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�JAN-20-2000
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POLITICAL MEMO
THE
NEW PROGRESSIVE ERA
Gore and Bradley Shou'zd Heed the Lessons of the Clinton Years
BY AL FROM
f he's smart and heeds the lessons
I
of the Clinton years, a new
Democratic president- whether
it is Vice President AI Gore or former Sen. Bill Bradley ~could usher
in a new progressive era.
But that new era wouldn't be
marked by a return to pre-Clinton
liberalism.
Instead, its hallmark would be a
modem progressivism that addresses issues people care about - such
as education, health care, Social Se-curity, Medicare, and the environment - with innovative, forwardlooking policies appropriate for the
21st century. And it would tackle
tough problems like trade and entitlement reform instead of trying to
demonize or duck them.
That's exactly the kind of new
progressivism that New Democrats
- as the modernizers of progressive
politics for the Information Age have long called for.
aU ow the Republic<~ns- as unimaginative as they are -:- to retake the
political and policy initiative that we
wrested from them in 1992.
It's vitally important for Democrats to understand how we've arrived at the threshold of a new progressive era. It's IIOt because public
sentiment has shifted back :in favor
A. New Base Line
Clinton's record has cre~ted a neW
base lil'le for this presidential riampaign. Four years ago, a liberal
Democrat running for president
would have challenged Clinton's
New Democrat po'Iicies~ That's no
longet the. case. For instance; ~s. a
senator inl996 Blidleyargued· and.
voted··_agamst w~lfarE!;r~foim .. B'U.t
even as He courts lib~ial voters
today. Bradley seldom diStusses his
past opposition to welfare reform,
and he certainly has not cilled for its
reversat (Drily The Wtishingfon Peist
editol-ial page stilfc:iefer\ds tlle old
Two Prerequisites
There are just two prerequisites to
launching that new progressive era.
First, Democrats need to hold onto
the White House. We won't do that if
our candidates veer left or revert to
the interest-group liberalism that so
plagued our party in the 1980s. The
voters will make sure of that.
· Second, we need to retain our
zest for reform. We can't become the
party of the status quo. We can't be
demagogues who fail to offer real
answers to problems. That would
because he had the V\Slon and
courage to Challenge old libe·ral · or~
thodoxies about crime, welfare, the
budget, the economy, and .the role of
government. With crime' and welfare
rates doWl;'l, the budgefin.:swph..is,
the economy roaring, ai\0 .government stre.imlined; .Pre5ident.Clinton
and the Nevi' Democrats have r~
stored voters' confidence in progressive governance.
of liberalism. Rather, it's due to the
success of President Clinton's New
Democrat agenda.
A decade ago, voters viewed the
Democrats as tax-and-spenders who
were soft on crime, supported welfare and big gove:tnment, and were
unable to manage the economy.
Conservatives were on the march,
and a new progressive era was not
even a distant dream.
President Clinton changed that
Welfare system.)
. . . · . · ..·...... .
The
liiie ·is that :Ne'w: .·
Democrat policies in th:~ 199os have
moved our pa'rty horn the left fringe
·bottam
to the vital, decisive center of
American politics. TI1ose policies
have put the prospeCt of a newpl'o~
gressive era a'thari:d. We caini6t letit
slip from
grasp:
Gore and Bradley mu.st resist the
our
Continued on page 27
)AN UARYI PEBRUARY 200 0
�·~:i',
JAN-20-2000
10:59
POLITICAL MEMO
Continued from page 28
temptation to return to the interestgroup liberalism that doomed our
candidates in the 1980s and kept us
in the political wilderness for most
of the quarter century before 1992.
Democrats need to reassure voters
that we've learned both from our
mistakes as liberals and from our
successes as New Democrats.
That's why we must continue to
demonstrate the same zeal for reform that brought America so much
progress during the past seven years.
We have achieved that progress because President Clinton and the New
Democrats challenged outdated liberal assumptions and policies on the
budget, welfare, crime, the economy,
and government..
Now we must show the public we
are just as willing to challenge outdated orthodoxies about education,
health care, the environment, and
other issues that powerful liberal
constituencies within the party consider sacrosanct. We also need the
courage to face up to tough issues
like expanding trade and reforming
entitlements that many Democrats
would rather avoid talking about.
Mixed ·Signals
So far, the news from the Demo-·
cratic presidential campaign trail is
decidedly mixed.
On the political front, with most
voters doing quite well economically and no single issue dominating
the race, Gore and Bradley are struggling to energize the liberal Demo-cratic base in Iowa and New
Hampshire. Liberals tend to be the
most vocal and organized party activists in those key early states.
Although this strategy is understandable, it has led both candidates
to campaign more like Democrats of
the 1980s than I'm comfortable with.
8oth candidates are giving the impression they lean more to the ·left
than they really do.
If that impression lingers, the
THE. NEW DEMOCRAT
202 544 5014
PPI
Democrats' chances of retaining the
White House will plummet. FortuM
nately, by mid-March, the nomination fight will. most likely be over,
and our candidate will have the opportunity to shift back to the politi·
cal center as he gets ready for the
general election. It is an opporhmity
he must not pass up.
On the issues front, Gore and
Bradley both seem to be more comfortable courting key minority con~
stituencies with narrowly tailored
policies rather than politics of the
common good. This approach tends
to divide Americans rather than
unite them and is in increasingly inappropriate as minority communities become more upwardly mobile.
Both candidates have avoided
discussing Social Security and
Medicare reform as if it was castor
oil. In their defense, the federal budget surplus has reduced pressure for
reform in the short tenn. The problem is that over the long haul. without reform we simply won't be able
to keep the solemn commitments we
have made to older Americans commitments Democrats should
jealously protect.
But, for the most part, both candidates have offered sensible, fotward
looking solutions to the nation's
leading problems that challenge old
assumptions and fit the New Democrat mold.
Gore, for example, has begun to
boast about the Clinton-Gore economic record, the balanced budget,
welfare reform, and even reinventing government .;::..._ all New Democrat staples. With the exception of
welfare reform (which he talks
about less and less), Bradley essentially has the same position as Gore
on those issues.
Both candidates have endorsed
New Democrat ideas on preschool
education. Gore nas offered a solid
education reform package featuring
charter schools and teacher testing
-something that took courage to
propose in Jowa, a teachers union
stronghold. The Vice President has
also challenged liberal orthodoxy by
proposing a larger role for faith-
P.15/19
based institutions in the delivery of
social services.
Even on health care, the issue that
Gore and Bradley tu5sled over most
early in the campaign, neither candidate favors a big, goVernment•run,
single-payer national health care
plan.·
Trade: The Biggest Test
Perhaps the biggest test ofall for the
candidates could come on· trade.
Throughout their careers, both can"
didates have stood firmly with New
Democrats in support of trade expansion. Staying there this year will
politir:i!l colliage.
Apart .frO.tn the pre5idential campaign, trade exjiansion probably
will be the biggest political news
story of the ')'eai. The most 1mpor- ·
tant vote in Corigtess this session
will likely be ori President Clinton's
requeSt to grant permanent normal
trade status .to China as patt of
agreement to bring thatnatioil into
the World Trade Organization.
Trade splits the Democratic Party
down the middle"'- NeW Democrats
favor eXpanding it; old Democrats,
led by orgaiti¥ed labbr;. want .to re-strict 'it~· As·President .Clihton ·has.
said, itiS the last 6hstaClelo cornpl~t~ .
ing the mOdernization of our party..
Organized labor, zealous environmental groups, Ralph Nader, and·
many others on the partY's left wm
.fiercely oppose normal trade relations for 'ChJria; Th.el'rdidertt~ with
New
at hiS side, will lead .
the fight for it•. Gore·, ~d Bradley .·
both back the Pre5iderit. Their com.:.
mitinent to trade expansion un~ ··
doubtedly will be tested in the .
months ahead.
..
U they pass that test; as I believe·
they will, that will be a clear indica- .•
tion that they have gotten over th•eit ·. ••
early flirtations with interest-group
liberalism and returned to the New
Democrat course - the course that
President Clinton put us on and that
leads to a new progressive era .•
require
an ...
Deiitocrats
Al From is president of the Democratic
Leadership CounCil.
2 'l
�JRN-20-2000
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'"'
p. 15/19
PotiTICAL MEidtl
THE NEW DEMOCRAT DECADE
For All We've Accomplished, Our Best Days Are Still Ahead of Us ·
_)
BY AL FROM
ach of the last five decades of the
20th century had defining politic:al features. Mc:Carthyism and
conformity shaped the 1950s, Viet·
nam and soc:ial upheaval the 1960s,
Watergate and double-digit inflation
the 1970s, and conservatism the
1980s.
But the 1990s were the New
Democrat decade.
We began the decade hoping
to end the Democratic Party's
losing streak in presidential poli~
tics. We end it with a New
Democrat president finishing his
second successful term and with
our sights set on returning a
transformed Democratic Party to
its rightful place as the majority
party in American politics.
A.~ the millennium approaches, the New Democrat movement
is vibrant, determined, and growing. Think how far we've come.
In 1990, when then-Gov. BiU Clin·
ton of Arkansas became chairman of
the Democratic Leadership Council,
there was no New Democrat movement, no New Labour in Great
Britain, no New Middle in Germany,
no Third Way philosophy sweeping
progressive politics the world over.
The Democrats were out of ideas,
out of confidence, and out of power.
E
America was out of synch.
Unemployment and inflation were
high. The deficit was up and incomes were down. Crime was exploding and so was welfare. The
federal government was bigger than
it had ever been and stiU growing.
THE NEW DEMOCRAT
Today, America is on a roll. Our
economy is the best it has been in
our lifetimes. Employment is at an
all-time high and unemployment at
a three·dec:ade low. Inflation is low
and under control. Incomes and
wages are rising and child poverty
is falling. The welfare rolls have
been cut nearly in half. The violent
c:rime rate is at its lowest point in a
quarter-century. The federal government hasn't been this small since the
Kennedy administration.
And for the first time in si:a:
decades, a Democratic presidenta New Democrat- has been elected
and reo.elected to the White House.
Hard Work
That incredible record didn't just
happen. It's due to New Democrats'
hard work, under President Clin·
ton's leadership. to modernize our
party. We developed bold innovations that expanded the economy,
ended welfare, reduced crime, and
streamlined government. We chal-
lenged the status quo in our country
and old orthodoxies in our party.
America is strong today because
President Clinton had the vision and
the courage to put so many New De·
mocrat ideas into action- ideas that
are making this a better, sa.fer, and
more prosperous country.
New Democrat ideas shaped by
· the DLC and our affiliated think
tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, have transformed the De·
mocratic: Party. These i~eas have
become the foundation for the
Third Way political philosophy
that has propelled the resurgence
of center-left parties throughout
the democratic world. The return ··
to power of progressive parties in ·
the United States, Great Britain,
and Germany is without a doubt
the biggest international political
story of the decade. As President
Clinton has ·said, DLC ideas an:
sWeeping the world.
.
We succeeded because we offered
new and innovative ways to further
·our party's cherished values arid
highest ideals. We did not run away
from our party. Rather, we modern~
ized it. We brought it into the
Information Age. We reconnected it
with its first principles. and grandest
traditions.
