Matt Stoller: "Why the Democratic Party Acts The Way It Does"

[KoKo]

By Matt Stoller, who writes for Salon and has contributed to Politico, Alternet, The Nation and Reuters. You can reach him at stoller (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @matthewstoller. Originally published at Medium

A book review of “The New Democrats and the Return to Power” by Al From
Posted on November 9, 2014 by Yves Smith at "Naked Capitalism"

There is no end to the whining from Democratic activists after a rotten election, and no end to finger pointing after legislative defeats on contentious questions. This story in the Washington Post is the tell-all of the 2014 wipe-out, featuring the standard recriminations between the President and Congress. In it, the chief of staff of the Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, David Krone, attacks the White House. “We were never going to get on the same page… We were beating our heads against the wall.” The litany of excuses is long. Democratic candidates were arrogant. The White House failed to transfer money, or stump effectively. The GOP caught up in the technology race, or the GOP recruited excellent disciplined candidates.

Everything is put on the table, except the main course — policy. Did the Democrats run the government well? Are the lives of voters better? Are you as a political party credible when you say you’ll do something?

This question is never asked, because Democratic elites — ensconced in the law firms, foundations, banks, and media executive suites where the real decisions are made — basically agree with each other about organizing governance around the needs of high technology and high finance. The only time the question even comes up now is in an inverted corroded form, when a liberal activist gnashes his or her teeth and wonders — why can’t Democrats run elections around populist themes and policies? This is still the wrong question, because it assumes the wrong causality. Parties don’t poll for good ideas, run races on them, and then govern. They have ideas, poll to find out how to sell those ideas, and run races and recruit candidates based on the polling. It’s ideas first, then the sales pitch. If the sales pitch is bad, it’s often the best of what can be made of an unpopular stew of ideas.

Still, you’d think that someone, somewhere would have populist ideas. And a few — like Zephyr Teachout and Elizabeth Warren — do. But why does every other candidate not? I don’t actually know, but a book just came out that might answer this question. The theory in this book is simple. The current generation of Democratic policymakers were organized and put in power by people that don’t think that a renewed populist agenda centered on antagonism towards centralized economic power is a good idea.

The book, however, is not written by a populist liberal reformer. It’s written by one of the guys who put the current system in place. And it’s a really good and important story. The New Democrats and the Return to Power is the book, and Al From is the man who wrote it. From was one of the key organizers of this anti-populist movement, and he lays out his in detail his multi-decade organizing strategy and his reasons for what he did.

Now, of course it’s an exaggeration to say that Al From created the culture of the governing class in the modern Democratic Party. But not by much. Don’t take it from me, take it from Bill Clinton. In 2000, at Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Hyde Park residence, Clinton said of From, “It would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.” Clinton overdoes the rhetoric sometimes, but not in this case. From helped put Clinton in the White House.

So who is Al From?

Most people who consider themselves good Democrats don’t know the name Al From, though political insiders certainly do. He was never a cabinet member. He worked in the White House, but in the 1970s, for as a junior staffer for Jimmy Carter’s flailing campaign to stop inflation. He’s never written a famous tell-all book. He hasn’t ever held an elected office, his most high-profile role was as a manager of the domestic policy transition for the White House in 1992, which took just a few months. He doesn’t even have a graduate degree. From fits into that awkward space in American politics, of doer, organizer, activist, convener, a P.T. Barnum of wonks and hacks. Such are the vagaries of American political power, that those who are famous are not always those are the actual architects of power. Because From, a nice, genial, and idealistic business-friendly man, is the structural engineer behind today’s Democratic Party.

To give you a sense of how sprawling From’s legacy actually is, consider the following. Bill Clinton chaired the From’s organization, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and used it as a platform to ascend to the Presidency in 1992. His wife Hillary is a DLC proponent. Al Gore and Joe Biden were DLCers. Barack Obama is quietly an adherent to the “New Democrat” philosophy crafted by From, so are most of the people in his cabinet, and the bulk of the Senate Democrats and House Democratic leaders. From 2007–2011, the New Democrats were the swing bloc in the U.S. House of Representatives, authoring legislation on bailouts and financial regulation of derivatives. And given how Democrats still revere Clinton, so are most Democratic voters, at this point. The DLC no longer exists, but has been folded into the Clinton’s mega-foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, a convening point for the world’s global elite that wants to, or purports to want to, do good. In other words, it’s Al From’s Democratic Party, we just live here.

