> The Democratic Party essentially believes in nothing except winning office,
> so why would it be capable of galvanizing a nonexistent base?
> This state of affairs was created by the Democratic Leadership Council. The
> DLC was launched by Gore, Clinton and other disciples of New Republic
> publisher Marty Peretz shortly after the defeat of Dukakis.
> Louis Proyect
DLC was founded in 1985 following Mondale's prez candidacy in 84. Original
members were mostly "centrist" southern Dem pols. If memory serves, Clinton
was 1st chair and most chairs have been from south: Nunn, Breaux, Robb,
etc. (Gephardt may be former chair as well). DLCers intended to move party
to right *and* facilitate relations with wealthy contributors (expanding
upon work of Tony Coelho).
First specific DLC accomplishment was to convince 11 southern states to
hold their prez primaries on same day in 1988 for purpose of boosting
their clout, enhancing position of south in nominating process and
helping "moderate" southern candidates. Gore won a few of these so-called
"Super Tuesday" races that year.
In 1986, DLC had established Progressive Policy Institute as advisory
arm to DLC. PPIers were most influential group of pro-business Dems
backing Clinton in 1992 and comprise large number of his advisers.
At time, PPI was chaired by Wall Street broker Michael Steinhardt who
had been early booster of Buckley's *National Review* and who voted
for Goldwater in 64. Michael Hoover