Opportunity for aiL special privilege for none has been our party's
flrst principle since the days of Andrew Jackson. Under New Democrat
leadership, we bec:ame the party of
Continued on page 27
29
�JAN-20-2000
11=01
PPI
POUTICAL MEMO
Contin!.led from page 28
opportunity again by restoring fiscal
discipline to government and delivering sustained, non-inflationary,
private sector economic growth.
We reunited our party's policies
with the values most Americans
share- work, family; responsibility,
individual liberty, faith, tolerance.
and inclusion - by passing welfare
refonn and the Medical and Family
Leave Act, by expanding the earned
income tax credit, and by reducing
crime with bold ideas like community policing and sensible gun control.
· We reconnected our party with
John Kennedy's civic ethic: of mutual
responsibility by creating AmeriCorps and by asking citizens to give
something baek to their country.
We are retltoring our party's hi&toric global outlook by promoting
democratic and humanitarian values throughout the world and ex~
panding trade to fo$ter prosperity
and upward mobility at home.
Finally, we have reconnected our
party with Franklin Roosevelt's
legacy of innovation by modernizing government, diminishing bureaucracy, and giving people the
tools they need to solve their own
problems in their own communities.
In short, New Democrats have
created a modem, progressive poUt·
ic:al philosophy for the Information
Age. To paraphrase British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, our philosophy
is not a compromise between liberalism and conservatism. Rather, it is
a modernization of progressivism. It
is progressivism distinguishing itself from the status quo of both the
left and the right.
As a result, after decades in the
political wilderness, President Clinton and the New Democrats now
define and occupy the vital center of
American politics, where presidential elections are won and )o~t.
So it's not surprising that both
parties' leading presidential candidates seem to be eager to continue
President Clinton's course. And it is
21
1-'.1'(/l'::J
not surpnsmg that Texas Gov.
George W. Bush, the leading Republican candidate. already having tried
to steal New Democrat rhetoric, is
now in a headlong dash away from
his party's leadership irl Congress.
He knows he cannot win if he runs
on its agenda.
But we should not equate Bush's
attempt to separate himself from the
Republican right wing with
President Clinton's transformation
of the Democratic Party this decade.
There's a big difference between the
hard work of modernizing a party
and reconnecting it with its first
principles and traditions and the
easier task of fashioning a slogan or
a speech that expediently pushes off
a party's unpopular leadership.
New Democrats understand the
differenee very well. We undertook
that hard work during pivotal DLC
conferences in New Orleans and
Cleveland. We challenged party orthodoxies and took on the tough debates and the hard fights. We even
got a few scars along the way.
Because of our effort, the vital
center of American politics starts
here with the New Democrats - in
the DLC. in the transformed Democratic: Party. It is a progres~ive center.
We defined it. We developed the
ideas that shaped it. New Den19crats
put those ideas into !iction. And we
intend to carry those idea5 to
fruition to transform America in the
21st century.
So to our compassionate conservative imitators, we say: We're flattered. that you want to imitate our
rhetoric, but after all we went
through to modernize our party, we
will not sit idly by and let you claim
the vital center on the cheap.
The challenge to our turf is real.
New Democrats cannot become complacent. We need to keep challenging
the status quo, to keep the mantle of
progressive reform f"I.I'mly In our
grasp. We need to continue to modernize our party. We rnust resist any
temptation to retreat Our candidates
for president need to understand that
there's one proven formula for winning the White House and governing
effectively. It's the New Democrat
formula. There's no other way.
If we want to hold on to the vital
center of American politics, and that
is the key to our holding on to the
White House, New Democrats must
continue to push our patty to modernize for the Wormation Age.
We must keep our movement politically strong by building the next
generation of New Democrat leaders
- not just in Congress, but at the
state and local level as welL In an era
of decentralized economic and political power, the impetus for political
. reform and innovation will come in·
creasingly from states and localities.
State and local New Democrats will
increasingly be the face of our movement that most Americans see.
We also must continue to tackle
new policy challenges with bold
ideas and innovative approaches. In
the Information Age, voters increasingly will judge us by the quality of
our ideas. To succeed, we must keep
our movement intellectually dynamic, continuously pressing for progressive reforms. We can never un·
thinkingly ac:cept the status quo.
At the dawn of the new century,
New Democrats should rernember
that for all we have accomplished,
our movement is still young, and
· our best days are still ahead of us.
In the 1990s, the New Democrats
reversed our party's fortunes in
presidential elections. Now we must
set our sights on making a modernized Democratic Party the majority
party in America once again.
We made the 1990s the New
Democrat decade. Let's makt: the
21st century the New Democrat cen·
~ry. We can do that if we keep our
sights set on the .future. We know
that if we let our memories outweigh
our hopes, then we will become old.
That will not happen, because We
will not allow it to happen. It is the
destiny of this New Democrat movement to remain forever young. The
vital center starts here. •
Al From is president of the Democratic
Leadership Caun.cil.
NOVEMBER/DECEM~H
1999
�JRN-20-2000
11:01
t-'t-'1
POLitiCAL MI!MO
/
ENDING POVERTY THE THIRD WAY
Clinton's New Markets Initiative Offers a Hand Up, Nat a Handout
BY AL FltOM
n early July, 1 traveled with
President Clinton anQ a small
group of business, civic, and government leaders to hard-pressed
communities people seldom think
about in these good times- places
like Appalachia, the Mississippi
Delta, East St. Louis, nt., and the
Pine Ridge Indian reservation in
South Dakota. By making the tour,
which kic:ked off his "New Markets"
initiative, the President demonstrated his commitment to extend the
American dream to places on the
fringe of our etonomy.
The President's trip was important for two reasons. First, it underscored how poor some parts of
America remain even as most of
America prospers. Second, it offered
evidence of yet another way that
New Democ:rats have reshaped the
· political debate. At stops all along
the tour, the President proposed neither government-only nor marketonly solutions to entrenched poverty.
Instead, he offered a Third Way:
using government resources to leverage business investment in these
markets that have been left behind.
I
Struggling to Adapt
While America on the whole is
doing extremely well these days, not
all communities are sharing the re.,.,arQ:; of the New- Economy. Millions
still live in places where it is hard to
get a good education, worthwhile
skills training, money to start a business, or encouragement to move up
THE NEW DIMOCIAT
the income ladder. They are strug~
gling to adapt to economic change.
For example, on the main street
of Clarksdale, Miss., one of the
towns we visited, stores that were
once prosperous are now boarded
up, and the ones that remain work
hard to stay open. Thirty-two coun·
ties in Appalachia have poverty
rates higher than 30 percent. In the
Kentucky Highlands Empowerment
Zone, located in the southeastern
part of the state, 57 percent of the
residents 25 and older do not have a
high school diploma. On the Oglala
Lakota Tribe reservation in Pine
Ridge, S.D., the unemployment rate
is 72 percent, alcoholism is rampant,
and many suffer from poor health.
The President's visit to these forgotten places was a stark reminder
to all of us that we have a moral re·sponsibility to extend the promise of
American life and the opportunity
to participate in the New Economy
to every American in every part of
the country.
Down, But Not Out
Riclge reservation financed by a
public-private partnership. The
President's message of extending
the American dream generated eJtcitement at every stop on the tour.
The tour's most hopeful aspect,
though, wa.s the President's Third
Way approach to ending poverty.
President Clinton rejects the false
choice between welfare-state paternalism and laissez~faire rieglec:t. He
seeks to recast government as a part~
ner in problem~solving. He argues
that government should help the
poor enter the ec:onomk and social
mainstream, but should not guarantee them a place there. Under hi$ approach, the climb up the ladder
begins with personal responsibility,
access to first-class education and
training, a good job in the private
sedor, and opporturuties to accumulate wealth. The President is leading
the fight to replace the old welfare
system with an employment system,
and to match our efforts to eJtpand
trade and nurture innovation with
efforts to give Americans the tools
they need to succeed..
While the communities we visited
Paradigm Shift
may be down, they're not out We
With his New Markets initiative, the
frequently saw glimmers of
progress: in a state-of-the-art elecPresident is offering Americans a
tronics plant in Appalachia; in a
hand up, not a handout. The initiasmall flower shop and a prospering
tive underscores the dramatic paradigm shift that New Democrats
c::abin~t fad:ory in qarksdale; in a
new Walgreen's drug store in East
have brought about in their party.
St. Louis (the first new busin~ss in . Had we taken this trip a decade ago.
its inner c::ity in decades); and in a
housing development on the Pine
Continued on page 24
25
�!""'. l;;V l'::!
l.ErnRs
EorroRJALS
Continued from p(J.ge 3
Continued from page 7
c:an be used to pay for edu.:ation in
church-run schools. Although I do
not have children, my tax dollars
pay for the public education system.
Parents who argue that they should
be allowed to use ''their" tax money
to support church schools in reality
would be using "my" tax money.
This agenda illustrates how much
more active st01te governments will
need io bec:ome to promote econom·
ic development, and also how im·
portant state governments as a
whole will become in the transition
to a New Economy. To eite one obvious example, no level of government
has a greater impact on the quality
of K-12. and higher education than
the states.
Furthermore, the emergence of the
New Economy upends the relative
economic position of states and T~
gions. Because geography and physi·
cal infrastructure play a much less
important role in the New Economy;
the traditional strengths and weak·
nesses of particular places become
much less important as well.
-Franz Hespenheide
TJw the Jntmtet
Breaking the Deadlock
On Campaign Reform
To the Editor:
In the name of free speech, cash·
rich Republican candidates oppose
federal limits on both "soft money"
contributions to parties and on the
right of tax-exempt private organi·
zations to run issue advertising. 1n
the name of reform, cash-poor Democrats support limits on both cam·
paign fund-raising and spending.
Republican and Democratic vot·
ers, who invariably are ignored in
debates over campaign reform, undoubtedly would prefer straight talk
at an adult level from candidates.
Instead they endure blitzes of infantile advertising designed more to
bore, confuse, and manipulate.
Why not reach a creative compro. mise that addresses the concerns of
all sides? Why not continue to permit unlimited campaign c:ontributions, but to neutral entities rather
than candidates?
Under such a plan, neutral offi~
cials would buy broadcast time on
television and radio, ad space in
newspapers, and mailings. They
would schedule it all for the simultaneous, free use of candidates who
agree to side-by-side presentations.
Commissions that now c:onduct electioM and tally the vote could be
given this additional duty, or publicly chartered private agencies
could be fonned for thh: purpose.
-Bill Seltt'lt
viP. the Internet
24
The State New Economy Index
shows, not surprisingly, that states
in the Pacific., New England, and
mid·Atlantic regions tend to score
PounCAL MEMo
Ctmtit~ued from
page 24
we would have gone with .a bucket
of federal money and would have
ladled some out at every stop. How
times have changed. This time, we
bro\.lght along some of America's
most important business leaders,
who are intent on bringing private
enterprise - and the opportunity it
creates - to these areas that have
been left behind.
The President's initiative is designed to give businesses an inc:en~
tive to invest and create jobs in highrisk Inner-city and isolated rural
areas. It seeks to integt"ate these communities into broader regional mar·
kets that are already doing well.
