Al From today speaks of FDR's New Deal as a thing of the past.

[madfloridian]

This bothers me. It is sort of code-speak for wanting to do away with FDR's Social Security and by association...probably Medicare as well. Of all the times in our history where the New Deal types of plans may be needed...this is that time. Another Works program, building alternative energy...so much more.

In a paean to Bill Clinton at the DLC website today, Al From puts FDR's agenda in the past tense. I resent that very much. And what in the wide world is the "progressive governance" Mr. From speaks about? And how did Clinton modernize it?

Mr. From, FDR's ideas are far from out of date. It is yours that are hurting us.

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=126&subid=189&contentid=253619

Clinton's New Democrat philosophy is the modernization of liberalism. It is a modern day formula for activist government: progressive policies that create opportunity for all, not just an entitled few; mainstream values like work, family, responsibility, and community; and practical, non-bureaucratic solutions to governing. It reconnects the Democratic Party with the its first principles and grandest traditions by offering new and innovative ways to further them.

It is not an effort to move the Party to the right, not a compromise between liberalism and conservatism, not triangulation.

Just as Franklin Roosevelt and the New Dealers -- with new ideas to fit their times -- modernized the Democratic Party for the Industrial Era, Bill Clinton and the New Democrats modernized their party for today. In the same Democratic tradition of innovation, the New Dealers brought America back from economic depression and the New Democrats led an economic resurgence in the 1990s. By tempering the excesses of capitalism, Roosevelt saved capitalism. By modernizing progressive governance, Clinton saved progressive governance.

For three-quarters of a century before 1932, Democrats were, in a sense, the remainder party in American politics. They were largely a confederation of disgruntled constituencies, which seldom won the White House, and had little sense of national purpose.

Franklin Roosevelt changed that. Under FDR, Democrats offered a broad agenda for economic and social progress. Policies begun under the New Deal -- and boosted by the war effort -- rebuilt the American economy, created the great American middle class, conquered fascism, and saved the free world. The New Deal message was crystal clear: economic progress and upward mobility for the greatest number of Americans and anti-totalitarianism on the global scene.

As the 1960s passed into the 1970s, the liberal agenda -- largely because of its success -- ran out of steam, and the intellectual coherence of the New Deal began to dissipate.

We are in Iraq today because of the policies of this group, because of other Democrats not being aware of all the implications of belonging to it. There is a place in our party for everyone, but I hesitate to turn the leadership over without a fight to those who want to change the New Deal policies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

[Union Thug]

1. great post. Agree 100% n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Anyone who claims...

Bill Clinton "saved" progressive governance or in anyway represents true liberalism is so full of shit I don't know where to begin.

[Al-CIAda]

5. Yes, I really love the way the new 'progressive governance'

manifested itself in NAFTA and media deregulation cons...also loved the way he sold out the base by playing his 'third way' crap.

Yes, nice job 'big dog'/DLC.

[electropop]

3. Al From, kiss my - wait a minute, no, keep your corporate ass-kissing lips

away from me. What an idiot. Can't we expel him from our party?

[tularetom]

4. Geez what an asswipe

Bill Clinton modernized the party for Bill Clinton period. There's nothing progressive or ideological about the man, he is a politician pure and simple. And he is better at it than anybody in my lifetime. But he would sell out New Deal Policies in a heartbeat if he thought it would get Hilary elected. However I think that by the time 2008 rolls around Mr From and his ilk will have disappeared from the scene because Clinton is smart enough to see which way the wind is blowing and he will see that those "outmoded" New Deal policies are what will save the middle class and hence get them to vote for Hialry.

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. Hillary must not be allowed anywhere near the nomination.

Nor must any other DLC sellout. If there is any question as to why, read the original post in this thread again.

Cut this cancer out of the party NOW. 2008 is too late.

[mmonk]

6. They should call it "Progressive Regressivism".

It's all DINO doublespeak.

[freestyle]

7. I voted for Clinton, but he and the DLC damn near destroyed the party

It was nice to have a Democrat in the White House, and the economy did great, but Democrats at every other level of government were losing. We just now have a chance to recover those losses, and dissing FDR is not the way to do it.

[Donna Zen]

8. Fortunately...

From is a thing of the past. How about we all belong to one party called the Democratic Party and push the DLC out from under the umbrella. If they want to join us, then they are more than welcomed.

