Sunday, May 07, 2006
Kos v. Clinton
The leader of the Democratic Party "netroots" goes after the '08 frontrunner:
However, on the ideological point, Moulitas completely ignores that the major reason for the Democratic loss in 1994 was Clinton's focus on progressive causes such as gays-in-the-military and a cumbersome health-care program that was the very epitome of the liberal big-government approach Kos complains Clinton abandoned. Indeed, it has been argued that if Clinton had signed welfare reform first -- and then tackled health-care after a possibly successful '94, the history of the Democrats in the '90s might have been far different. Ironically, Hillary's popularity plummeted because she was seen as the left-wing architect of the health-care debacle.
Thus, it is rather ironic that the leader of the Democratic Party insurgent Kossacks rejects Hillary Clinton -- the one-time left-wing bete noir of the right -- because she has adopted her husband's "third way" approach.
Meanwhile, Hillary turns out to be quite the comedic hit at Albany's Legislative Correspondents Association dinner -- the poor man's White House Correspondents Dinner.
Technorati Tags: politics, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, netroots
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The Democratic Party atrophied during [Bill Clinton's] two terms, partly because of his fealty to his 'third way' of politics, which neglected key parts of the progressive movement and reserved its outreach efforts for corporate and moneyed interests.Moulitas is quite correct when he says that Democrats have come to depend on big-dollar donors more than the Republicans. However, that well predated Bill Clinton. Indeed, the GOP's creation of "Team 100" (and later, the Regents and Bush's "Pioneers" were actually responses to the Democrats creation of a big-dollar club in 1988.
While Republicans spent the past four decades building a vast network of small-dollar donors to fund their operations, Democrats tossed aside their base and fed off million-dollar-plus donations. The disconnect was stark, and ultimately destructive. Clinton's third way failed miserably. It killed off the Jesse Jackson wing of the Democratic Party and, despite its undivided control of the party apparatus, delivered nothing. Nothing, that is, except the loss of Congress, the perpetuation of the muddled Democratic 'message,' a demoralized and moribund party base, and electoral defeats in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
However, on the ideological point, Moulitas completely ignores that the major reason for the Democratic loss in 1994 was Clinton's focus on progressive causes such as gays-in-the-military and a cumbersome health-care program that was the very epitome of the liberal big-government approach Kos complains Clinton abandoned. Indeed, it has been argued that if Clinton had signed welfare reform first -- and then tackled health-care after a possibly successful '94, the history of the Democrats in the '90s might have been far different. Ironically, Hillary's popularity plummeted because she was seen as the left-wing architect of the health-care debacle.
Thus, it is rather ironic that the leader of the Democratic Party insurgent Kossacks rejects Hillary Clinton -- the one-time left-wing bete noir of the right -- because she has adopted her husband's "third way" approach.
Meanwhile, Hillary turns out to be quite the comedic hit at Albany's Legislative Correspondents Association dinner -- the poor man's White House Correspondents Dinner.
Technorati Tags: politics, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, netroots
