March 3, 2005

BLUE DOG DAZE:

Going Nowhere: The DLC Sputters to a Halt (Ari Berman, 3/03/05, The Nation)

After dominating the party in the 1990s, the DLC is struggling to maintain its identity and influence in a party beset by losses and determined to oppose George W. Bush. Prominent New Democrats no longer refer to themselves as such. The New Democratic movement of pro-free market moderates, which helped catapult Bill Clinton into the White House in 1992, has splintered, transformed by a reinvigoration of grassroots energy. A host of new donors, groups and tactics has forged a new direction for Democrats inside and outside the party, bringing together vital parts of the old centrist establishment and the traditional Democratic base. The ideological independence of the DLC, which pushed the party to the right, has come to be viewed as a threat rather than a virtue, forcing the DLC to adapt accordingly. Corporate fundraisers and DC connections--the lifeblood of the DLC--matter less and less: Witness the ascent of MoveOn.org and Howard Dean's election as chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). "It's not that the DLC changed," says Kenneth Baer, who wrote a history of the organization. "It's that the world changed around the DLC."

The neocons figured out thirty years ago that a patriotic free-market Democrat is actually a Republican.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 3, 2005 8:58 PM
Comments

They were stuck with being the voice of the ruling class in the South, when it was run by Democrats. Today, the South is run by Republicans. So, they have to change.

Why should a pro-business, pro-defense, culturally conservative person remain a Democrat?

Posted by: Bart at March 3, 2005 10:02 PM

The easier college chicks are?

Posted by: oj at March 3, 2005 10:06 PM

OJ,

You are exactly right. When I was in college, I once hooked up with a girl who was the President of the Rutgers chapter of NOW. She was a sucker for anyone who knew his way around a French restaurant and could quote at length from Gilbert & Sullivan. And I didn't have to worry about having 'put her in the family way' afterwards. The perfect date for the grubby irresponsible 20 year old.

Posted by: Bart at March 3, 2005 10:39 PM

She had to assume you were at least bisexual.

Posted by: oj at March 3, 2005 10:42 PM

the President of the Rutgers chapter of NOW

I have to say that the mental image that conjures up doesn't make me overly envious.

Posted by: David Cohen at March 3, 2005 10:58 PM

I thought of me after mowing the lawn....

Posted by: oj at March 3, 2005 11:12 PM

bart, too funny. lefty chicks are easy, once you get past the smell, but the best looking women are always on the right. one of the few exceptions is that iceberg, katrina vanden heuvel (sp?),
otherwise known as "cold ethyl". to love her is a crime -- necrophilia.

Posted by: cjm at March 3, 2005 11:15 PM

David,

She had that skinny, JAP, frizzy brunette hippie chick thing going.

cjm,

The Katrina VandenHuevel, short, rich Jewish broad with expensive clothing and lots of makeup and surgery, look is a total turnoff for me. Even after a rather obvious rhinoplasty, she still looks like she can eat ants with her hooter.

You are right about the women of the GOP looking better. However, when I was in college I had little money and all the fashion sense of Larry the Cable Guy. And the GOP chicks were all after the bucks. Even now though I have more bucks I still look about as comfortable and natural in a business suit as Curly Howard.

Posted by: Bart at March 4, 2005 7:16 AM
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