-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 13:32:32 -0400 From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Gunsafe members <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Democrats in sheeps' clothing More word that the Democrats at the national level are trying to switch sides on the gun issue. They'll do anything to acquire power. In view of their history - including Al Gore's flip-flop from an NRA ally in the 1980s to a Clintonista in the 1990s - we don't believe them. Any "contract" can be broken fast, with a majority. http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/story1a071801.html Democrats Forging Their Own Contract With America to Close "Culture Gap" By MILES BENSON c.2001 Newhouse News Service \ INDIANAPOLIS -- Seeking to close a "culture gap" between their party and millions of voters, moderate Democratic leaders are writing a manifesto for the 2002 elections that includes affirmation of the right to own guns and the importance of religion, fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense and the role of fathers in their families. "It would be our version of the Contract With America," said Al From, founder and chief executive officer of the Democratic Leadership Council. The group concluded a three-day conference here Tuesday on how to change perceptions of their party as too liberal, too reliant on big government programs, generally hostile to people of religious faith and particularly hostile to white males. Participants included some of the party's best-known members, among them 2000 vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic "contract" is being drafted by DLC President Bruce Reed, who was the White House domestic policy chief in the final years of the Clinton administration. It unashamedly steals a page from the Republican political play book. In 1994, the GOP's Contract With America established a unified, overarching theme for Republicans running for Congress in every part of the country. It pledged them to support tax cuts, smaller government and a list of initiatives tied to other conservative values with strong support among mainstream voters. The strategy succeeded. Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives, which they have held ever since. Reed confirmed that work on the Democrats' document has just begun. He acknowledged that it would include language supporting gun rights, a dramatic shift in emphasis for a party whose candidates have often led legislative battles to enact new gun control laws. McAuliffe, in his remarks to the DLC conference, agreed that it was important for the Democratic Party to get the gun issue "right." From, meanwhile, said that 48 percent of voters in the 2000 election had guns in their households, and many feared the Democrats would try to take them away. Democrats should "promote responsible gun ownership rather than pushing for sweeping national gun control legislation that raises the specter of an ultimate ban on private gun ownership," DLC leaders wrote in a new report. Another part of a Democratic "Contract with America," Reed said, would involve federal efforts to encourage absentee fathers to fulfill their responsibilities to children. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, DLC chairman, pushed the idea in his keynote address to the conference, urging party leaders to back policies based on mainstream American values, among them that "we do right by our children, and we do right by the mothers of our children." Asked later what he had meant by that, Bayh said he was talking about men who abandon children they father. He said the problem was recognized in particular by "prominent African-American leaders who came together to say this was a terrible plague not just on their community but on the rest of society and really is the next great civil rights issue." "`We have a lot of men who do the right thing and take responsibility when they bring kids into the world, but we have an alarming number who do not," he said. "It's been increasing in recent years with adverse consequences to their children and to the mothers of their children. When men walk away and aren't providing financially, aren't providing support emotionally when they can, this makes the job of mothers much harder and has consequences to taxpayers." DLC members also said they would work to improve the party's reputation among church-going voters, who have tended to prefer Republican candidates. "We have too often dismissed and disparaged the importance of faith in American life and made the faithful feel unwelcome in our party, particularly if they are open and outspoken about their religion," said Lieberman, who made history as the first Jew on a major party presidential ticket. DLC policy experts spelled out their view of the dilemma facing the party in an analysis distributed at the conference, which said: "To put it simply, many voters fear that Democrats are either hostile or indifferent to people of faith, married people with kids (especially stay-at- home moms), those who serve proudly in the military, those who own guns for self-protection or hunting, and perhaps even white males as a group. This perception is often reinforced by the parallel belief that Democrats are excessively bound by allegiance to interest and advocacy groups that do not share mainstream values in one respect or another. "To be sure, some positions on cultural hot-button issues -- a woman's right to choose, civil rights and equal opportunity, and tolerance and inclusion for gays and lesbians -- represent fundamental values and moral commitments that dictate policy positions that are not always universally popular. So be it. It would be outrageous for Democrats to respect the values of cultural conservatives by renouncing their own. "But there's no principled reason that Democrats should accept the charge that they are anti-military, anti-traditional family, anti-religious, or anti-Second Amendment, or that they are aligned generally with morally corrosive forces in our society." The Democratic "Contract" would also deal with fiscal responsibility, including a call to tie future scheduled tax cuts to strong economic performance, Reed said. Similar proposals were resisted by President Bush and rejected by the Republican-controlled Congress. Bayh said he would introduce a bill next month to trigger a roll-back of future tax cuts if federal surpluses drop. Bayh said he has support from Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who co-sponsored so-called "trigger" legislation with him this year. Organized in 1984 after a presidential election in which the Democrats lost 49 out of 50 states, the DLC has struggled to reposition the party in the strategic political center, where most national elections are won or lost. But the ascendency of the DLC political philosophy has also coincided with the decline of Democrats as a majority party in Congress, and liberals and some in organized labor believe that is no accident. DLC leaders nonetheless remain convinced that the American political landscape has changed greatly in recent years, requiring the party to modernize and moderate its left wing to remain competitive in an electorate increasingly dominated by suburban middle-class voters. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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