my first job

I would like to write about my spring break, or how my Utes just barely pulled off a victory yesterday, or how I am currently leading in my NCAA pool (its just for bragging rights) with my fellow 1Ls. But it seems the only time I get traffic here is when I talk about Gay Marriage when I shouldn't or defend the DLC. Since I don't know enough about the developments in CA, I think I will go back to DLC talk.

Paperwight and other bloggers of a liberal pursuasion are upset at the DLC once again, this time for "trying to claim Obama as one of their own" when he asked not to be named on the list. And they are also tired on Al From and Bruce Reed pening their annual "secret memo" attacking liberals which gets leaked conviently to all the major MSM outlets and perhaps leads to an editorial on the WSJ. I don't know why it is ever news. Every time I read people's whining about the memo, I already know what the memo says, the same damn thing it always says: Democrats need to get tough and get back in the majority; listening to the far left and kissing up to them won't work etc.

The DLC was founded after a string of blowouts on the Presidential level (not including Carter, who got in basically because of Watergate) they were seeking despirately for a way to make the Democratic party palatable to the majority of the voting public. What they learned is that the far left annoyed/upset/worried those people a lot more than the far right, or at least there were more far right that voted than far left. Thus they sought to make their politicans tough and competitive by having "Sista Soldier" moments, but more importantly by expressing the same Democratic policies and principles in Values-language.

Of course, they also sought to change some policy and certain policy stereotypes, like "Tax-and-Spend Democrats" were to become "Fiscally Responsible Democrats" and Democrats became agents of reform and cutting government "The era of Big Government is over" "Ending Welfare as we know it."

Many bloggers point out that while this strategy worked well for a talented, once in a lifetime politican like Bill Clinton, it resulted in the loss of Congress and teh Democrats have not been able to hold on to the White House since Bubba left the building. As for Congress, there needed to be a house cleaning and some Congressional Dems still need to go. They are what makes it so hard for Democrats to retake control, these corrupt, me-first politicans who haven't had a real race since their first primary. As for Gore and Kerry, both were not charming and bad public speakers, yet they raised tons of money and won about 48% of the vote each time-- and Gore actually had more votes than Bush.

Also, let's be honest with ourselves, Bush is an amazing politican. Who else could have done such a crappy job as president, and had so many things go wrong on their watch and yet get 51% of the vote? Of course he used underhanded techniques and lies to do it, but he still has the keys to the Executive Mansion for another 4 years.

My first real job out of College was working for the DLC and my only regret is that I would have liked to have been given more responsibility. Staffers there of my generation doubted that the War in Iraq was necessary, that there were even WMDs, we pushed our bosses away from Joe Liberman and towards Edwards, Kerry and later Clark (I talked him up but people had trouble listening until he entered). We were a fairly diverse, left-center, bunch that had fun at our jobs.

As I said in the comment section, the DLC is more than just Al From and Bruce Reed memos, as much as they would like to think to the contrary. It is about the idea that Democrats need find a way to make their platform appeal to the majority of people that actually vote, and not just people like Sean Penn or the editoral board of the New York Times or The Nation. About 50-75 people work at the DLC, off the top of my head, there about 4 people I know that actually do the Dem-bashing that gets them the media attention, the rest of the employees work hard to expand the network of elected officials, develop policies and language that will pursuade voters that Democrats can keep them safe and be good stewards of their tax dollars etc. Most of the members of the DLC, the electeds, the interested citizens, yes even the lobbyists, don't sit around bashing Democrats. The only one I can think who does that regularly is Joe Liberman, and everyone who reads this blog regularly should know what a low opinion I hold of him.

The bloggosphere seems to have a need for a boogeyman to vent their frustrations out about the futility of the Democratic party since 2000, but I think the MSM seems to be all you really need and all there really is. If it weren't for the MSM trumpting those stupid memos and ignoring all the great slams against Bush, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If people like Bob Novak weren't considered "journalists" instead of horrible political hacks with no concept of truth and honor, then we wouldn't be in this mess. Why are these people given equal standing with a real writer of stories? Why do we read about California murder trials of famous people while we ignore torture, corruption, ethics violations, and propaganda?

Keep your eyes on the prize folks. The DCCC is starting to base its 2006 campaign around corruption and reform, they are finally listening to us. Focus on things like this, and stories that fall through the cracks, not some insider memo crap that From and Reed write.