need to be reviewed every so often. The Third Way remains stuck in the 1990s, and refuses to accept that every so often a little bit of populism can't hurt that much. In fact, it's their opposition to populism that partly explains the election (flawed or not) of GWB.

It's therefore no surprise that the DLC has put its enormous weight behind their candidate this year -- Hillary Clinton. Why they are doing everything they can to stop the populism and even pragmatism of their arch-enemy Barack Obama.

Bottom line: The DLC and both Clintons are the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. It's time for the Democratic wing of the party to stand up and tell the DLC where their proper place is -- in the GOP. It's also time for the real Hillary Clinton to stand up and tell the world where her loyalties lie -- and with which party.

Those are my thoughts. Now, here's Olbermann's -- and I think he's absolutely right to bring up the spectre of David Duke.



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