Reply #96: DLC was formally established in 1985, but those ideas had been pushed in the Party for decades,

[No Elephants]

and mostly by Southern white males, who also made up most of the original DLC.

Co-Founder From is from Indiana and Founding Member Lieberman is from Connecticut, but Indiana is a very red state and who knows what can account for Lieberman. (Although Obama did win in Indiana, that was a historic win for a Democratic Presidential nominee.)

So, I would say the ideology of the DLC had been around much longer than 20 years. Since the net result of that ideology is that traditional Democratic values are somehow bad for Democrats, it is no wonder the Koch bros thought it worthwhile to donate to the DLC.

We have indeed moved closer to a permanent Republican majority because the DLC has moved the Democratic Party closer to the Republican Party--and continues to chase Republicans as they move further right to distinguish themselves from new Democrats.