Make no mistake. What is going on now is a battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.
The DLC and Al From post yet another slam on the Democratic frontrunner claiming they (the DLC) know the winning strategy for the South.
Simultaneously, they take a swipe at Dean calling his supporters "a golden ghetto of white, upscale, culturally liberal, antiwar voters."
I did not make that up. They really wrote that. If you haven't read this latest hack piece, you should spend some time and do it. Here is the link:
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131&subid=192&contentid=252174
And I read dozens of posts on here in the past few days from DLC-inspired folks commenting on how Dean lost the South with his Confederate flag comments.
A couple of points:
- Tell me which Democratic candidate was going to win southern states and be specific as to which states he would win.
- If the DLC was a think tank full of geniuses who NOW know how to win the South, how come they didn't capture ONE southern state for Al Gore in 2000?
- The DLC's condescending and arrogant description of Dean supporters is not only off-base, it is destructive to the party and Republican in tone and scope.
Here is just a sample of a comment sent to the DLC in response that was reposted on the Dean blog this evening:
I was disappointed to read the article on your website entitled "The Right Way to Go South" in which you reprimand Gov. Dean for stereotyping white southerners. But you go on to say Gov. Dean's supporters are "limited to a golden ghetto of white, upscale, culturally liberal, antiwar voters."
I am a Dean supporter. I am also Latina, grew up in a working class household with a railroad worker father and homemaker mother. Although my family was able to buy a home in a "good" neighborhood in California, we always had the trashiest home on the block, and when we went through rough times in the 1990s, we barely held on to our home. I am "culturally liberal," if, by that, you mean I support gay rights, because I have experienced racial discrimination firsthand, and I know that it is painful to feel like your country despises you. I am against this war because we had no international support and no compelling reason to be in Iraqi.
This Democrat is tried of the Democratic party's in-fighting. Dean is getting people excited about democracy and the leadership needs to follow his lead.
Posted by mluna at November 6, 2003 06:36 PM
There are dozens more like this posted to the Dean blog. Go and read them for yourselves.
And if Dean does, in fact, receive the endorsements of both the SEIU and AFSCME next Wednesday, how does the arrogant DLC description of Dean supporters square with the millions of union members who chose Dean as their standard bearer?
Who needs enemies when you have friends like Al From, Evan Bayh and the DLC?
This should provide fair warning to Terry McAuliffe. Tie yourself to the DLC crowd and you are bound to sink with them. They are irrelevant. They have led this party down a path to ruin that has lost both the House and the Senate (nevermind the presidency) and they will take you down with them.
My suggestion for the folks at the DLC is that they get out of their think tank and visit the real world where real working people reside.
Their assinine attitudes, platitudes and positions are out of touch with the ral world.
Here's hoping Howard Dean beats George Bush's backside in November 2004, dooming the DLC crowd to the obscurity they so richly deserve.