More fundamentally, it offers the
poor the same "deal" th•d most other
Americans get Government, in part·
nership with the private sector, will
create opportunities for you to get
ahead, but it's up to you to move as
well in progress toward the New
Economy. But the report makes it
equally clear that today's "losers"
can rapidly become tomorrow's
"winners" through strategies tai~
lored to the needs of the New
Economy. Every state has
educational system. Making it r01dically
better will produce a big economic
payoff anywhere.
The need for a New Economy de-velopment strategy should be a hot
political topic in every state - and
potentially, a defining difference between New Democrats and conservative Republicans. For all their op·
portunistic efforts to pat'lder to
high-tech executives, most Republicans still don't "get it" Government
does have a critical role in the emergence of the New Economy.
As Thomas Friedman of The New
York Times says in his recent book
The taus and the Olive Tree, the New
Economy is like a hundred·yard
dash held every day. You have to be
not only £ast, but smart, to keep
lNinning. •
an
far up the income ladder as your talent and hard work will take you.
New Democrats have long be·
lieved that the best way to end the
isolation of the poor is to stop treating them as wards of the state and
to begirCgiving them the tools to
build their own success. That is the
promise of Am.erica.
To be sure, the President's tour
won't change conditions overnight
in the communities w~ visited.
Success will depend on bipartisanship in Congress and active private
sector involvement. The President
has already presented Congress
with a package of New Market initiatives. Congressional Republicans
have proposed tax incentives of
their own. This fall Republicans and
Democrats will have a historic
opportunity to extend the American
dream to all Americans. Let's hope
they'll seize it. •
Al FTtJm is president of the Democratic
wdership Ccruncil.
SEPHMBER/OCTOHR 1999
TOTRL P.19
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.'·
~
The Vital Center Starts Here
Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
1999 DLC Annual Conference
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, October 14,1999
As we gather for this, the last DLC cmiference of the 1990s, we are reminded of how far we've come since
our first conference in this decade, but we are well aware that our job is still not finished.
We began this decade hoping to end the Democratic Party's losing streak in presidential politics; We end it
with a New Democrat president fmishing his second successful term, and with our sights set on retumirig ·a
tr.msfonned Democratic Party to its rightful place as the majority party in American politics.
At the end of the 1990s the New Democrat movement is vibrant, detennined and growing. What a decade
this has been for New Democrats.
.
.
When we met in New Orleans in March. 1990, when we inaugurated a young governor from Arkansas 'as .
Chairman of the DLC, and issued that landmark document, the New Orleans Declaration, there were rio New
Democrats, no New Democratic movement, no New Labour in Great Britain, no New Middle in Geriri~y; ·
no Third Way sweeping progressive politics in the world. The Democratic Party was out of ideas, out 6f
confidence and out of power.
And America was out of synch. Unemployment and inflation were far too high. The deficit was gomg up and
incomes were going down. Crime was exploding and so was welfare. The federal govemmerifwas the
biggest it had ever been and getting bigger.
As we meet here today, America is on a roll. Our economy is the best in our lifetime; employment is at an' . _.
all-time high and unemployment at a three-decade low. Inflation is low and under control.In:comes-and. ,·.
wages are going up. Child poverty is down, and the welfare rolls have been cut nearly in half. The violent
crime rate is the lowest in a quarter century. And the federal government is the smallest since the Kennedy ·
administration.
'
·
Need I remind you, all of that has been accomplished under a New Democratic president, the first
Democratic president to be elected and re-elected to the White House in six decades;
.
.
.
That is an incredible record, and it didn't just happen. It happened because of the hatd wolk _we· und~rto:ok .•.
under President Clinton's leadership to modernize our party, to come up with bold a.Jid.irinovati~e i~eas'f()~: ·.
growing the economy, ehdiiig welfare, reducing crime and streamlining govemment.:•ideas thatchcilleriged · ·
the status quo and often challenged the orthodoxies our own party. And it happened because President ·
Clinton had the vision and the courage to put into action so many New Democrat ideas~-ideas that have .
worked and made America a better, safer and more prosperous country.
in
I'm proud of what the New Democrat movement has atcomplished for America, and :you shoUld ·be, too; And
rm proud of what we have done for our party, that New Democrat ideas have transforiiled oht great party and
that our success has become a model for the Third Way political philosophy that haS propelled ihe
. resurgence of center left parties throughout the democratic world. That indeed is the biggest story in world
politics in the 1990s. As President Clinton said at out conference last year. in just 15 years DLC ideas are
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literally sweeping th~ world. I'm proud of that, and I sure hope you are too.
Now, as we look to the future. we need to understand what is really at the core of our success. We
reconnected our party, the oldest and greatest political party on the face of this earth, with its first principles
and its grandest traditions. We modernized its programs and its policies. We brought the DeroocraticPany
into the information age. But we did not run away from our party; we brought it back to ilS more cherished
principles, and its highest ideals, and we offered new and innovative 'ways to further them. ·~
We brought our party back to its flrst principle as the party of opportunity,by understanding that if you want
to be a party of opportunity in the 21st Century you have to be a party of private sector growth.
·
We reunited our party's policies with the values that most Democrats and most Americans share, by passing
welfare reform and the expanded earned income tax credit, the Medical and Family Leave Act, and by
reducing crime with bold ideas like community policing and sensible gun control.
We reconnected this party with the civic ethic of John Kennedy by passing AmeriCotps and by asking
citizens to give something back to their country.
We are in the process of bringing this party back to its historic place as the party of internationalism, the
party that believes in expanding trade throughout the world.
Finally we reconnected this party with Franklin Roosevelt's true legacy, that of innovation, by mOdernizing ·•
government under the leadership of Vice President Gore, so today the federal governmeni iS smaller, but
have an activist government all over this country that is equipping people with the tools theY ri:eed solve ·
to
we
their own problems in their own communities.
In short. we have shaped a modem, progressive political philosophy for the information age. To paraphrase
our friend Tony Blair, it is an incredibly wonderful speech that he gave to the Labour Party ofGreatBritain
about two weeks ago, our New Democrat philosophy is not a compromise betweenlibel'8:Iism arid •..·. ·. .·
conservatism; rather, it is a modernization of progressivism. It is progressivism distiilgulslili.ig jtself frorrhhe. ·
status quo forces of both the left and the right.
·
· ·
..
And, it is progressivism once again defining the vital center of American politics, the vital center where
presidential elections are won and lost, the vital center that President Clinton and the New Democrats n.ow
occhpy.
· ·
.
.
So it is no wonder that the leading candidates for pre5ident in both political partieS seem .to be rUiining·to be ·.
elected to President Cliiiton's third term. And it is not surprising that the leading candidate mthe other party,
having already tried to steal our rhetoric, is now in a headlong dash to run away from his partY's leadership irt
Congress.
. .
to
run
.
.
Now, I understand why . ~y Republican who hopes be elected president would Wanttoi~entify ~ithNew'
Democratic principles. T,he}"re the principles that most Ariiericans embrace. And I certairily· Uridetstilri'd why •· .
away from the polarizing right wing of his own
.·
a Republican candidate for president would want to
party. He knows he canri:6t be elected president on thbir agenda.
You know, as I think about that republican agenda, biilancing the budget on the backs of the poor, a
13-month flScal year and all the other nonsense that c'omes out of that Congress, I can't help but once again
hearken back to the words of Tony Blair as he was describing the Tories under William Hague: "Weird,
weird, weird.''
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But let us not confuse an attempt to separate from the Republican Party's right wing with what President
Clinton did to transform the Democratic Party during this decade. There is a big difference between the hard
work of modernizing a political philosophy to reconnect with a party's first. principles and historic traditions,
and fashioning a slogan or a speech that expediently pushes off a party's unpopular leadership.
Many of you know how hard the work of transforming a party really is, because you were part of it. you
where there in New Orleans and Cleveland at those defining DLC conferences. Together we took on the
tough debates and the hard fights. Along the way, we even picked up a few scars.
But let's be very clear: The vital center of American politics starts right here.
Let me repeat that: The vital center of American politics starts right here, in the DLC, in the rnodexn,.
.
transformed Democratic Party. It is a progressive center. We defined it. We developed the ideasthat shaped
it. We put those ideas into action. And, we intend to carry those ideas to fruition to trimsfoim. America in the
21st Century.
After all we went through to modernize our party, we are not about to sit idly by and let the Republicans
reclalln. lhe vital center on the cheap.
·
·
'·.
•,
·.
So my message to our compassionate conservative imitators is this: We're tlanered,that'you wafitto irili~ate. ,
our rhetoric. but by November ofnex.t year the American people will know the difference beiween_tne · · .
imposter and the real thing.
But we need to understand that the challenge to otir tUrf is real. We cannot become complacent. We needto
keep challenging the status quo, to keep the mantle of progressive reform fumly in our grasp. We need: to
continue to modernize our party. We must resist any temptation to go back. Our candidates for :president ·
need to understand that there's jUSl one proven progressive formula for winning the White House and .
governing effectively in the United States. It's the New Democrat formula. There's no other way.
If we want to hold on to the vital center of American politics, and that is the key to oUt holdfug onto the .. .
White Housei New Democrats must continue to drive our party politically and intellectuany; That:sjust ...
what we intend to do at the DLC and PPI.
.· ·
· ' · · · ·. ·, .·
.
'
;
·.
That's why we're expending so much energy and resources to building our network of the next ge~eraHon of
New Democrat leaders in Congress and all across this country.
·
·· ·
We all know that the most exciting and significant development in Congre8s in the pa.Stthree years:h~··been
the establishment and the success of the New Demoerat coalition under the leadership ofCalDooley, Jim
Moran and Tim Roemer. We've always been strong the United States Senate· Witn tead~rs'llkeJoe
,
Lieberman and Jon Breaux, a.D.d we're getting stronger. Every new Democrat elected to the Senat~·~m.1998 ··.· ...
, was a New Democrat. We're tnaking.important progtess in gubernatorial elections aS' well. Last yea!:" in· .·• ·. ,.
Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and in the big enchilada, California. we elected D~motfutk gtivcmoi-5, ..·.
every one of them a New Democrat. In fact, every orie of the 17 democratic governorS governs as a New.
Democrat.
·
m
•
.
.
.
I
.
.
.
. .
But m many ways, our effortS to build our nelwork around the country are just begi.ririing, We saw some •of
the fruits of that effort iilJuly with our fabulously successful national conversation, hosted by Lieuten:int
Governor Kathleen Kerinedy Townsend in Baltimore; where we had 175 of America's most exciting and
talented future leaders to demonstrate that the future of our movement is in good harids.
It's critical now that we contiliue lo build that network at the state and localle.;el. In ail era of
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forget for one moment that this counuy has always needed and will always need a progressive labor
movement that fights for the interest of worldng families, whether they are members of unions or not.
AF. we begin our discussions today, it is important to understand that the differences in the Democratic Party
on trade are based on real concerns. Most Democrats who are worried about globalization want to make
globalization a positive development for all Americans. Certainly New Democrats, who are proud to stand in
the Democratic Party's historic tradition of open trade, are very concerned about making sure that every
American and every community has a chance to benefit from economic growth, change and prosperity.
