A Cause For Celebration

Back in 1985, a new group was formed within the Democratic Party. It was called the Democratic Leadership Council and was mainly composed of conservatives within the party (commonly referred to as "blue dogs"). The purpose was to "save" the party by bringing it back to the right -- to make it sort of a "Republican-Lite" party.

All it ever really succeeded in doing was to divide the party, and encourage "blue dogs" to abandon party values and vote with Republicans. Perhaps the height of the DLC's infamy was when they supported independent (and party turncoat) Joe Lieberman over the official candidate of the Connecticut Democratic Party.

Fortunately, they have failed in their effort to make the Democratic Party a pale imitation of the Republican Party. And now there is cause for progressives to celebrate. It seems that the DLC is broke and dying. Insiders say the DLC could close its doors and go out of business as soon as next week. It couldn't happen soon enough to suit me.

The DLC has been a sad and failed experiment. They never realized that to appeal to the public you have to offer a real alternative to the opposing party -- not an imitation of it.