Much More (scroll down a bit link) at..........

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/11/matt-stoller-democratic-party-acts-way.html

[djean111]

1. Really lays out what has happened to the Democratic Party very nicely.

"The DLC no longer exists, but has been folded into the Clinton’s mega-foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, a convening point for the world’s global elite that wants to, or purports to want to, do good. In other words, it’s Al From’s Democratic Party, we just live here."
Do good for who, exactly, these days?

More and more obvious it is not my Democratic Party, that's for sure.

The first was the Budget Act, which created the modern way that Congress spends money. Prior to the Budget Act, the Appropriations Committees simply spent a bunch of money, and the revenue committees (Ways and Means in the House, Finance in the Senate) brought in a bunch of tax revenue, with no overall planning to match up the two numbers or set priorities. The Budget Act created a Budget Committee, which forced the two committees to work together under broad government-wide caps. This institutional change made it harder to spend money on social programs, and has been used to implemented austerity policies for decades. Muskie reformed the process by which the government spent money, and in doing so, plugged up the mechanism that had been used by liberals to finance their government programs. It was a straight anti-New Deal institutional innovation.

There ya go. I do not think there will be any resistance to cutting Social Security and Medicare, except from people like Sanders and Grayson and a few others. The veto pen will not be used to stop that, IMO.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Who will be able to stop the "bi-partisan grand bargain". n/t

[Demeter]

7. Real Partisans, that's who

Grass roots people, the kind of people who support Peace, Occupy, Civil Rights, Economic Rights, etc.

[KoKo]

10. Gotta Keep our Voices Out There..and make sure they are Heard......

but, Demeter....How Long have we been doing this?

Can't give up...! but it sure is looking like ...a long....Hard Road.

But, then, I guess that's what we are faced with. And, we need to up to the CHALLENGE.......

Ain't going to be pretty, though. But maybe "Effective Push Back" trumps over those "Incremental Steps" that we are told to "cough down"....to GET ALONG?

[Demeter]

12. Only my lifetime

It will take generations.

It took 100 years to free the slaves. It took 150 years to get women the vote. It's going to take 250 years for full female autonomy from the paternalistic who would dictate reproductive choice.

Unfortunately, unless one is a 1% Elitist with enough money to buy off the CIA, NSA and FBI, the only other option is Unity of Effort.

This being America, that will take a Long, Long Time. Americans don't do Unity, until they've tried everything else. We are all such Rugged Individuals, you see.

[KoKo]

18. It started in the 60's ...Beginning of Reform...

Then Reagan and the Chicago School of Finance gained hold.

So here we are trying to Finish what the First Revolution of the late 60's didn't manage to do.

I think it might be sooner than later....but, it's hard to know...how long it will take to "clean up the details" to benefit "the People."

We have to work harder to see.....imho. Sometimes it's the "Darkest Before the Light." Let's hope this is one of those times.

[sabrina 1]

13. Yes, that is why they are so antagonistic towards all those people. They are a threat

to the plans to turn the Dem Party into Republican lite, a party for the Elite, rather than the working class.

I'm sure, that like Reagan, they have told themselves that if the Elite are doing well, it WILL, honestly this time, trickle down to the little people. They have the same disdain for the working class that their counterparts in the Republican Party have.

The THINK they are different because they 'CARE' and they give nice speeches about Gay Rights and Women's Rights etc, but so long as they cater to Wall St, that is all just lip service.

In some ways I prefer the Right Wing's outright anti Working Class/Poor/Elderly attitude. Because no one can be fooled, unless they want to be, into thinking they are the friends of the people.

Far more insidious is the rhetoric from the 'New Dems' who are on the same page as the Republicans on everything BUT a few social issues. So they deceive the people into thinking they actually care.

