I have been going through some old files today, and I thought…why not? Why not post these incredible, awesome Dean/DLC battles from 2003. Everyone else is irate today on the topic, and maybe it won’t hurt to remember a little.
His voice stirred my husband and me out of a depression about our country. We have occasional moments of despairing again now and then, but DFA activities keep us fairly sane.
Sometimes I fear the right wing in the party, with their passion for political correctness and careful words that say nothing…..will hurt us still in the future. Then Howard Dean makes a TV appearance, and he says things that are clear and thoughtful. We breathe easy and hope again. We need clearness so much now.
Anyway, here is a compilation of the DLC memos in 2003 toward the fringe activists…that’s me and most of you. Howard took up for us, but most never knew that. So here goes. Below the fold.
In 2003 Howard Dean stood for activists when the DLC called us “fringe”.
Dean Statement in Response to DLC’s Charge that Public Servants are
“Fringe Activists”
“Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as `fringe activists’ who do not reflect `the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’
“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don’t need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand
up for them.”
Posted by Mathew Gross at 04:27 PM
Dean stands up for us
Howard Fineman on the DLC Memo
Howard Fineman hysterical about DLC memos
Quoting because the archives are hard to read:
Fineman is referring to “activists” who are being blasted by From.
“FINEMAN ON THE DLC MEMO
I went and read the memo. It’s hysterical. I don’t mean funny. I mean, it’s hysterical. He calls them everything but a plagiarist, an elitist, an activist. It’s like, it’s a compliment to Howard Dean. They’re reacting like Howard Dean has already won the nomination. Howard Fineman, on the DLC memo attacking Howard Dean, on Hardball, 5/15/03
Posted by Mathew Gross at 10:25 AM
Former DNC-Chief Steve Grossman to DLC: “Creating Conflict is Not
Leadership.”
Grossman to DLC: You are creating conflict
SNIP..”FORMER DNC-CHIEF STEVE GROSSMAN TO DLC: “CREATING CONFLICT IS NOT LEADERSHIP.”
On Wednesday, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) released a memo in which the DLC argued that traditional Democratic values are an aberration and that the thousands of grassroots Democrats inspired by Governor Howard Dean’s message to take back our party are activist elites and not real Democrats. Former DNC chairman Steve Grossman wrote to members of the Democratic National Committee in an email sent yesterday, criticizing the DLC:
Having served proudly as National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, I was disappointed by recent statements by the Democratic Leadership Council that disparaged Governor Howard Dean’s record of fiscal discipline and social compassion. I was particularly distressed because DLC leaders chose to label tens of thousands of grassroots Democrats who are energized by Governor Dean’s message as elitist. “
Liberal Oasis on Howard Dean and the DLC
SNIP..”May 16, 2003 PERMALINK
The “Smear Dean” Campaign Is On
(posted May 16 2:15 AM ET)
(minor edit May 16 12:45 PM ET)
SNIP…”The DLC memo is titled “The Real Soul of the Democratic Party.”
But it should be “Kneecapping Howard Dean.”
However, it is so ludicrously ham-handed, Dean trumpeted it himself on his campaign web site. (A smart rapid response that bodes well for the future.)
If the memo was a principled argument over what the party should stand for, that would be fine. You can have honorable disagreements within one’s party.
But the memo is nothing but a string of half-truths and contradictions designed to ward off insiders from backing Dean, while at the same time undermine Dean’s support from the Left…..”
And the recriminations began against many who were in leadership positions and backed Dean. It was real and it happened. Long article here, very good.
And finally, here are the memos that started the conflict:
“Activists Are Out of Step” From and Reed 2003
Activists are Out of Step
SNIP…”These days, Democrats act as if they’re so far gone they’ve forgotten where they’re from.
Every weekend, yet another special-interest group hosts a candidate forum to pressure the presidential candidates into praising its agenda. Some of the candidates seem intent on running applause-meter campaigns, measuring success by how many times they tell the party faithful what they want to hear.
There’s one big problem with this strategy: Most of those party activists the candidates are trying so hard to please are wildly out of touch not only with middle America but with the Democratic rank and file. The great myth of the campaign is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of party activists and single-issue groups represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. They don’t.
