An open letter to the Democratic Leadership Council in response to
DLC Ý|Ý Memo Ý|Ý May 15, 2003
The Real Soul of the Democratic Party by Al From and Bruce Reed:

If I understand all this doubletalk correctly, your ideal democratic presidential candidate would be somewhere near the right-center of Dwight D. Eisenhower and would never ever take a position on a controversial issue unless it has been thoroughly market tested. Further, you seem to intend the election to be a contest of dueling pollsters in which your mealy-mouthed candidate runs against the republican's meanly-mouthed candidate (Bush) and each candidate's statements approximate as closely as possible what pollsters think so-called swing voters want to hear.

If what you intend is another Coke Vs. Pepsi campaign like the last presidential election, you might as well save democratic donors a bunch of money and give up now. Voters, given a choice of candidates pursuing the same tiny target audience will say, why not choose the real thing? and will simply vote for Bush because he's already president.

Now, I think From and Reed are correct that Bush is not representing the goals and desires of the rank-and-file republicans, but to make that point, Democrats must be willing to run a campaign openly calls Bush what he is, namely a right-authoritarian-militarist-elitist. Given that one cannot call a US major politician a fascist on the editorial pages of any major paper in this country (except in the letter column), I don't see how your strategy of running a republican candidate as the democratic presidential choice can work.

How about we choose a democrat instead? I think what democrats really want to vote for is a democrat.

PS: Still feeling the need to appeal to republicans? Try the libertarian right. No joke. They must be getting awfully concerned about the Bush administration's intrusiveness.

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