Stanley Greenberg is the indefatigable proponent of ‘centrism,’ the ‘third way,’ and ‘triangulation,’ or the means of forming a coalition or consensus between the right and the left. Greenberg’s triangular brainchild resulted in the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a right-leaning “think tank” that exerted an irresistible gravitational pull on the Democratic Party over the course of three decades of constant political decline. While the American people yearned for a counterweight to Reaganism, the DLC pulled the Democratic Party inexorably to the right – in a deliberate move to appeal to “Reagan Democrats,” a fantastic but exceedingly rare species about as plentiful as the unicorn, the wyvern and the yale.
For three decades, Greenberg and his loyal circle of right-leaning “Reagan Democrats” that includes: James Carville; Terry MacAuliffe; Jeremy Rosner and Al From – led the charge of the ‘centrists’ that was just about as successful in stopping the Republican aggression as the charge of the light brigade during the Crimean War. It is true that Bill Clinton became the paragon of the DLC and the strategy of triangulation – the practice of compromising the core Democratic ideals of: FDR; JFK; LBJ and JEC. Using his disastrously haphazard polls, Greenberg urged Democrats to: “reform” welfare; “deregulate” the economy; practice “free market capitalism” while executing a “muscular” foreign policy. In practically every way, Greenberg did his damnedst to convert the Democratic Party into a carbon copy of the Republicans circa 1984.
In his latest epistle to the masses that is titled, "Why Voters Tune Out Democrats," Greenberg admits that he is now confused. Actually, the man is almost certainly in a state of shock, since 2006, 2008 and 2010 have led to the devastation of his dreamlike vision of a Reaganite Democratic Party. 2010 was acutely crushing for the delicate psyche of Greenberg, since it saw the destruction of his cherished “Blue Dog Caucus” with the loss of over 50% of its members in one election cycle.
But catastrophe swiftly followed upon the heels of disaster. In February, the DLC shut its doors for lack of funds. President Obama has never been supportive of the DLC, and it simply could not stand on its own any longer without presidential patronage. Al From, the CEO of the DLC, left to form his own consultancy nowadays describing himself as a “Policy Entrepreneur.”
In last Saturday’s New York Times, Greenberg wrote a rambling and essentially deplorable column that revealed his quandary: “Why Voters Tune Out Democrats.” For Greenberg, the reason is simply because the public identifies the Democratic Party with government, and he reckoned that it is high time the Democrats polish up the image of the government, the same institution that the majority of people have come to distrust. The unforgettable strains of the theme to Mission Impossible flood swiftly into mind.
Now we get to the meat of Greenberg’s latest brainstorm. Just how should the Democrats appeal to the masses yearning for progressive ideals in an era of social, cultural and political renewal? Greenberg has the answers: first, adopt a carbon-copy of Reaganomics equating the economics of the family to the nation and second, blame all of America’s ills on – you guessed it – illegal aliens.
Much more could be said about just why Democrats should tune out Stanley Greenberg. For instance, his appalling “work” for the Democratic Party over the past three decades; his equally appalling “work” for the Labour Party of Great Britain; his involvement in countless foreign campaigns wrenching center-left parties to the right-of-center and his on-going campaign to Reaganize the Democratic Party. However one thing is perfectly clear -- Greenberg’s latest insistence that Barack Obama suddenly transform himself into Bill Clinton, who signed the repeal of Glass Steagall; opened up "free markets" to permit the corporate exploitation of the third world; 'outsourced' millions of US jobs to Taiwan and China, and 'reformed welfare' by deleting Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) the mainstay of single-parent families throughout the global community of advanced democracies – is a step too far.