I would say I tire of the endless loops of arguments about the DLC that pop up from time to time here on dkos, but the truth is, I like the arguments.
I like the arguments because I think the DLC is so incredibly wrong on so many issues that I welcome opportunities to publicly slam the organization and its adherents - the members here at Daily Kos who go to bat for the organization, and the rostrum of official, rabid, hard-core organization proponents like Al From, Bruce Reed, Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh.
There are many issues on which they deserve hammering, in my opinion, from supporting and cheerleading the falsely begun and sadly endless war in Iraq, to their never-ending corporate sycophancy, to their continued support for the "bad-idea-to-begin-with" No Child Left Behind.
But recently I had particularly disagreeable argument in a diary with longtime dkos poster, mel4clark...
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My general feeling about personal beefs on the board is "Who gives a shit?" And I don't expect you to give a shit about my exchange with mel. (Hell, mel and I have had many, many disagreements - and agreements - over the course of the last year or two. So what else is new?)
But a couple of things mel said that reflected DLC talking points are so wrong that they border on Karl Rovisms.
The first was this post:
He is referring
to the traditional "speacial" interest groups that seem to have a lock on the party with money and influence (trial lawyer groups, teacher unions, and big labor). While all of these groups are important, rank and file Democrats need to have more influence than they have today.
There are a couple of things wrong with this post... Things that, frankly, I find offensive in their ignorance of the real world.
First, while the Democratic Party may have once been "captive" to the interests of unions, that influence has certainly waned, particularly after the two terms of Bill Clinton. I would argue that we are now beholden to corporate interests far more than we are beholden to union interests, thanks to the influence of the DLC, Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe. So in that regard, the DLC's anti-union position, as exemplified by mel's post, is wrong in the extreme.
Of course, the problem with the Democratic Party being a captive of corporate interests is that the "coveted" position of being the party of big business is usually reserved for the Republicans. And with Republican control of the Executive, Legislative and (arguably) the Judicial branches, corporate interests need Democrats like they need a fifth Mercedes convertible. [NOTE: I'll give mel and the DLC the trial lawyers thing. We need tort reform - as long as it is accompanied by more stringent regulation of the insurance industry and a free flow of information to consumers on doctors and medical facilities from the likes of the AMA and the state medical and hospital accrediting boards.]
And, assuming a political party is attuned to one group of special interests or another, which is better? To be attached to unions, however corrupt, whose constituency is working men or women, or to be beholden to corporate giants, however corrupt, whose self-interest tends to profit and stock price to the exclusion of the welfare of their employees or the nation as a whole?
The second problem I have with this post is the attitude directed at teachers. Having served as an elected member of a school board for two terms, and having two kids in the public school system, I am sick and tired of the DLC's anti-teacher position reflected in mel's post. It shows just how disconnected folks like mel and the DLC leadership are from the real world of public education.
No Child Left Behind was a bad idea to start with, born, like the Iraq war, from bogus data, in this case collected from Rod Paige's phony baloney numbers from Houston. The DLC backs NCLB foursquare. (Ted Kennedy: What were you thinking?)
I can tell you as a former school board member that NCLB - funding or no funding - is a disaster of epic proportions. And it is accomplishing the conservative Republican goal of gutting the public school system in this country in favor of wacky alternatives like vouchers for "faith-based" education - where evolution is a "theory" and creationism is a reality.
Not only that, but the DLC's continued dissing of teachers, as reflected in mel's post, is highly offensive to me. I don't know how many public school teachers mel or the leaders of the DLC actually deal with on a frequent basis, but I would tell them that they are grossly uninformed and buying into Republican talking points.
There are bad teachers just like there are bad employees. But the vast majority of teachers are truly dedicated and admirable people who are devoted to educating their students. They are constantly looking for ways to improve their success rates with kids... but it is a damn hard job in schools like my kids attend where the low-income population may hit upwards of 60% and the average class size is hovering at almost 30.
So spare me the preaching from a Washington "think tank" about No Child Left Behind, where kids are schooled to answer the 150 questions they need to know for the mandated test. So much for critical thinking skills...
And, of course, the issue where the DLC has been dramatically wrong and continues to compound their initial error is on the war in Iraq. I would go into more detail here about mel's comments and the DLC's position on the war here, but this post is long enough.
Suffice it to say, I will welcome any opportunity to sink the DLC's ship - even under the feebly camouflaged new identity of the "Third Way" - and the organization's early touting of its representative in the 2008 Dem primaries, Evan Bayh. Bayh is a pathetically boring presence who makes John Kerry seem animated by comparison. He is also a guy who spends more time ripping Democrats than he does standing up to the abuses sent forth by Republicans.
That, we don't need. Joe Lieberman, the last DLC presidential waterboy, does a very good job of that already.
Actually, I hope the DLC manages to run Bayh in 2008. It would be sadistically enjoyable to see him suffer the same ignoble fate as Joe Lieberman faced this past cycle.
I could write more about the miserable failings of the DLC, but I'm afraid I would need to publish these in book form. Thank you for indulging me.