Centerfield

Reinventing Democrats

Kenneth Baer has a good piece in the New Republic about the hits "New Democrats" have been taking from the left. What caught my eye was this passage

If the bloggers and activists who rail against the brain-dead Washington party today went back and read what New Democrats were saying in 1985 and 1989, many would be signing up for the fight. And if the Internet existed in 1985, the DLC might have started with a blog and a series of Meet-Ups instead of a Capitol Hill press conference.

Well, that's what we're trying to do here at the Centrist Coalition, with blogs, internet chat, and a meetup on March 24 at the Kinsale Pub in Boston.

One thing I take issue with in Baer's piece is this:

To begin, New Democrats must banish from their vocabulary words like "centrist," "moderate," and "conservative." And they must make a clear distinction between politicians who embrace those wishy-washy terms and those who truly are New Democrats.

On the contrary, I think it's the label "New Democrat" which has become timeworn after 20 years. How long can anything be new? It's also a label that is not self-evident, and requires an explanation upon first encountering it.

Baer is the author of a book I highly recommend for those of us who are interested in building a centrist movement., Reinventing Democrats. It traces the history of the Democratic Leadership Council from it's origins to its recruitment of Bill Clinton and its ups and downs in the Clinton years. The book grew out of Baer's thesis, and was done with the cooperation of DLC insiders. Baer describes how the DLC set up conferences, policy forums, a newsletter, and a speakers bureau. He also argues, as he does in today's piece, that the New Democrats are not mere compromisers, but have created a distinct public philosophy that balances personal and social responsibility.

One weakness of the DLC that Baer identifies is that it was never able to create a grassroots affiliate. Indeed, fifteen years ago, it created state chapters mostly so that then-Gov. Bill Clinton could trot out to inaugurate them. These state chapters appear to be defunct--there is no mention of them on the DLC's State & Local page, though through Google I managed to find a page which calls itself the Colorado DLC.

Instead, the DLC has always been a leadership organization associated with elected officials. That's why the new Dean "reforms" which focus on the grassroots and take away power from Washington are inherently threatening to the DLC, as its not set up. Without the grassroots affiliates liberal Democrats enjoy, the DLC is on the defensive.

As Baer describes it, the reason that the DLC never was able to organize a grassroots affiliate is that mobilizing swing voters for a partisan cause is almost impossible. With this in mind, the Centrist Coalition is trying to organize moderates on a bipartisan basis. That means supporting moderates in both parties, and those Independents who have a realistic chance.

Posted by rickheller at March 3, 2005 06:47 PM