General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "The hard left"... you know what is so damn comical about this statement? [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)controlling the New Democrat Party. (I used that because it is how they referred to themselves in the House and the Senate--the New Democrat Caucus in both houses, not the New Democratic Caucus. So, they went right along with Rove--yet, we're supposed to be the ratfuckers.)
But no one had to switch parties because the Party itself switched. It had always had a conservative wing, of course, back to the 1800s--especially in the South. However, after the DLC formed--by a bunch of white, Southern male Democrats, including Bubba and Gore, plus Hillary and Lieberman--and Clinton won, their takeover of the Party was completed under Clinton. Every presidential nominee of the Party after Reagan has been the one endorsed by the DLC. (It had endorsed Lieberman, but no one serious thought he was going to get the nomination. Once he dropped out, the nom went to Kerry, not a founding member of the DLC, but a founding member of the Senate New Democrat Caucus.)