We need a Newer Deal...not a Raw Deal.

Shame on these corporate pretenders!

[madfloridian]

12. I wish I could think that.

I have a strange feeling this is a power play for the party's foreign policy and more. I hope I am wrong.
http://www.hofstra.edu/CampusL/Culture/Culture_Clinton.cfm

I am with you on the corporate thing, but they have a lot of power they don't want to give up. I am getting an uh oh feeling about this.

Follow the guest and scholar list, note the sponsors. Maybe I am being doom and gloom. But the Iraq war is a corporate war, and they don't want us to leave there. :shrug: And yes, I include the Clintons in that statement.

[Donna Zen]

16. I read an article recently

reviewing a book written by 2 former Clinton staffers. Apparently the philosophy behind what we've seen lately is that the Democrats would be better off if they dumped the left. To me, the article brought into perspective the thinking behind the latest DLC moves. Also, Matt Miller talks about the anti-New Deal policies of the DLC.

So "no" they do not support "we the people" and they think that they don't even need to. It is kind of like having a third party that pretends that it's is just a innocent group.

What I meant about From etal being a thing of the past is because I believe that they have so-so missed the boat. In reality, we need to return to our roots and dump the corporations-first packaging.

I understand that within the party there is a struggle for control. While some yap about our focusing on '08, I think that it is very important, because it awakens the netroots to this hidden battle. The latest Warner boomlet is part of that fight; Warner is not a progressive, he is in fact plan "B" of the DLC.

We need to unify ourselves and show our strength. They may have the money, but we've got the numbers.

[madfloridian]

17. I agree about Warner.....look how they have spun Kaine's win..

as a mandate on Warner. Check out the blogs like MyDD, and that is one of the talking points. It was a win for Warner....or a win for the religious Christians. They are spinning it already.

[Donna Zen]

19. MyDD

Jerome Armstrong is now running Warner's netroots, and has retired from MyDD for the time being. Yet, I assume that Armstrong's bid for Warner will have an effect on the net. Too bad IMHO. Armstrong learned plenty while working for the Dean net operation, I think he will be a powerful force.

Warner ran a center-right campaign, while Kaine is much more an openly progressive Democrat. Kaine ran a good campaign and needs to get credit.

[madfloridian]

20. I know. It has already affected the net interaction.

A friend from Florida, in a nearby DFA group, finally started posting in a couple of blogs. Not much, really just a few comments. She got banned from there for posting an article about Kaine, and it really wasn't bad...it was about his strong religious views. It really upset her a lot. Very shocking to me, that a DFAer was so summarily banned like that. I never saw the post, but the article was just that, an article. Go figure.

[kentuck]

9. That SOB !

Who gonna stand up for those that FDR stood up for? The Republicans??

[karynnj]

10. As the holes in the safety net expand, they want to move away from FDR?

Are they crazy?

[LittleClarkie]

11. Boy, Dems I hung out with at the StateFair Dem booth wouldn't like that

They held up FDR and the New Deal as something we should go back to.

Out of touch.

[Pithy Cherub]

13. From has a sneaky way of saying - liberalism is Dead by

using FDR and his hugely successful domestic policies as his/DLC's whipping post. He really is trying to say liberalism has no further credence with Democrats so he can annoint himself a la Bush to a position he suitably unqualified to hold. From speaks for a tiny minority of elected Dem's who will hold this idiot in high esteem at their peril.

Iraq is actually causing quite a few issues with the DLC because if they say they were wrong they have to say why. The DLC and its adherents haven't quite figured how to get out off that slippery Iraq War ski slope without tumbling hind parts over empty noggins and holding onto their shredded dignity at the same time.