Matt Stoller, airc, years ago was supportive of the New Democrats and had a pretty elitist attitude towards us poor non-insider-DC types.

I haven't read the entire article yet, but I feel like saying, from what I have read, 'told you so' signed, someone who 'doesn't know how politics work'!

[KoKo]

14. I know...it seems he's had a "turn" in his thinking.

I thought this read from him pulled together the alliances very well as a background refresher to those who already knew the connections and to inform those who didn't who are ready to go for Hillary, 2016 thinking she will work for "the People."

I was, was cautious initially ,also, because I've read his earlier writing (New Democrats) and often said...BAH!

[Cosmic Kitten]

19. Populism is Working For The Middle Class

...to turn the Dem Party into Republican lite, a party for the Elite, rather than the working class.

Selling Populism as FOR the working class
could be an effective "narrative".
It contrasts the Establishment,"Limousine Liberals",
with work-a-day families and the general public.
It contrasts out of touch politicians with middle class concerns.

[Enthusiast]

3. If social security or medicare is cut

while we have a Democratic President the party will NEVER recover. And rightly so.

What kind of weasel would agree to outspending the entire combined world on the military but also believe that social security needs to be trimmed? Yeah, weasel.

[fredamae]

4. The sounds of "dots Connecting"

Very illuminating article-Thanks.
You'd think, by now, they'd ("New Dems&quot have figure out they're going in the wrong direction........

[Jackpine Radical]

6. They're all convinced they need Big Money to win, and

the only way to get it is to do the bidding of the people who have it. That's not us.
As long as the money keeps coming,n and maybe even increasing, they're moving in the right direction, at least as far as they're concerned.

[fredamae]

15. Well, it seems clear to me

Corp (New Dems) factions "Can't" hear us by choice. Those that don't Like the Status Quo (that's become worse than the old GOP" can go pound sand....or not.
Corp Faction Dems. Don't. Care. WTF. We. Think.
In other words...they don't represent us...won't represent us...don't really care to Hear from us.....because they have 1%'r Money, now.
"We" gotta stop thinking, hoping, believing "they'll wise up and stop being stupid"..lol

They're Not Stupid...in order to bring good honest Democrats this far right over this many decades.....I'd say they are purposeful and cunning to get this far with good folks who still hung on to "hope" when there was/is no hope .....

It's pretty clear they worship "the" Gold over Country-There is a base of Millions in both party's that are now...confirmed to be without "honest representative leadership".
So, now what?

[rhett o rick]

5. Too many Democratic representatives are part of the system. We can't advance if we don't make

them understand they need to represent US.

[antigop]

8. wow...this says it all, doesn't it?

Clinton said of From, “It would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Wow, Bill, we haven't seen much "progress" in the last 25 years.

Out of touch much, Bill?

[KoKo]

9. I know....it was an interesting, informative read, and an "Eye Opener."

Well...Clintons are running in 2016 so we need to keep informed. We need to know what we are getting.

ClintonII vs. Bush III...

Who would have thought? All Neo-Libs.

There's gotta' be a Better Way.

[antigop]

17. a Better Way, not the Third Way. Yes! nt

[Doctor_J]

11. simply put, it's because they're now republicans

[antigop]

16. kick nt

[Cosmic Kitten]

20. Framing and Narratives...

 why can’t Democrats run elections around populist themes and policies? This is still the wrong question, because it assumes the wrong causality. Parties don’t poll for good ideas, run races on them, and then govern. They have ideas, poll to find out how to sell those ideas, and run races and recruit candidates based on the polling. It’s ideas first, then the sales pitch. If the sales pitch is bad, it’s often the best of what can be made of an unpopular stew of ideas

Populists need to study the opposition playbooks
know the players, and recognize the tactics

Define the values (ideas),
weave the narrative,
Recruit the candidates...
Tried and true recipe.

[WillyT]

21. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[KoKo]

22. Thank You, Willy T....

Even though I've felt Matt was DLC "all the way" this article says he's thinking Beyond That.

I just read......and post...what I think is interesting. Like You...I think.

Happy Holiday or Unholiday to You and Yours and thanks for all your great articles I read here on DU!