On the DLC

Harold Ford should know better.

He is the head of the Democratic Leadership Council, the "centrist" group that has been running the Democratic Party since at least 1988, and consistently losing elections along the way.

Their philosophy is to go after the "undecideds" in the "center." They take their base for granted while trying to appeal to the (supposed) Republican leanings of the center voters. Thus, we get Bill Clinton confronting Sistah Souljah, and the general tone of the 2004 campaign, "Yeah, me too, but I'd do it better."

The thing is, this doesn't work,

These tactics don't encourage black and Latino voters to come out. Voters like me will vote for whoever we can to come closer to the change we want, but less motivated--or more idealistic--voters won't bother.

Meanwhile, the Lee Atwater approach, continued by the unlamented Karl Rove, was to appeal to the base and paint the other side as the extremists.

The DLC response is to try to argue the situation on the Republican terms. But the Republican tactics are to rely on bumper-sticker slogans to set the terms of the debate. Thus we get such groaners as "death tax," "socialized medicine," "welfare cheats," etc.

The puny DLC approach is no match for that, so as a result, the Democrats LOST the 1988 election for the White House and control of the Congress in 1994. They won the 1991 and 1996 presidential elections (by a plurality only) by nothing more than the strength of Bill Clinton's personality. Meanwhile they FAILED to win back the Congress in 1998, 2000, and 2004, and FAILED to win enough votes in 2000 and 2004 to overcome the vote fraud, cheating, and outright theft of the elections by the Bush people.

Meanwhile, the corporate-owned media and their pampered, millionaire anchor people won't raise any fuss about the situation, because the status quo leaves them sitting pretty.

And the DLC approach is to keep them sitting pretty, while losing elections and claiming theirs is the only way to win.