The main purpose of this agenda today is to explore, as Senator Lieberman said, a Third Way approach to
globalization that can unite progressives and all Democrats, a Third Way that rejects both the laissez faire
belief that the global economy is self-regulating and the protectionist belief that America can withdraw from
the global economy and maintain high living standards and economic growth.
Our Third Way philosophy on globalization is grounded in those three simple principles: expanding trade,
having a new set of rules that help regulate trade in the global economy, and expanding the winner's circle
here at home.
If Democrats can unite on this Third Way of roles-based internationalism and domestic empowerment, then
we can help build a national consensus that links u.s. leadership abroad with growth and equity home,
just as Democrats have always done in the past.
at
New Democrats, who have been the strongest advocates in our party for globalization, need to lead the way
to forging that new consensus.
I'm confident that we will reach this new consensus on a Third Way on trade and globalization. because in
the end, as the President made so clear last night, we really have no choice. The global economy is here to
stay. It won't go away simply because we resist it, or we wish it away. Globalism is not so.i:ne accident that
came out of the blue. It is a product of two big forces: technological change, which is breaking down ,
traditional barriers to exchange of goods, services and information and ideas, and political change, which is
· creating a convergence -in most parts of the world toward the principles that we hold so dear: cremdcracy and
market economics.
· · · ·· · · ·
·
So let's go to work. Let's meet the President•s challenge. Let's forge a new consensus on glcibaliiation. Let's·
make that consensus yet another example of how New Democrats are leading our party into the infom1ation
age, into the 21st Century.
·
· ·
·
·
And let us remember that for all we have accomplished, our New Democrat movement is still young. and
our best days are still ahead of us.
In the 1990s the New Democrats reversed our party's fortunes in presidential elections. Now we_ must set our
sights on making a modernized Democratic Pany the majority pany in America once again: Let's make the ·
21st Century the New Democratic century.
We can do that if we keep our sights set on the future. We know that if we let our memories outweigh our
hopes, then we will become old. That will not happen, because we will not allow it tci happen. It' is the
destiny of this New Democrat movement to remain young forever. The vital center starts here.
Thank you very much.
""' n .. ' ' ' ' ~ '' '"': •• •••• ••••••••-:o·•·••u! ·~·~· u! • ~ '! '! !! '! ~! '! '! '! '!'''! .. uu,' ,,., •••••••:-:•••••!• ~! !'! !! '! !!! ~H!!!~ '! '! ~!! !' '! rnou on .. " f"l' !'!!' !• !! ! ~ H'! ~! u! ~! '! '! , .. , ''''' , ....... ouu! •• '! '! '! •••• ' .... " ••• • '' ·-· ••• • • •'! '• '" •! •! •' ' • • •' •' •' • ' '' •. • • • • • • • • ·•
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Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner
Boise, Idaho
March 13, 1999
I come to you tonight with a message of hope. I know the last four years have not been the best four years in
1
the history of the Idaho Democratic Party. But my message to you tonight is: don't get discouraged, doii t ·
give up. You can tum this around--and you will turn this around.
I know something about turning parties around.
In 1984, the party of Franklin Roosevelt, and Hany Truman, and John Kennedy; the party that led America
to most of its economic and social progress in the 20th century; the party that dolninated American politics
for nearly five decades, lost 49 states. There are a lot of people who thought if the electi~n had been a day or
two later, we would have lost all 50. We hit bedrock. Indeed, in 1980s, in each ofthose three presideiltiril
elections, we loSt: at least 40 states. By 1992, we had lost five of the last six presidential deetioris, and most ·
political experts said we would not win the presidency again in this century.
·
But we did not give up. With a young governor from Arkansas and a freshman senator from Tennessee, 'we
formed the Democratic Leadership Council. We believed that if we held flrmly to the first principles. of the
Democratic: Party, but furthered those principles with fresh ideas and modem means; if we built a modem;
centrist, progressive Democratic Party that tackles America1s most difficult challenges with bold afl:d
innovative ideas, the American people would once again rurn to us for national leadership ..
That is what we did, and that is what they did. We built the New Democrat movement; aifdthe Arri.elican .·.
people responded.
·- · ·
We proved the experts wrong. In 1992, we elected Bill Clinton, former chair of the Demobratic U'adership ...
Council and leader of our movement, President of the United States. In 1996, for first time six decades,
we re~lected a Democratic President.
in
Last year. in California with Gray Davis, nmning as a New Democrat, with the support ofthe ira:di~orihl . . .
constituencies in our party, we won back the governorship of our nation's largeSt state for the frrsi time 16
years. And. we won statehouses in places like Alabari:ta, Georgia, and South Carolina:.:~places thatthe experts:
had long ago ceded to the Republicans.
·
in
.
We did it by redefining and reclaiming the political center-by combining the strong
..
support ofttad.itio'hru•··.
· Democratic constituencies with the support of voters who :have not voted for a DemoC:ratfo'r: a very long ·.
tUne.
·
,
With that formula, in the year 2000, we are going to hold onto the White House, eleCt A1 Gore; President of
the United States, and win back the United States Congress.
And with that formula, we can restore and rebuild oUt patty in the Mountain West, mciuding here in
Idaho··a state, after all, with proud Democratic tradifio.Ii; a tradition of Frank Church; Cecil Andrus, and
John Evans, a tradition that allowed us to hold the governor's chair for 24 straight years. We can and will
restore that tradition in Idaho and put a Democrat back where he or she belongs-- iii the Governors chair just
a few blocks from here.
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Tonight, I want to talk a little about the keys to our national co~eback, the keys that can become the keys to
our comeback here in Idaho. I want to talk about how the Democratic Party can dominate the next politics,
just as we have dominated the last politics.
·
I want to make four points:
First, our country has changed, and our politics has changed with it. The next politics will be very different
from the last politics.
·
Second, the dominant politics of the next politics will be the Third Way- the politics first shaped here in
this country by BUl Clinton and the New Democrats and later in Great Britain by our close friend Tony Blair
and New Labor. It is an approach to governing grounded in traditional Democratic values-- values that go
back to Jefferson and Jackson-- that respond to the hopes and aspirations of voters today.
Thlid, the next politics will follow a very different set of rules than those which governed politics for most
of the 20th century.
·
Fourth, the challenge we face, as we look ahead, is to apply that New Democrat approach and those new .
rules to the great challenges we face-nationally and here in Idaho--at the dawn of a new cerifucy.
What I am telling you is for those of you who came to fear a red-meat, Republican- bashing speech your n·ot
going to get it, But what you are going to get is a formula for making the Idaho Democratic Party, a majority
party again.
I will never forget a trip I took to California with Bill Clinton, when he was Governor Bill Cl.ffiton. We were
out in Hollywood in 1991, and someone said, "Governor, why don't you give one ofthose Republican
bashing speeches that some of the other Presidential candidates are giving?"
.
.
.
And he said, "I could get red in the face and I could call the Republicans names, but unless I give the voters
. a compelling reason to vote Democratic, they are not going to vote Democratic...
·
So what I hope I'll do tonight is to try to tell you how to give the voters a compelling reason to vote
· · · ·
Democratic.
'
My flrst point: demographic and economic change will provide a 21st century electorate that will render the
political approaches and political philosophies of the 20th century increasingly irrelevant.
The electorate of the 21st century will be more educated, more affluent, more diverse, more suburban;.m6rc .
independent, less unionized--unless we can tum that around--and less urban than the electorate the 20th .·
century.
in
The increasing affluence of the electorate is illustrative of what lam talking about. lil' last year's election; 49
percent of American's earned over $50,000 a year; that's up 11 percent from just four years earlier. Even
.
more striking, in 1994, just fo1rr years ago, the last off-year election, twice as many voters earned Urtder
$30,000 a year as over $75,000 a year, by 32 percent to 16 percent. In 1998, twenty-six percent of the voters
earned under $30,000 a year; 24 percent earned over $75,000·a year. By 2000, or 2002, there will be more
voters who earn over $75,000 than who earn under $30,000 a year. Here in Idaho, the numbers are not as
stark but the trends are exactly the same. So we have a different electorate.
·
What about diversity? In SO years, a quarter of the electorate will be Hispanic, another 13 percent or 14
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percent African American, 8 percent Asian. And only 52 percent will be white. Now .obviously, Idaho has a
different make-upt but that's what it's going to be nationally. And it means there's going to be a different
politics in America.
Now that's not all, and this is something that does apply here. Because of technology and the New EConomy~
there is a new category in rh.e electorate. We call it ''wired workers." It was first identified bythe Institute for
the New California. ''Wired workers" are not only people who work with computers, but they work in
different arrangements, in teams that are self-directed, not top down arrangements. Nationally. they're
already 20 percent of the electorate. In California, a bell-weather state, they are already close to half the
electorate. Now think what 20 percent of the electorate is. That's twice as big a percentage of the electorate
as African Americans are today, and just about as big as organized labor. "Wired workers" are only going to
grow--they're just going to explode--and quickly in the decades ahead.
Finally, there's generational change. Now, everybody knows people are living longer and voters are getting
older, but that disguises something that is happening, as well. That is that we are undergoing a g·enerational
change in the electorate. By the year 2000, the percentage of voters who are part of the New Deal era-- who
cast their first votes for President, for either Franlclin Roosevelt or Harry Truman--will be less than.l'O
percent of the electorate, probably for the first time since the 1930s. They will be about. 8 percent The
dominant generations in politics are going to be the baby boomers and the Generation Xiers; , ·.·
.
.
Now why is that important? It is important because the New Deal generation is an anom3.Iy iri:Arn~rican.
history. It is the one generation in American history that believed in the power of the cenira.Ilzed fede'ral.
government. Thank about ir. They saw the national government save us from the depression 'arid win World .
War II. Those were their defining political experiences. Compare that with the experiences of ihe:sk.eptical
generations that followed-- Vietnam, Watergate, political assassinations, Double digit itiflatioirwas their
defining economic experience. Baby boomers and Generation X'ers have very different views ahd very
different attitudes toward government.
For those reasons, both the po.litical approaches and the political philosophies that governed the old p'oiiiics
will be very different in the next politics.
·
··
·
That brings me to my second point. The dominant politics in the 21st century is goillg t6·be our'Tlii'rd ..
Way-New Democrat politics. That politics is built on a foundation of the most basic and)"urid'anienta.J.
principles and beliefs of the Democratic Party, funhered by innovative ideas and modem ways: .·..
New Democrats are the modernizers of progressive tradition in American politics.
As Democrats, we believe in equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none. That hascbeen the . ..· .
animating principle of our party since the days of Andrew Jackson. We are the party upward nicibilit{We. ·
believe that social and economic progress in America are built on the talents and effortS of Amcricab.s,
not just the wealthy elites.
·
·
·· : ,.
of
all
But we're New Democrats bec,ause we understand that the private sector, not governhient, is the pdrnar)'
engine for economic growth. Government's proper role is to foster private sector growth and to equip every
American with the opponunities and skills that he or she needs to succeed in the private economy,· not to .
pick "winners" and "losers," and not just to redistribute wealth.