The fact is, “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean likes to call it, is an aberration, a modern-day version of the old McGovern wing of the party, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist interest-group liberalism at home. That wing lost the party 49 states in two elections and turned a powerful national organization into a much weaker, regional one. …..”END SNIP
“The Real Soul of the Party” DLC 2003
The Real Soul of the Party
SNIP..”But the great myth of the current cycle is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Real Democrats are real people, not activist elites. The mission of the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton pledged in 1992, is to provide “real answers to the real problems of real people.” Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas.
SNIP..”What activists like Dean call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration: the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home. That’s the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one…”END SNIP
After all the blog activity this week about Hillary going over to the DLC side…..I felt I just had to say that Howard Dean still speaks for us. He is the leader of the party in our minds.
RECOMMENDED!! Thank you.
Liberal Street Fighter
Now when the usual suspects begin their rote speeches of correctness, we notice right away. Before we did not.
He set a standard for straight talk, and it is showing up the others who don’t do that.
but I am reclaiming my Independence. The Dems are so all over the place right now and it feels too chaotic, disjointed and dare I say insane. We have been so outraged with what the repugs are still doing and there seems to be no recourse AT ALL.
I don’t trust voting procedures any more so how do we fix anything??
I’ve lost my patience even with blogging. It’s like constant chatter that just mucks up my thinking.
We, as DEMS have fallen into the republican trap of turning on each other over issues that should not be issues. We lost our freedoms-most of them- ages ago.
I think the only thing at this moment that might get noticed is SILENCE-
Step back, regroup, and REVOLT. Boycott the corporations, take your money and become as self-sufficient as you can. Take care of your own. The government is broken. It has been hi-jacked and there is no getting it back the way ‘it’ was. Stop allowing the dumbing down. Walk the walk! Stop talking the endless talk.
Individually we are great, intelligent compassionate beings, as a group we suck of late.
It’s important to remember what hacks these people are, and who sows discontent in the party, the so-called “centrists”, our very own fifth column.
Thanks for the reminder.
The DLC includes some members that I would call Vichy Dems, who needlessly sell out our values (I say “needlessly” because, like the case of the House Guantanamo vote I recently diaried about, it would not be politically suicidal to do the right thing). The DLC has tended to be hamfisted, heavyhanded, and condescending (as, I’ll admit, have I in the past) in dealing with the so-called “Democratic wing” of the party. And many of them may well be more conservative than I’d like, even in their heart of hearts (hard to say whether they really are, or are portraying themselves as such for strategic purposes).
But their strategy–at least the many excerpts I’ve seen posted on blogs, including this diary–is not wrong. It’s just not. What I’d like is for progressive Democrats to run for office, and play the centrist game to the extent that it’s politically wise to do so, and then quietly do progressive work once in office. It just doesn’t make sense, at least in presidential or swing-state (or swing-district) campaigns, to shout liberal slogans from the rooftops. That won’t work. There just aren’t enough liberals in this country to make up a majority–we’ve got to win over moderates and fence-sitters or we have no chance.
I know a lot of you think that if the Democrats just go far enough to the left, it will awaken the fifty percent of the public who doesn’t vote from their slumber, and they will stampede to the polls to vote for us. But I just honestly don’t see any evidence of that. These people are not just tuned out of politics, they’re for the most part not aware of the basic workings of government, not following the news (except maybe “missing white women” and celebrity gossip), not reading interesting books or even watching intellectually stimulating TV shows or movies. Why would we think they’re all secretly left wingers? I don’t get that at all, sorry. Frankly, I’d be afraid that if all those nonvoters started voting, we might end up even worse off!
-Alan
I don’t feel like “going left” is the right thing to do. I think standing up for what is good for the people of America is the right thing to do. I don’t think the DLC gives a flip what the people think, and it has nothing to do with left, right, or middle.
That is why our country is in so much trouble. Deliberately misreading what is going on is a major flaw in the DLC groupthink.
Howard Dean is not leftist, he never claimed to be. Neither am I. I just know pseudo everything when I see it, and I have been seeing it a lot this week.
Not left or right or center, but about the truth. I have a few choice quotes I haven’t posted yet, and yes, the DLC are very very wrong. They are wrong about “being careful when you speak”. That sounds like Bush talk. We need to be clear when we speak.
Will Marshall, Al From, and Bruce Reed. They look down their noses at us, the ones who actually make up the party. Hillary made her bed with them this week. They will take care of her. That is unfortunate. I think she misread the lay of the land as it is now.