[Ignacio Upton]

14. I think that he's just trying to make a comparison

To boost the DLC's relevance. By comparing Clinton to Roosevelt, From seeks to join the New Deal at the hip with triangulation. Bullshit I sez! However, FDR himself was not a gung-ho liberal, and some of his administration's problems on the domestic front were due to the fact that he moved with conservative economic policies. For example, the 1937-1938 recession was caused because he cut the budget and funding for some of his programs. The NRA, his fmaous legislation that was thrown out by the SCOTUS, was toothless compared to the Wagner Act and other legislation later passed because it was semi-voluntary and didn't do enough to please everyone involved. Ditto to the initial legislation for the AAA, which hurt tenant farmers and favored corporate farmers who produced more. However, while the New Deal did not actually end the Depression, it mitigated it and brought stability back to the country to the point where there wasn't any talk of crazy revolution. His most sucessful legislation that gave longterm benefits were Social Security, the FDIC, banking legislation like Glass-Stegall (which Clinton REPEALED) prohibited commercial banks from doing investments, and the Wagner Act explicitly gave unions the right to collectively bargain. His WWII policies of price controls also helped put money into people's coffers that they were receiving from then new defense jobs, and the GI Bill was planned under his administration.

[AX10]

15. Al From can go to Neo-Con Hell. He and the DLC-Crime Family...

are one in the same.

The New Deal saved this country from the abiss.

No Thank You Mr. From, we do NOT need a one party system.

[unkachuck]

21. Dear Al....

....why must you minimize and blaspheme against FDR and the New Deal....the New Deal and all it's ramifications has help 100's of millions of Americans over several generations....it's made possible the middle-class....

....we need more fresh, New Deal-type programs not less....then we could then help millions of more Americans have a better life, healther life, if we as a Party, would just re-invigorate it's concepts rather than run from them....

[GRLMGC]

22. Al From is a douchebag

I'm not anti-DLC but because of this moron's rantings, I can understand why other people are.

[DaveinMD]

23. very well said

He's the cause of a lot of the anomosity.

[madfloridian]

24. I am not anti-anything, but several things bother me.

Just putting Al From aside, I don't care for the PPI which is a part of it. I don't like their policy of remaking the mideast, though it is kinder and gentler than Bush's policy. I don't care for the Third Way and the new media they are forming. We have to figure it out the hard way...who is part of their media. Blair was part of the original Third Way, but look at where he is now. Yet they just keep keeping on.

When several print articles the same day about how Kaine's win was a victory for religion, or for going to the center (which is really the right)...then we can get an idea. They have the money to organize media better than the grassroots does, and they have hired up some of the previously more progressive bloggers.

It bothers me that Hillary is working up the agenda for them. It sounds like they are forming their own party even more than before...apart form the DNC. Twould be a shame if true.

[IndianaGreen]

25. Al From is a Republican

He belongs to that rare group of people that used to be known as Rockefeller Republicans.

The DLC is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[madfloridian]

26. Some of the programs under the New Deal.

Without these some people would not have made it after the crash of 29, and the ensuing poverty. This is what the Bush administration is after...this is what they want to to destroy. The things that lift people up.

A list of New Deal programs

The "alphabet soup" of New Deal programs included the TVA, CCC, WPA, FDIC, SEC and NRA.The New Deal was composed of countless programs, labeled an "alphabet soup" by its detractors. Among the New Deal acts were the following, most of them passed within the first 100 days of FDR's administration:

United States bank holiday, 1933: closed all banks until they became certified by federal reviewers
Abandonment of gold standard, 1933: allowed more money to be put in circulation to create a mild inflation
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933: employed young adults to perform unskilled work for the federal government
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933: a government program that ran a series of dams built on the Tennessee River
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), 1933: provided breadlines and other aid to the unemployed
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 1933: paid farmers to not grow crops
National Recovery Act (NRA), 1933: created fair standards in favor of labor unions
Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933: provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed
Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: employed middle-aged skilled workers to work on public projects, cost $4 billion
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) / Glass-Steagall Act: insures deposits in banks in order to restore public confidence in banks
Securities Act of 1933, created the SEC, 1933: codified standards for sale and purchase of stock, required risk of investments to be accurately disclosed
Indian Reorganization Act, 1934
Social Security Act (SSA), 1935: provided financial assistance to: elderly, handicapped, delinquent, unemployed; paid for by employee and employer payroll contributions
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935: a reiteration of the PWA, created useful work for skilled workers
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) / Wagner Act, 1935: granted right of labor unions to exist
Judicial Reorganization Bill, 1937: FDR requested power to appoint a new Supreme Court judge for every judge 70 years or older; failed to pass
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 1938: established a maximum normal work week of 40 hours, and a minimum pay of 40 cents/hour

[zulchzulu]

27. We need to petition that Al From resign immediately

I'll start a petition myself. This is the final straw.