.
As DemocratS, we believe in tolerance and inclusion. We .are proud of our heritage as the Party that hdped
tens of millions of immigrantS--including my father--work their way into the ec:onomic and social
mainstream. We are the party of civil rights and equal rights and human righu.
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But we're New Democrats because we understand that tolerance and inclusion in an era of rapid change can
best be preserved by a common c:ivic culture grounded in the values most Americans believe in-work,
family, responsibility, individual. liberty, and faith.
~
Democrats, we believe in community--that we are all in this together, and that we can only achieve our
individual destinies if we share a common commitment to our national destiny.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that living in a community is a two-way street. We reject
the Right's ethic of every man for himself, and if you don't make it so be it. But we also reject the Left's ethic
of something for nothing. We believe in an ethic of mutual responsibility ·-that government has a
_
responsibility to its citizens to create opportunities and citizens have an obligation to their country to give
something back to the commonwealth.
As Democrats, we believe that America has a special responsibility to lead the world by example and by
diplomacy towards political and economic freedom.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that the most important challenge to our role in the world
today is to continue and strengthen America's leadership in the global economy, showing the world that
freedom can work to our mutual benefit--and that peaceful competition can lift the standard ofliving in
every part of the globe.
)
As Democrats~ we believe in activist government, that government can and should play a positive role in our
national life. Unlike the Republicans, we don't believe government is an alien institution. It is the agent of
our colleetive will and our instrument for helping Americans help themselves and each other.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that government today must be modernized constantly to
deal with the fast changing circumstances of the Information Age. We believe as Franklin Roosevelt did that
"new conditions impose new requirements on government and those who conduct govemmenL" That's why
we must consistently modernize government to make sure it equips people with the tools they:need to get
ahead.
..·
.
In sum. we stand for traditional Democratic values and modem means. Our enduring purpose iS .equ·al ·
opportunity for all, special privilege for none. Our public ethic iS mutual responsibility. bur:core vaiueis• .
community. And, our modem means is an empoweritlg government that equips people With ifie idols they ·
need to get ahead. Our manti:a, as you've heard President Clinton say so many tiiries, i.S oppdrtiimty, .· ··· .
responsibility. community, and empowering government.
· ·
·
Now to my third point: there are going to be different rules for this next politics. I'm going to give you five
ofthem.
.
First. ideas matter. The Republicans learned that the hard way in this last election. They'wantedt~t:ilk.abou~·· . ·. ·
investigations; the American people wanted to talk about ideas. And, with an mcrea5ingly upscale; rriote .· . ·' .
educated electorate, we're going to have to connect With our voters by what we stand for and by the ideas
that we talk about.
Second, we need to remember the fundamentals. For Democrats that means we have to be credible on fiscal
.discipline, crime, and welfare. And when we are, the voters will be more than willing to listen.to us on
education, the environment, health care--all the issues we like to talk about and where we have big electoral
advantages. It was because President Clinton solidif(ed us on the fundamental issues. those threshold issues,
that the old Republican battle cry of "liberal, liberal. iiberal," didn't work very well last year--because it was
no longer true.
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Third, and this is not a lesson you have to learn in Idaho. We're going to have to reach beyond our base. We
need to build a coalition of those iil the middle class struggling to stay there and those who are aspiring to
get there, a coalition of our traditional voters and voters we need to build a majority. To be successful, .
Democrats increasingly have to continue to win support up the income ladder beeause America'is becoming
more affluent. We need our base vote, but we can't win anywhere any more by just talking to our base vote,
because it is not big enough any longer, The base of both parties is declining. So to build a majority we have
to reach out beyond our base.
Fourth; we have to talk to the electorate as it will be and not as it was. Politicians are like generals; they like
to fight the last war. But the old messages just don't work anymore. You can't communicate .with •iwired'
workers'' by talking the talk of the 1950s or 1960s. And, you have to reach into the suburbs. There is a
reason President Clinton is in the White House and the Republicans still control Congress. There are now
160 suburban districts, more suburban Congressional districts then any other type of district. President
Clinton in 1996 won 105 of those. But in those 160 distncts, the Republicans won 92 of them for Congress.
In the largest twenty-eight suburban counties, he won twenty-four of them. Seventeen had never gone
Democratic before Bill Clinton came along. We have to win in the subUrbs. We have to make our gains
there.
Finally, and the most important rule of the new politics, is that the best goverrunent is the best· politics.
Think about, how following that rule has changed the perception of our party over the last six years.
.
.
For two decades, the American people refused to vote for a Democrat for President because they didn't think
we could manage the national economy. But with a New Democrat President, we riow have the best
economy, that any of us have seen in our lifetimes.
·
For most of the 1980s, and I think even in the 1990s here in Idaho, we had to live with Ronald Reagan's
label of tax and spend. But it took a New Democrat President, devoted to the princfple of fisdu disCipline, to
give us the frrst balanced budget in three decades. We are no longer the party of tax arid spend.
·
.·.;;_
.:
In the 1970s and 1980s we lived with the label of the party thar took money from people wlio~orkedJb gi~i'~·· :.
it to people who didn't work. It took a New Democrat President not only to end the welfare system, hut··
much more importantly to replace it with a work system, a system that, believe it or not, over the last six
years, has seen almost six million Americans move from the welfare roles to the work role. Those Americans ·
are becoming part of the mainStream of American society.
.
.
.
.
.
oh
We were a party that was often accused--and sometinies rightly accused--of being s·ofi ~nine. In ~ouf 19.80 ·:. .•· .
platform, we devoted more space to police brutality then to public safety. But moSt Americahsdon'tfeelthat:
way. With sensible, anti-crime measures, like commuhlty policing, we have now seen c~e ·go down tidw:
for seven straight years, and the Demoeratic party no longer is viewed as soft on crini.e. lnfacfin most public
opinion polls today crime is our issue.
We were the party that always seemed to ask what our government could do for us. But With ideas'like
AmeriCorps--the voluntary nalional service program that has been the comel'Stone idea of the Democratic
Leadership Council--we've agam become the party that asks in John Kennedy's most famous words, "What
we can do for our country?"
· ·
We were the party that was so 'devoted to big government that many people said we never saw a program we
didn't like and that we couldn\ embrace. But under ~e leadership of Vice President Gore and his
reinventing government effort, we now have the smallest federal government since the days of john
Kennedy. And, the federB.l workforce as a percentage of the national workforce is the smallest:its been si nee
i
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before Franklin Roosevelt was sworn into office.
By adhering to thai rule, we've made tremendous strides--for our nation and for our party. Indeed those
successes have shaped the politics of America in the 1990s.
'
Now to my last point, my fourth point. As great as those successes have been nationauy. and as much as we
may savor them, we cannot afford to rest. We need to apply those core principles and those newniles to the
substantive and political challenges that will face America and Idaho at the dawn of the new millennium.
We need innovative ideas and fresh approaches to the challenges that this state and our. nation faces:
• Challenges like continuing the incredible record of economic growth and creatirig good, high paying
jobs. Like expanding the winners' circle so every American has the chance to prosp'er in the new
economy, so that every American has the skills he or she needs to get ahead.
• Challenges like educating our kids by building a world class public education system--a public school
syStem that has the highest standards, offers choice and competition within the public school,
including charter schools,· and is accountable for it's performance. That's exactly the kind of education ·
system Marilyn Howard is going to build in this states.
·
• Challenges like assuring that every American young person has the chance to go to college, that no
young person, who willing to serve his or her country, will be denied the chance to go to college for
the lack of their inability to pay.
·
·
• Challenges like making sure that older Americans can retire in dignity, by modemiziJ1g our great
entitlement programs. Social Security and Medicare--two of the crown jewels· of the Democratic party
of the 20th century--so they will be secure given the economic and demographic te~ities of the 21st
century.
.
.
I am part of what we call the 11 Sandwich generation." A lot of you are too. We have to worry about
sending our kids to college. My daughter is a sophomore at Vassar. And I figured out it's only cost me .
$64,000 over the first two years in tuition and room and board alone.
·
We are a generation burdened with educating our kids, but we also have totake.care. of ofu paten[~
who are getting older and living longer. So we have to fix these entitlement programs so that they will
be secure, so that older people can retire in dignity, and so that we can take care of those who h~ve.
contributed so much to our society.
·
• Challenges like assuring that no Americans are left behind. That's a moral re.Sp'Oruibilicy ofihe ·
Democratic Party. The Republicans sure won't take that one on, We ne'ed to
thafe:Veiy- ...
American has a chance to move into the social and economic mainstream. Arid we gbrt·o OiC:kic this.·
terrible problem, which again you probably don't have so much in Idaho, of pcivei:ty in the inner"cities.
That is our moral responsibility as Democrats.
make sure
• And fmally, Challenges like tackling a second generation of environmental challenges. with modem;
progressive, market based means that both protect our precious environment but also foster economic
growth, and we can do it.
Out on the table outside this hall, there is a bunch of DLC and Progressive Policy Institute materials. The
Progressive Policy Institute is our affiliated think tank. And there is a piece on "civic-environmentalism,"
which is a new way to deal with our environmental problems which I think could help this pany and this
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state.
But if we are going to tackle those substantive challenges, we must also meet a great political challenge. We
need to build a new majority, a. New Democratic majority, because we are not going to do any of these
things if we don't get elected. So we've got to elect Democrats. That means we have to attract Independents
and even got to attract some Republicans who are sickened by their party's lurch to the right and by the rise
of the religious right in their party.
I believe that we are on the precipice of building thar. majority. The beauty of our New Democrat message~
as President Clinton proved in two national elections, is that it wins strong support both among our
traditional supporters and among the new supporters we need to forge a majority. In fact, President Clinton
won stronger support among our core constituencies in the in inner-cities than any Democrat since Franklin
Roosevelt. But he also won up the income ladder, winning key middle class, upper-middle class, and
suburban voters.
So we have the right message; we just have to use it.
At the Democratic Leadership Council and the Progressive Policy Institute, we are w'orking to help you meet
those challenges.
We're concentrating the work of our think tank and our new policy journal on developirtg ahd pf'omoting the'
next generation of New Democrat ideasM·ideas that are going to tackle the big chaJ.lenges l'vejustdistu5led, ·
..
~
.
~
. ·.
.
. .
.
Second. we're going to work hard to help to identify, nurture, and train the next geri~ra:clon of New bemocnlt ·
leaders around the country. In the Congress, for example, we're working closely with a group ofup
coming Senators and the New Democratic Coalition, a group of emerging leaders in the House.
and
In state legislatures across the country, we're developing DLC caucuses. But rnostimportant, we have
launched a nationwide program to ttain new leaders, young leaders in our partY, cin hOw to pradl'ce the kind
of ideas-based, values-based politics that is going to dominate the next politics. · ·
· · , .. ·
· ·
We're making a special effort here in theWest. Of the half-a-dozen training sessions we have done ·
nationally. three of them have already been in Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City--a nllm.ber ofldahoans .
attended in Salt Lake. Last week, we held a legislative conference in Sacramento. I've even put·a full Hnie
·
operative in California, with the specific responsibility not only of building oufst:lpport in Ccii.ifbhiia:; which ·. · ·
of course is the biggest state in the country, but also building our New Democra.t'cffoits 1n the'Mb\lni~in · ·
West.