I read this yesterday, something Will Marshall said about the Democrats who stood to protect our Social Security and Medicare in 2002…he belittles the pledge they took to protect seniors.
Marshall from 2002: “The pledge is the brainchild of the Campaign for America’s Future, a union-backed organization that is to Social Security and Medicare what the Inquisition was to medieval Christiandom. Its latter-day Torquemadas enforce New Deal-Great Society orthodoxy and ferret out heresy with religious zeal…”
Will Marshall says Social Security pledge failed Democrats
Sometimes it’s good to remember what we face in those who claim to be Democrats.
“Not left or right or center, but about the truth.”
I SOOO agree with this. Sometimes I get so angry at all the talk about “electability.” What are we going to do when Bushco has ruined this country and folks finally wake up? We won’t be in a position to really stand for whats right and true – we will just sink with them. I want more Nelson Mandela’s in this country who are willing to go to jail for decades if thats what it means to stand up for whats right. I wonder what folks were saying about his “electability” when he stood up against the opposition.
Your comparison would have made more sense before our own civil rights era. Today, though there are certainly sneaky things done to try to suppress minority voting, we are in no way in the same situation as apartheid South Africa. One look at the ranking Democrat (Charlie Rangel) on the powerful House Ways and Means committee during yesterday’s CAFTA debate would show that huge difference in a striking way.
Now, if we want to talk about contemporary apartheid governments, we need look no further than our good buddy Israel…but that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.
-Alan
I think you missed my point. And I don’t limit Mandela’s example as only valid in an apartheid or civil rights struggle – any more than I would Dr. King’s. Their issue was apartheid/civil rights – but the lessons on how to stand up for whats right can be a guide to us in any struggle against powerful forces. When something is obviously wrong – be it the war in Iraq, denying civil rights to gays, or discrimination against people of color – what you do is say so and stand up to the opposition! We get so tied up in defining whether we’re moving right or left that we miss the point. Thats why I like Dean so much – you really can’t define him as right/left/center. He knows what he believes, stands up for it, and then empowers us to do the same.
and I’ll work for Dean. Thanks for giving me a positive outlet. Watch out “centrists”! Sandblaster is about to let loose.
Howard needs to keep going, no matter what shit the “pragmatits” and “partisans” sling at him. He’s standing up for what matters, and he’s doing a damn good job of it. Here’s hoping he can keep Horrible Hillary off the ticket in 2008, so we have a chance of winning.
When you remember how and why the DLC came into existence then it is obvious who they consider “fringe activists” – anyone who is not a White male. The DLC is one matter where I have no qualms about releasing Words of Mass Distruction™ – but that’s me.
Wish we could–it would be great to have a country where, say, Winona LaDuke and bell hooks could be a viable ticket–but we can’t. We don’t need to get a majority of white male votes (which is fortunate, because that’s never going to happen), but we need to get a solid minority, like 40%.
From the piece you linked to:
TNR was right (and my dear ol’ mom, who caucused for Jackson in both ’84 and ’88, voted for Nader in ’96 and ’00, and caucused for Kucinich last year, was wrong). Again, I wish it weren’t so, but had Jackson been on the ticket, the Dems would have broken their own Mondale/McGovern records for landlide defeat. In ’88 the Dems should have nominated Gephardt or Gore–in fact that would have made a good combo ticket.
-Alan
We’ve seen where that “electability” crap leads you and as for me, I ain’t buying it. I think Michael J. Fox said it best as Lewis Rothschild in The American President when he said to a cowering Congressman Jarrett, “Vote your conscience you chicken-shit lame-ass!” I’ll second that. We don’t need a White man to be the standard-bearer of the Party, we need someone with the courage of their convictions, who can articulate a positive vision for the country and connect with the people. Someone who will stand firm according to his conscious instead of chickening out and voting for the war before voting against the war.
Chicken. Shit. Lame. Ass.
Never again. There are many men and women who fit the Howard Dean mold of standing firm on your convictions and delivering what you promise to deliver. They may be White or Black or Hispanic, male or female, but the DLC is focused on making the Democratic Party useful for White men alone. Phuqm.
The American President is a fun, heartwarming liberal fantasy–but a fantasy nonetheless. Kind of like that other, more recent movie where Joan Allen plays a nominee for vice president who declares she’s an atheist, and won’t deny having been part of an orgy, and rides high in the polls as a result. Yeah, that’s what would happen…uh huh…(not).
-Alan