"And as long as America must choose, that long will there be a need and a place for the Democratic Party. We Democrats can run on our record but we cannot rest on it. We will win if we continue to take the initiative and if we carry the message of hope and action throughout the country. Alexander Smith once said, 'A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.' Let us continue to plant, and our children shall reap the harvest. That is our destiny as Democrats."
--Robert Franklin Kennedy, August 15, 1965
This diary sort of ties into ARMANDO's Ron Brownstein story on the front page, in that I see the disagreement between the DLC types & Liberals as more of semantics than substance. Both sides are addressing symptoms, instead of dealing with the larger problem of the disease. We don't stand for new "big ideas" anymore.
We are the party of
THE NEW DEAL,
THE FAIR DEAL, &
THE GREAT SOCIETY, yet we run our campaigns on protecting the status quo. We don't come with our own program reforms, so we just rely on calling the republicans ideas shitty & hope it will be enough. The problem is one of substance, not spin. I think we have to stand for a new bold agenda based on "
REFORM". People in the Red-States may not like what we believe, but I think they would at least respect us for taking a tough stand. A lot of people will vote for someone they disagree with, but
RESPECT. I give the Republicans this: they have stood proudly behind their shitty ideas of privatization, oil drilling in ANWAR, & tax cuts.
Maybe they know you can't lead, if you're too scared to speak your mind...
The DLC basically believes in don't ask, don't tell with Democratic candidates & policy. You may believe that gay-marriage is a civil right, but don't say it. You may think that Iraq & the War On Terror is run like crap, but don't run on it. You may believe that Abortion is an important civil liberty, but don't talk about it. If the candidate is ashamed of his own positions, how can the voters be motivated to go vote for him?
On the flip side...there are some Liberals, not most or all, who want to cling to old programs like a teddy bear. What worked in the 1940's & 1960's may not work now & need reform. We can't run the same playbook, over & over again of defending status-quo. If we're going to fight these battles, why not at least have them fighting over "OUR IDEA" to reform these programs, instead of us fighting on their ground.
We have to be "about" something again...