And, again this summer, we11 hold a National Conversation among our pany's mo·st promising new leaders
to discuss ideas and plan strategies so that the next generation of Democratic leaders can both win elections.
·
·
and even more importantly, govern effectively.
We are making these efforts because the stakes are so high.
Our Third Way-New Democrat politics is the winning politics. We know that. Tony Blair has proven that in
Great Britain. Eleven of thirteen European countries following our model and center-left parties have taken
power in the last two or three years. So we know it is the winning politics. The party that owns tha:t politics
will not only win in 2000, but will dominate politics in the 21st century. .
·
Democrats created that politics, but the Republicans are trying to steal it from us. You have heard a certain
Governor of Texas talk about "compassionate conservatism". Well, I want to tell you, "compassionate
7 ofB
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conservatism", whatever that is, is nothing more then the Republicans trying to steal our Third-Way politics.
I call it New Democrat lite.
So our challenge is to own the politics we created--to make the difference between the imposter and the real
thing very clear to the American people.
If we meet that challenge, we will be the dominant party in America again--not just nationally or on the two
coasts--but even here in the Mountain West and in Idaho.
As I said when I began, my message is one of hope and opportunity. As daunting as the task may seem. we
can reverse the fortunes of our party even here in Idaho.
Twenty three years ago next week, when he announced his candidacy for President at Idaho City, Senator
Frank Church said these inspiring words: "It's never too late--nor the odds evertoo great--to try. In that spirit
the West was won."
So my invective to yoo. tonight is this: Let's honor the words and the legacy of Frank c:htu:ch. Let's never
forget that the best government is the best politics. Let's go out from this room and -offer~_ollibest ideas for
good government and a bright future for all of the people of Idaho. Let's be proud of ourdeillbcratic values
and ideals. And, if we do all of that, rm convinced that we'll beat the odds no matter how much they seem
stacked against us, and we'll build a New Democratic majority in the 21st century, Thank you very much.
Ret.nm to PoliLica1 TQol~
"'"''''"''_......... ~-•-n-•n\no'9•"•""'""'".....,.-..~--·-.....,....__,.,.~.,.,......._.,~vv~'(o\'t'QWt"o..........,.~---~~"'~$..~•...••'<-'(r-.'t~Vo"....._........,.....,,....,....._,_~";...."'" ... '•n•••••"'•••"'•~...·..·.-:·.·•~·••:,.,. ... ,..,..,........,,.....,
If yo11 woulcf like to conunent on this Web site, please send an e-mail to ~:~~9!~111\LI!t!~H£~l?.ir.~!i£:
The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) & The Progressive Policy Institute·(PPn
600 Pennsylvania Ave.• S.B .• Suite 400, Washington DC 20003,
· ·· ·
Phone:(202)S46~7.F~:(202)544-5002
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Page 1 of 10
DLC: AI From Speech
Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner
Boise, Idaho
March 13, 1999
I come to you tonight with a message of hope. I know the last four years have not been
the best four years in the history of the Idaho Democratic Party. But my message to you
tonight is: don't get discouraged, don't give up. You can tum this around--and you will
tum this around.
I know something about turning parties around.
In 1984, the party of Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, and John Kennedy; the
party that led America to most of its economic and social progress in the 20th century;
the party that dominated American politics for nearly five decades, lost 49 states. There
are a lot of people who thought if the election had been a day or two later, we would
have lost all 50. We hit bedrock. Indeed, in 1980s, in each of those three presidential
elections, we lost at least 40 states. By 1992, we had lost five of the last six presidential
elections, and most political experts said we would not win the presidency again in this
century.
But we did not give up. With a young governor from Arkansas and a freshman senator
from Tennessee, we formed the Democratic Leadership Council. We believed that if we
held firmly to the first principles of the Democratic Party, but furthered those principles
with fresh ideas and modern means; if we built a modern, centrist, progressive
Democratic Party that tackles America's most difficult challenges with bold and
innovative ideas, the American people would once again turn to us for national
leadership.
That is what we did, and that is what they did. We built the New Democrat movement,
and the American people responded.
We proved the experts wrong. In 1992, we elected Bill Clinton, former chair of the
Democratic Leadership Council and leader of our movement, President of the United
States. In 1996, for first time in six decades, we re-elected a Democratic President.
Last year, in California with Gray Davis, running as a New Democrat, with the support
of the traditional constituencies in our party, we won back the governorship of our
nation's largest state for the first time in 16 years. And, we won statehouses in places
like Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina--places that the experts had long ago ceded
to the Republicans.
We did it by redefining and reclaiming the political center--by combining the strong
support of traditional Democratic constituencies with the support of voters who have
not voted for a Democrat for a very long time.
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With that formula, in the year 2000, we are going to hold onto the White House, elect
AI Gore, President of the United States, and win back the United States Congress.
And with that formula, we can restore and rebuild our party in the Mountain West,
including here in Idaho--a state, after all, with proud Democratic tradition, a tradition of
Frank Church, Cecil Andrus, and John Evans, a tradition that allowed us to hold the
governor's chair for 24 straight years. We can and will restore that tradition in Idaho
and put a Democrat back where he or she belongs-- in the Governor's chair just a few
blocks from here.
Tonight, I want to talk a little about the keys to our national comeback, the keys that
can become the keys to our comeback here in Idaho. I want to talk about how the
Democratic Party can dominate the next politics, just as we have dominated the last
politics.
I want to make four points:
First, our country has changed, and our politics has changed with it. The next politics
will be very different from the last politics.
Second, the dominant politics of the next politics will be the Third Way-- the politics
first shaped here in this country by Bill Clinton and the New Democrats and later in
Great Britain by our close friend Tony Blair and New Labor. It is an approach to
governing grounded in traditional Democratic values-- values that go back to Jefferson
and Jackson-- that respond to the hopes and aspirations of voters today.
Third, the next politics will follow a very different set of rules than those which
governed politics for most of the 20th century.
Fourth, the challenge we face, as we look ahead, is to apply that New Democrat
approach and those new rules to the great challenges we face--nationally and here in
Idaho--at the dawn of a new century.
What I am telling you is for those of you who came to fear a red-meat, Republicanbashing speech your not going to get it. But what you are going to get is a formula for
making the Idaho Democratic Party, a majority party again.
I will never forget a trip I took to California with Bill Clinton, when he was Governor
Bill Clinton. We were out in Hollywood in 1991, and someone said, "Governor, why
don't you give one of those Republican bashing speeches that some of the other
Presidential candidates are giving?"
And he said, "I could get red in the face and I could call the Republicans names, but
unless I give the voters a compelling reason to vote Democratic, they are not going to
vote Democratic."
So what I hope I'll do tonight is to try to tell you how to give the voters a compelling
reason to vote Democratic.
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My first point: demographic and economic change will provide a 21st century
\
electorate that will render the political approaches and political philosophies of the 20th
century increasingly irrelevant.
The electorate of the 21st century will be more educated, more affluent, more diverse,
more suburban, more independent, less unionized--unless we can tum that around--and
less urban than the electorate in the 20th century.
The increasing affluence of the electorate is illustrative of what I am talking about. In
last year's election, 49 percent of American's earned over $50,000 a year; that's up 11
percent from just four years earlier. Even more striking, in 1994, just four years ago, the
last off-year election, twice as many voters earned under $30,000 a year as over
$75,000 a year, by 32 percent to 16 percent. In 1998, twenty-six percent of the voters
earned under $30,000 a year; 24 percent earned over $75,000 a year. By 2000, or 2002,
there will be more voters who earn over $75,000 than who earn under $30,000 a year.
Here in Idaho, the numbers are not as stark but the trends are exactly the same. So we
have a different electorate.
What about diversity? In 50 years, a quarter of the electorate will be Hispanic, another
13 percent or 14 percent African American, 8 percent Asian. And only 52 percent will
be white. Now obviously, Idaho has a different make-up, but that's what it's going to be
nationally. And it means there's going to be a different politics in America.
Now that's not all, and this is something that does apply here. Because of technology
and the New Economy, there is a new category in the electorate. We call it "wired
workers." It was first identified by the Institute for the New California. "Wired
workers" are not only people who work with computers, but they work in different
arrangements, in teams that are self-directed, not top down arrangements. Nationally,
they're already 20 percent of the electorate. In California, a bell-weather state, they are
already close to half the electorate. Now think what 20 percent of the electorate is.
That's twice as big a percentage of the electorate as African Americans are today, and
just about as big as organized labor. "Wired workers" are only going to grow--they're
just going to explode--and quickly in the decades ahead.
Finally, there's generational change. Now, everybody knows people are living longer
and voters are getting older, but that disguises something that is happening, as well.
That is that we are undergoing a generational change in the electorate. By the year
2000, the percentage of voters who are part of the New Deal era-- who cast their first
votes for President, for either Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman--will be less than 10
percent of the electorate, probably for the first time since the 1930s. They will be about
8 percent. The dominant generations in politics are going to be the baby boomers and
the Generation X'ers.
Now why is that important? It is important because the New Deal generation is an
anomaly in American history. It is the one generation in American history that believed
in the power of the centralized federal government. Thank about it. They saw the
national government save us from the depression and win World War II. Those were
their defining political experiences. Compare that with the experiences of the skeptical
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generations that followed-- Vietnam, Watergate, political assassinations. Double digit
inflation was their defining economic experience. Baby boomers and Generation X'ers
have very different views and very different attitudes toward government.
For those reasons, both the political approaches and the political philosophies that
governed the old politics will be very different in the next politics.
That brings me to my second point. The dominant politics in the 21st century is going
to be our Third Way-New Democrat politics. That politics is built on a foundation of
the most basic and fundamental principles and beliefs of the Democratic Party,
furthered by innovative ideas and modern ways.
New Democrats are the modernizers of progressive tradition in American politics.
As Democrats, we believe in equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none.
That has been the animating principle of our party since the days of Andrew Jackson.
We are the party of upward mobility. We believe that social and economic progress in
America are built on the talents and efforts of all Americans, not just the wealthy elites.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that the private sector, not
government, is the primary engine for economic growth. Government's proper role is to
foster private sector growth and to equip every American with the opportunities and
skills that he or she needs to succeed in the private economy, not to pick "winners" and
"losers," and not just to redistribute wealth.
As Democrats, we believe in tolerance and inclusion. We are proud of our heritage as
the Party that helped tens of millions of immigrants--including my father--work their
way into the economic and social mainstream. We are the party of civil rights and equal
rights and human rights.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that tolerance and inclusion in an era
of rapid change can best be preserved by a common civic culture grounded in the
values most Americans believe in--work, family, responsibility, individual liberty, and
faith.
As Democrats, we believe in community--that we are all in this together, and that we
can only achieve our individual destinies if we share a common commitment to our
national destiny.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that iiving in a community is a twoway street. We reject the Right's ethic of every man for himself, and if you don't make
it so be it. But we also reject the Left's ethic of something for nothing. We believe in an
ethic of mutual responsibility --that government has a responsibility to its citizens to
create opportunities and citizens have an obligation to their country to give something
back to the commonwealth.
