Democrats must shift focus to center
Two leaders of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party met over breakfast with reporters last Tuesday and offered their views on how their party can want to win back Congress and the White House.
Al From and Bruce Reed, CEO and president respectively of the Democratic Leadership Council, which advocates a centrist Democratic stance, said there is nothing wrong with the party that a positive agenda won’t fix.
It’s not enough to simply oppose everything President Bush does, they said.
“Americans don’t want to hear us talk the country down; they want us to stand for something,” From said.
Too often, From said, the Democratic message to the country is negative and pessimistic. He said Democrats must project a strong and optimistic vision, show that they stand up to the special interests and are on the people’s side.
“People respond to candidates who talk to their real need and aspirations,” he said.
Moreover, From added, Democrats have to stop being so “obsessed” with defeating Bush, who, he said, “frustrates” them.
“Bush becomes increasingly irrelevant as his term goes on,” he said. “We shouldn’t let the president blind us as we seek a path to victory.”
Besides, he said, Americans outside the Washington Beltway are “turned off” by the polarization they see emanating from the capital.
How else, From asked, can you explain recent polls showing the Democrats making no substantial gain in public support, despite Bush having “an incredibly bad first six months” of his second term?
“It’s important to talk to the country, not just to Washington,” he said.
He noted that moderate Democratic governors and legislators in state capitals talking to the needs of their constituents are having much success and should serve as models for their Washington counterparts.
Reed, a chief domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House, said Democrats have to get back to basics and figure out new ways to solve the country’s problems. It is not enough to be just against whatever the Republicans are for, he said.
“Ideas and values are the only things that matter,” he said. “Americans have very little idea what we (as Democrats) stand for and what we do.”
Reed suggested that liberals, energized by a newfound ability to raise money among people angry at Bush, hold too much power in the party and are leading it down a road that is not the mainstream of a nation that is center-right. He said liberal party activists lend inaccurate impressions that Democrats are not people of faith, opposed to traditional families and weak on national defense and security.
Those impressions are problems in the so-called red states that vote Republican in presidential elections.
“We’ve got to win in the heartland of America,” Reed said. “Democrats are more liberal than the country as a whole.”
Added From, “We’ve got to make it clear that (liberal movie producer) Michael Moore doesn’t speak for us.”
Reed noted that just 27 percent of Democrats identify themselves as liberal, while national polling shows about 20 percent of the country as a whole considers itself liberal. Twice that number say they are conservative.
The liberal minority, Reed said, is too small to try to expand into a winning majority, while the broad middle is up for grabs, if only the Democrats can see it.
The Democratic Leadership Council was set to hold its annual meeting this weekend in Columbus, Ohio, a state selected because it was pivotal in re-electing Bush in November. Ohio exhibits a vital cross-section of the American population.
“It’s the kind of state Democrats have to do better in,” From said.
Several potential 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls were expected to address the meeting, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Clinton, primarily known as a liberal, has been moderating her political stands in recent months as she considers a possible White House run. She appears to have heard the From-Reed message.