Some Reasons Why I Do Not Trust the DLC

by Mary MacElveen

To My Fellow Democrats,

In the piece below "Hillary Clinton: Democratic mediator?" which appeared in yesterday’s Newsday, bothered me for many reasons. Some points brought out within this piece add to my total distrust for the Democratic Leadership Council. Last week, I wrote an editorial for the LiberalPatriot.org called, "How Can There Be Unity in the Democratic Party When Liberals are Shunned?" If you have not read that piece, please visit the Liberal Patriot by going to this link,

http://liberalpatriot.org/Mac/mac072605unitylibshunned.htm

This editorial states, "From the start, the DLC has reveled in intraparty combat. It always has believed that, to claim the center, Democrats must confront the left." Why are liberals or as this editorial states "the left" seen as the enemy? What did we do that was so horribly wrong to this party of OURS where we are targeted? We did throughout the years support many candidates even if we did not fully believe in their message for party unity. This is the thanks we get?

According to this editorial, Al From in offering the chairmanship position to Bill Clinton in 1990 stated, "willingness to play political hardball," where according to the editorial he then went on to say, "Reinventing Democrats." Why do Democrats need reinventing? It was Democrats like Pres. Roosevelt who gave us Social Security. It was Pres. Johnson who gave us Medicare? These programs are very important to the American people. Who did Al From want us playing "hard ball" with? Why the need to reinvent? As we have seen by being more like the Republicans, we have won nothing.

But, here is passage within this editorial that really angers me, "DLC banged heads most often with organized labor and Jesse Jackson, then a leading voice among liberals. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it has tussled mostly with the antiwar left, which it argues is undermining the party’s credibility on national security." Um, excuse me, it were liberals that were correct in ways to make our country more secure. One only has to listen to Congress members such as Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, and Sheila Jackson Lee to know this to be true. How are liberals or as this editorial refers to us as being "the anti war left" when it is the anti war folks who have raised the most intense questions confronting this administration. It is the anti war folks like you and me who saw in invasion of a guiltless people in Iraq as being the wrong thing to do where it set a dangerous precedent. It was the anti war folks like you and me who held the moral high ground. It was and still is the anti war folks of this party who are bold enough and have courage enough to call Pres. Bush a liar. Meanwhile the centrists will use pabulum terms such as deception or mislead. Are the centrists too afraid of using such strong language? Of course they are.

But, if that did not anger me enough, this does, "Ideas such as the DLC’s recent call for guaranteeing military recruiters access to college campuses are certainly edgy - but also a stick in the eye to liberals." So, the DLC wants to offer more lambs to the slaughter? With 28 soldiers dying in just two days this week and where the casualty rate has now gone over 1,800, the DLC and this president should not be allowed to recruit from our campuses and take the lives of innocent men and women for a war based on lies. Yet again, you can see the confrontational tone where it states, "stick in the eye to liberals"

On December 30, 2003, I wrote an editorial for Buzzflash.com called, "Al From Targets the Wrong Candidate" which can be read by going to this link, http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/12/con03388.html as you will see at that time, he was targeting Governor Howard Dean who is now the chair for the Democratic National Committee. This is precisely why I do not trust Al From or the Democratic Leadership Council. I am tired and angry where my own party sees my views as being wrong. I wish that our Democratic leaders would see the true enemy for who they really are, and that is the Republican Party. I wish they would remember that liberals or lefts have continually come to their aid and by this demonization: Just how much longer can they rely on us for support?

Liberally Yours,

Mary MacElveen!

Hillary Clinton: Democratic mediator?

BY RONALD BROWNSTEIN

Ronald Brownstein is a national political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, where this first appeared.

August 3, 2005

(Snip)

The new alliance between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic Leadership Council is at once logical and risky. It’s logical because it serves key interests of both partners. It’s risky because it probably overestimates the extent to which their interests converge.

Clinton linked arms with the council last week when she agreed to direct the group’s one-year project to define a new Democratic message and agenda. Clinton has participated in DLC events before, but never so prominently.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion...

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies." George Galloway to US Senate Committee 5/17/05