As Democrats, we believe that America has a special responsibility to lead the world by
example and by diplomacy towards political and economic freedom.
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But we're New Democrats because we understand that the most important challenge to
our role in the world today is to continue and strengthen America's leadership in the
global economy, showing the world that freedom can work to our mutual benefit--and
that peaceful competition can lift the standard of living in every part of the globe.
As Democrats, we believe in activist government, that government can and should play
a positive role in our national life. Unlike the Republicans, we don't believe
government is an alien institution. It is the agent of our collective will and our
instrument for helping Americans help themselves and each other.
But we're New Democrats because we understand that government today must be
modernized constantly to deal with the fast changing circumstances of the Information
Age. We believe as Franklin Roosevelt did that "new conditions impose new ·
requirements on government and those who conduct government." That's why we must
consistently modernize government to make sure it equips people with the tools they
need to get ahead.
In sum, we stand for traditional Democratic values and modern means. Our enduring
purpose is equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none. Our public ethic is
mutual responsibility. Our core value is community. And, our modern means is an
empowering government that equips people with the tools they need to get ahead. Our
mantra, as you've heard President Clinton say so many times, is opportunity,
responsibility, community, and empowering government.
Now to my third point: there are going to be different rules for this next politics. I'm
going to give you five of them.
First, ideas matter. The Republicans learned that the hard way in this last election. They
wanted to talk about investigations; the American people wanted to talk about ideas.
And, with an increasingly upscale, more educated electorate, we're going to have to
connect with our voters by what we stand for and by the ideas that we talk about.
Second, we need to remember the fundamentals. For Democrats that means we have to
be credible on fiscal discipline, crime, and welfare. And when we are, the voters wiJI be
more than willing to listen to us on education, the environment, health care--all the
issues we like to talk about and where we have big electoral advantages. It was because
President Clinton solidified us on the fundamental issues, those threshold issues, that
the old Republican battle cry of "liberal, liberal, liberal," didn't work very well last
year--because it was no longer true.
Third, and this is not a lesson you have to learn in Idaho. We're going to have to reach
beyond our base. We need to build a coalition of those in the middle class struggling to
stay there and those who are aspiring to get there, a coalition of our traditional voters
and voters we need to build a majority. To be successful, Democrats increasingly have
to continue to win support up the income ladder because America is becoming more
affluent. We need our base vote, but we can't win anywhere any more by just talking to
our base vote, because it is not big enough any longer. The base of both parties is
declining. So to build a majority we have to reach out beyond our base.
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Fourth, we have to talk to the electorate as it will be and not as it was. Politicians are
like generals; they like to fight the last war. But the old messages just don't work
anymore. You can't comm~nicate with "wired workers" by talking the talk of the 1950s
or 1960s: And, you have to reach into the suburbs. There is a reason President Clinton
is in the White House and the Republicans still control Congress. There are now 160
suburban districts, more suburban Congressional districts then any other type of
district. President Clinton in 1996 won 105 of those. But in those 160 districts, the
Republicans won 92 of them for Congress. In the largest twenty-eight suburban
counties, he won twenty-four of them. Seventeen had never gone Democratic before
Bill Clinton came along. We have to win in the suburbs. We have to make our gains
there.
Finally, and the most important rule of the new politics, is that the best government is
the best politics. Think about, how following that rule has changed the perception of
our party over the last six years.
For two decades, the American people refused to vote for a Democrat for President
because they didn't think we could manage the national economy. But with a New
Democrat President, we now have the best economy, that any of us have seen in our
lifetimes.
For most of the 1980s, and I think even in the 1990s here in Idaho, we had to live with
Ronald Reagan's label of tax and spend. But it took a New Democrat President, devoted
to the principle of fiscal discipline, to give us the first balanced budget in three decades.
We are no longer the party of tax and spend.
lrt the 1970s and 1980s we lived with the label of the party that took money from
people who worked to give it to people who didn't work. It took a New Democrat
President not only to end the welfare system, but much more importantly to replace it
with a work system, a system that, believe it or not, over the last six years, has seen
almost six million Americans move from the welfare roles to the work role. Those
Americans are becoming part of the mainstream of American society.
We were a party that was often accused--and sometimes rightly accused--of being soft
on crime. In our 1980 platform, we devoted more space to police brutality then to
public safety. But most Americans don't feel that way. With sensible, anti-crime
measures, like community policing, we have now seen crime go down now for seven
straight years, and the Democratic party no longer is viewed as soft on crime. In fact in
most public opinion polls today crime is our issue.
We were the party that always seemed to ask what our government could do for us. But
with ideas like AmeriCorps--the voluntary national service program that has been the
cornerstone idea of the Democratic Leadership Council--we've again become the party
that asks in John Kennedy's most famous words, "What we can do for our country?"
We were the party that was so devoted to big government that many people said we
never saw a program we didn't like and that we couldn't embrace. But under the
leadership of Vice President Gore and his reinventing government effort, we now have
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the smallest federal government since the days of John Kennedy. And, the federal
workforce as a percentage of the national workforce is the smallest its been since before
Franklin Roosevelt was sworn into office.
By adhering to that rule, we've made tremendous strides--for our nation and for our
party. Indeed those successes have shaped the politics of America in the 1990s.
Now to my last point, my fourth point. As great as those successes have been
nationally, and as much as we may savor them, we cannot afford to rest. We need to
apply those core principles and those new rules to the substantive and political
challenges_ that will face America and Idaho at the dawn of the new millennium.
We need innovative ideas and fresh approaches to the challenges that this state and our
nation faces:
• Challenges like continuing the incredible record of economic growth and creating
good, high paying jobs. Like expanding the winners' circle so every American
has the chance to prosper in the new economy, so that every American has the
skills he or she needs to get ahead.
• Challenges like educating our kids by building a world class public education
system--a public school system that has the highest standards, offers choice and
competition within the public school, including charter schools, and is
accountable for it's performance. That's exactly the kind of education system
Marilyn Howard is going to build in this states.
• Challenges like assuring that every American young person has the chance to go
to college, that no young person, who willing to serve his or her country, will be
denied the chance to go to college for the lack of their inability to pay.
• Challenges like making sure that older Americans can retire in dignity, by
modernizing our great entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare--two
of the crown jewels of the Democratic party of the 20th century--so they will be
secure given the economic and demographic realities of the 21st century.
I am part of what we call the "sandwich generation." A Jot of you are too. We
have to woiTy about sending our kids to college. My daughter is a sophomore at
Vassar. And I figured out it's only cost me $64,000 over the first two years in
tuition and room and board alone.
We are a generation burdened with educating our kids, but we also have to take
care of our parents who are getting older and living longer. So we have to fix
these entitlement programs so that they will be secure, so that older people can
retire in dignity, and so that we can take care of those who have contributed so
much to our society.
• Challenges like assuring that no Americans are left behind. That's a moral
responsibility of the Democratic Patty. The Republicans sure won't take that one
on. We need to make sure that every American has a chance to move into the
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social and economic mainstream. And we got to tackle this terrible problem,
which again you probably don't have so much in Idaho, of poverty in the innercities. That is our moral responsibility as Democrats.
• And finally, Challenges like tackling a second generation of environmental
challenges with modern, progressive, market based means that both protect our
precious environment but also foster economic growth, and we can do it.
Out on the table outside this hall, there is a bunch of DLC and Progressive Policy
Institute materials. The Progressive Policy Institute is our affiliated think tank. And
there is a piece on "civic-environmentalism," which is a new way to deal with our
environmental problems which I think could help this party and this state.
But if we are going to tackle those substantive challenges, we must also meet a great
political challenge. We need to· build a new majority, a New Democratic majority,
because we are not going to do any of these things if we don't get elected. So we've got
to elect Democrats. That means we have to attract Independents and even got to attract
some Republicans who are sickened by their party's lurch to the right and by the rise of
the religious right in their party.
I believe that we are on the precipice of building that majority. The beauty of our New
Democrat message, as President Clinton proved in two national elections, is that it wins
strong support both among our traditional supporters and among the new supporters we
need to forge a majority. In fact, President Clinton won stronger support among our
core constituencies in the in inner-cities than any Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt.
But he also won up the income ladder, winning key middle class, upper-middle class,
and suburban voters.
So we have the right message; we just have to use it.
At the Democratic Leadership Council and the Progressive Policy Institute, we are
working to help you meet those challenges.
We're concentrating the work of our think tank and our new policy journal on
developing and promoting the next generation of New Democrat ideas--ideas that are
going to tackle the big challenges I've just discussed.
Second, we're going to work hard to help to identify, nurture, and train the next
generation of New Democrat leaders around the country. In the Congress, for example,
we're working closely with a group of up and coming Senators and the New
Democratic Coalition, a group of emerging leaders in the House.
In state legislatures across the country, we're developing DLC caucuses. But most
important, we have launched a nationwide program to train new leaders, young leaders
in our party, on how to practice the kind of ideas-based, values-based politics that is
going to dominate the next politics.
We're making a special effort here in the West. Of.the half-a-dozen training sessions we
have done nationally, three of them have already been in Denver, Phoenix, and Salt
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Lake City--a number of Idahoans attended in Salt Lake. Last week, we held a
legislative conference in Sacramento. I've even put a full time operative in California,
with the specific responsibility not only of building our support in California, which of
course is the biggest state in the country, but also building our New Democrat efforts in
the Mountain West.
And, again this summer, we'll hold a National Conversation among our party's most
promising new leaders to discuss ideas and plan strategies so that the next generation of
Democratic leaders can both win elections and even more importantly, govern
effectively.
We are making these efforts because the stakes are so high.
Our Third Way-New Democrat politics is the winning politics. We know that. Tony
Blair has proven that in Great Britain. Eleven of thirteen European countries following
our model and center-left parties have taken power in the last two or three years. So we
know it is the winning politics. The party that owns that politics will not only win in
2000, but will dominate politics in the 21st century.
Democrats created that politics, but the Republicans are trying to steal it from us. You
have heard a certain Governor of Texas talk about "compassionate conservatism".
Well, I want to tell you, "compassionate conservatism", whatever that is, is nothing
more then the Republicans trying to steal our Third-Way politics. I call it New
Democrat lite.
So our challenge is to own the politics we created--to make the difference between the
imposter and the real thing very clear to the American people.
If we meet that challenge, we will be the dominant party in America again--not just
nationally or on the two coasts--but even here in the Mountain West and in Idaho.
As I said when I began, my message is one of hope and opportunity. As daunting as the
task may seem, we can reverse the fortunes of our party even here in Idaho.
Twenty three years ago next week, when he announced his candidacy for President at
Idaho City, Senator Frank Church said these inspiring words: "It's never too late--nor
the odds ever too great--to try. In that spirit the West was won."
So my invective to you tonight is this: Let's honor the words and the legacy of Frank
Church. Let's never forget that the best government is the best politics. Let's go out
from this room and offer our best ideas for good government and a bright future for all
of the people of Idaho. Let's be proud of our democratic values and ideals. And, if we
do all of that, I'm convinced that we'll beat the odds no matter how much they seem
stacked against us, and we'll build a New Democratic majority in the 21st century.
