2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The one thing that will stop Bernie Sanders.....his supporters [View all]TM99
(8,352 posts)These are not talking points. The revisionistic bullshit you are peddling are the talking points.
The DLC/Third Way started in the 1980's with foundations going back even further to McGovern's defeat in 1972. They branded themselves from the start as corporate friendly. They wanted to move towards the center of American politics because they believed that leftist views would lead them to defeat especially after the 'Reagan Revolution'. The preached tax cuts, welfare reform, and corporate friendly positions from the start.
Bill Clinton was the President of the DLC in 1990 until his election in 1992. He clearly presented his triangulated campaign positions but most voters fell for the successful marketing of the Third Way/DLC which rebranded progressivism as moderate social liberal stances only. After all, Sam Nunn, a founding member of the DLC, was adamantly opposed to LGBT civil rights and encouraged Clinton to pass DADT and DOMA.
Many Democrats fell for this New Democrat bullshit in 1992 and 1996 and even though they began to wake up to it during the Bush years, Obama - yet another New Dem - was elected in 2008 with the same type of campaign. Hillary Clinton is yet again doing the same.
It is great that the majority of Democrats are finally seeing the damage that New Dem's have caused both to the country and the party. Their corporate friendly, come to the party late social liberalism, and dangerously similar to neo-conservatives foreign policy stances are NOT what this country needs today.
I won't ever apologize for being intelligent enough to see through the New Dem's Clinton bullshit over 30 years ago.
And yes, in actuality, the demographic that I personally fall into will be the deciders of this election. As of July 2015, less than 30% of polled Americans identify with the Democratic party. 46% though are independents and they are roughly split between left leaning and right leaning ones. If the Democratic party hopes to win this election, then yes, that 46% needs to be sold on why we should vote for the Democratic party. Hillary Clinton is just another New Dem. Been there, done that, and we are sick of it. Bernie Sanders is closer to a traditional progressive pre-Third Way Democrat even if he has always been an independent. You do the math smart boy!