Vilsack: Uniting The Democratic Party
This
morning while driving into work, I heard WOI cover Tom Vilsack's first
speech to the Democratic Leadership Council – where Vilsack spoke about
the need to unify the Democratic Leadership Council. (Article below from the Des Moines Register.)
Columbus,
Ohio – Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, in his first speech as chairman of the
Democratic Leadership Council, challenged his party Monday to channel
its frustration over the party's election failures into productiVity.
Vilsack
also announced that Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York would join him in
an effort to establish a centrist national agenda for the party.
“We
can't afford to be angry, unless we turn that anger into passion and it
fuels long-term commitment,” Vilsack told 300 Democratic state and
local leaders from across the country at the group's annual meeting.
“Because that's what it's going to take,” he said. “There's nothing easy about this road we're about to travel.”
For the most part, Vilsacks' speech is agreeable.
If you ask any Democrat (or Democratic activist), you will hear
agreement on the need to focus on “core values” of the Democratic Party.
The
problem that I personally have with DLC philosophies lie with the way
their leaders have rather consistently supported the tenents of
laissez-faire economics – except for election years, very similar to
how Republicans play social issues for votes.
Tom Frank today pointed out (in response to comments about his book What's The Matter With Kansas?) that the Democratic Party (under DLC leadership in the 1990s) has abandoned discussion of economics out of fear of being labeled “Marxist”:
To talk about economics isn’t Marxist. Alan Greenspan does it all the
time; so does the WSJ editorial page. To talk about the relationship
between economics and culture isn’t Marxist, either: They do it in
every issue of Advertising Age. To think that economics are more
“fundamental” than culture is also not Marxist; it’s common
sense. It’s the shared assumption of every banker and Chicago-school
economist in America, along with every person who’s ever had trouble
paying rent or doctor’s bills or tuition or buying food.
Perhaps most importantly, it is not Marxist to criticize the political
order we live under from the perspective of working people. This is
deep in the American grain; it goes all the way back to the founding;
it was once the province of the Democratic Party as well as the labor
movement and countless home-grown radical movements (such as the early
SDS), none of them doctrinaire or Marxist. If we rule all this out as
the territory of vulgar Marxism, not only are we doing violence to
figures like Franklin Roosevelt and Bob La Follette, but we are
damaging our own movement in the here and now, putting a huge range of
the human experience—work, money, the economy—off limits to ourselves.
(Ed Kilgore, operator of the “New Democrat Network” also had an interesting reply to Frank which is also worth reading.)
Pandering on economic issues
is not a core value, nor does it move us forward into the centrist
future Gov. Vilsack forsees. I wish Governor Vilsack the best – I
really do – but I also do not want to see the DLC expect to “unify”
Democrats around a centrist platform that refuses to discuss issues
like a living wage, health care, and an honest assessment about the
future of the economy under “globalization”.
Blog For Iowa 
Another excellent post, Chad!
I suspect that when Gov. Vilsack extolls the virtues of “unifying” the Democratic Party, this is really DLC speak for, “Hey, you progressives, shut up and do what we tell you to do. That's it, just fall in line.”
The DLC are corporate shills. Moving the party to the center means giving more power to the big corporations.
Hey, can we get some REAL Democrats leading this party? These corporate-centrists are leading us into oblivion.
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I have to agree entirely with Linda on this one. The last thing we need to emulate is republican-lite. The people are NOT going to be on board with this… there is too much going on in their lives that need fixing. I just don't see how we can begin to move forward from where we find ourselves by taking a centrist approach if those controlling our government are leaning far right. I understand the need for balance but we must take into account the OVERALL cause and effect that continues to unfold due to the far right's radical agenda.
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