Thank you very much.
RGtum. . t9. .f?Q.I.itig<tLTQ9ls
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If you would like to comment on this Web site, please send an e-mail to :\Y.~Q!:r.lli~t~r@()Jfppj,QJ:g,
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!?llls;R.I:iiJt:Jg~a.,;.JQr. . <l.N~.\Y. C.t::DJ.LirY I I'b~Ns;\.v.Q~mQ<.:rm
The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) & The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 400, Washington DC 20003,
Phone: (202) 546-0007, Fax: (202) 544-5002
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~-
'
Page 1 of 3
-
.
Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
National Conference of Black Mayors
Denver, Colorado
April 22, 1999 ·
I'm a Democrat for essentially the same reason most of you are Democrats: because the
Democratic Party is the party of inclusion. My father was an immigrant. The
Democratic Party gave my family opportunity. Many of you are Democrats because, in
the 1960s, the Democratic Party decisively committed itself to civil rights. The party of
Roosevelt and Truman, of Kennedy and Johnson, of Carter and Clinton has led
America to most of its social and economic progress in the 20th century.
But as proud as we are of what we have accomplished we cannot afford to rest on our
laurels. We must tackle today's challenges as we tackled yesterday's-- with courage and
innovation and the same dedication to our enduring values. And we must tackle them
together-- as full partners.
That's what the New Democrat movement and the Democratic Leadership Council are
all about. We are dedicated to tackling new challenges with new ideas that are anchored
in our party's first principles. We want every Democrat involved in our movement,
because every Democrat has an obligation to help keep our party's heritage vital.
We especially need you. As mayors, you face unmet challenges every single day. You,
better than any other Democrats, understand that yesterday's programs won't solve
today' s problems. You, more than any other Democrats, understand that to remain
faithful to our enduring values will require new ideas.
There are many challenges facing our country and our cities. But today I want to touch
briefly on just two.
First, we must assure that every American can benefit from today's remarkable
economic growth.
As Democrats, we believe in equal opportunity for all. That's our first principle. We
believe that without equal opportunity we can't have social and economic progress and
that economic progress is built on the talents and efforts of all Americans, not just the
wealthy elites. We know that America cannot remain a "winner" in the global economy
unless we "expand the winner's circle" so all Americans have 'a real chance to get
ahead.
As New Democrats, we understand that, in the new Information Age, old ways won't
achieve that goal. Young people today cannot leave school without skills and expect to
hold a lifetime factory job with a steadily rising income, health care, and a pension.
They will be left behind if they don't have real-world skills. They also need wealthproducing assets like homes and personal savings "trampolines" not "safety nets", so
they can control their own economic destiny. They need the chance to open and operate
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;:
businesses. And they need a Democratic Party that is committed to giving them a stake
in the New Economy, not a shrinking share of yesterday's economic pie.
Now, the second great challenge: to modernize and fix our public schools so that inner
city kids have a real chance to get ahead.
As Democrats, we are committed to providing everyone a first class public education.
That's essential in the Information Age. As President Clinton says, what we earn
depends on what we learn.
As New Democrats, we know that too many public schools are failing our neediest
kids. We need to change that. We also know that money alone won't do the job. Inner
city kids deserve world class schools. That's why all public schools should be held
accountable to high performance standards so that we can measure how well they're
doing.
Private school vouchers are not the answer because private schools will never serve the
needs of all our kids. We want to endow every public school with the qualities of the
best schools choice and competition, skilled teachers and inspired principals, a safe and
disciplined learning environment, and high expectations for even the lowest-achieving
students.
Urban families don't need a Democratic Party that defends failing public schools or that
won't take on real reform. They need a Democratic Party that is willing to make every
single public school a high-performance school and will not let any bureaucratic
obstacle or professional self-interest stand in the way.
The central point I want to make today is this: With new, bold and innovative
approaches, the Democratic Party can further the fundamental values that made us all
Democrats in the first place. The New Democrat movement wants your ideas. That's
why I'm inviting every Democratic Mayor here today to the DLC's National
Conversation in July, to help us develop New Democratic ideas can reshape politics
and government in cities and states all over America.
Join us and together let us prove that the Democratic Party is still the party that puts our
best values to work.
Related Link
• National Conference of Black Mayors
• AI From's Biography
If you would like to comment on this Web site, please send an e-mail to wchmaster@dlcppi.org.
l?LC . tll!DJ.~.P;J.g~ I i\l:JQ.t.IJ . .PLC I I2.LC . . ,'\r~b.iy.;:, I Ih.t<. . N<:e\YP<:enJQq~1J. .Ml!Y<:emt<.IJ.t
Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century I The New Democrat
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'.
PPI liomcpagQ I About PPI I PPI Archive I The Third Way_l'hilosophy
The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) & The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 400, Washington DC 20003,
Phone: (202) 546-0007, Fax: (202) 544-5002
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Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
1999 National Conversation
Baltimore, Maryland
July__1~,_1999
Welcome to this Third Annual Conversation of the National Conversation of the
Democratic Leadership Council. In just three years, this conversation has grown from
just a handful of people around a very funny shaped table in a hotel in Washington, to
this wonderful event with 170 elected officials from every state of the union.
When we started this movement, I never would have dreamed that at a New Democrat
meeting we would have had the Chairman of the National Governors Association; the
· Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the Chairman of the Black Mayors; the
President Pro-Tem of the County Executives, all New Democrats. And we would have
had the head of the National Association of State Legislators, if the California
Legislature weren't in session.
Now that's progress.
We've just heard Kathleen lay out some issues that we ought to be tackling. Later today,
we're going to be honored by the presence of our friend and former Democratic
Leadership Council Chairman, the President of the United States. Bill Clinton is the
leader of the New Democrat movement in this country and the single person most
responsible for the modernization of progressive politics all over the world. That is his
legacy to our country--and to the world.
I want to make two point this morning.
First, as New Democrats, you are part of the most significant political story of the
1990s--the resurgence of center-left, progressive centrist parties all around the globe,
beginning right here in the United States.
And second, it is up to you to make sure that this New Democrat movement carries
forward, intellectually and politically dynamic, so that it can continue to grow and
prosper as we head into the 21st Century.
My first point. No question about it. The biggest political story of the 1990s has been
the resurgence of center-left parties all over the globe. Think about it. If we have been
meeting here ten years ago, Ronald Reagan and George Bush dominated politics in
America. Margaret Thatcher dominated politics in Great Britain. Helmut Kohl
dominated politics in Germany. Conservative governments all.
Where are we today? Bill Clinton and the New Democrats lead in the United States.
Tony Blair and New Labor in Great Britain. And Gerhard Schroeder and the New
Middle in Germany. The common thread to the success of all of three of those parties
and to center-left parties throughout the democratic world has been their development
and embrace of what we call the third way political philosophy. Whether they're called
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New Democrats, New Labor, or the New Middle, the values, ideas and approaches of
the third way are modernizing center-left governments all around the globe. They are
grounded in a public philosophy that embodies fundamental progressive principles
furthered by modern means and innovative ideas.
I summarize our philosophy this way. Its first principle and enduring purpose is
opportunity for all, special p1ivilege for none. Its public ethic is mutual responsibility.
Its core value is community. Its outlook is global, and its modem means are fostering
private sector economic growth, today's prerequisite for opportunity for all, and
promoting an empowering government that equips citizens with the tools to solve their
own problems in their own communities. Opportunity, responsibility, community.
Just think about how adherence to this New Democrat third way philosophy has
transformed the Democratic Party in the United States, making it possible for our party
to pursue its first principles and to win support of the American people because our
ideas work.
Let's understand why we've succeeded. Let me give you five reasons. These are how
our five principles work in the modern world.
I said a minute ago our first principle and enduring purpose is opportunity for all. But
what made New Democrats different is that we understood that in the 1990s in order to
be the party of opportunity, you had to be the party of private sector economic growth.
Now how does that manifest itself in policy?
Nineteen years ago, l worked in the Carter administration. And every economic plank
in the Democratic platform in 1980, was a public jobs program. Contrast that with the
policies of the Clinton administration: balancing the budget; expanding trade;
investments in education and training, research and development and infrastructure, the
kind of investment that make the private economy grow. And think about the trip we
took last week. We didn't go with a big pot of money giving a lot of handouts to poor
communities. We went with business leaders and a strategy of getting private
investment, private sector growth into those communities that have been left behind in
this incredible recovery.
Second, we have reunited Democratic policies with the values that most Americans
believe in, and which were the core values of our party when we were the clear
majority party in this country: work, family, responsibility, individual liberty, faith,
tolerance and inclusion. Now the best example of that is welfare reform. But before we
had welfare reform, we had to make it clear that we believed in work, and we had to
make work pay more than welfare. And that's why we enacted the earned income tax
credit. Once we made work pay more than welfare, we ended that welfare system that
projected values that most Americans thought were wrong because it discouraged work
and destroyed families. That's why people across this country are willing to invest more
in a work system than in welfare, because it reflects their values.
Third, we have reconnected our party with John Kennedy's ethic of mutual and civic
responsibility. Through ideas like National Service, we not only ask what our country
can do for our people, but what we can do for our country.
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Fourth, we've returned to the global outlook that has been the hallmark of Democratic
administrations from time immemorial. We have always been the party that believed in
expanded trade. We have gotten our party past the nco-isolationism of Vietnam and the
protectionism that started to develop in response to economic change. Now those trade
fights aren't over. But President Clinton's steadfast support of expanded trade has been
one of the keys to the economic success of our country.
And finally, we have reconnected our party with the real legacy of Franklin Roosevelt,
his thirst for innovation. We are a party that believes in activist government. When
President Clinton said the era of big government is over, he didn't mean the era of
activist government was over. But we had to modernize our government so people
would support it. We had to modernize it by changing it from a big, centralized
bureaucracy to a government that equips people with the tools to solve their own
problems in their own communities; ideas like community policing, like charter
schools, like regional skills alliances, like life-long learning; all of those kinds of ideas
that will help equip people for a better life, a more prosperous life in their own
communities.
This New Democrat agenda has been pretty successful. In fact, it has been so successful
that the Republicans are trying to parrot our politics. They're trying to pilfer our New
Democrat themes of opportunity, responsibility and community.
Now I really don't know what a compassionate conservative stands for. But I've got a
message for our Republican imitators. Transforming a political party, hammering out a
political philosophy and crafting a governing agenda that works is accomplished
through hard work, spirited debate and even a few tough fights, not just with a clever
slogan or by inheritance.
We know that in the DLC because, under President Clinton's leadership, we undertook
that hard work. We held those spirited debates. Many of you were at Cleveland, and we
really took on the hard fights. That's why we transformed our party and redefined and
captured the political center of American politics. After all we went through, we're not
going to sit idly by and let the Republicans reclaim the political center on the cheap.
That's why this conversation and what we do here over the next two days is so
important. You are the future of the New Democrat movement.
Now to my second point. Our movement is in your hands. You need to keep it
politically and intellectually dynamic. This conversation represents a fundamental shift
in the DLC's political strategy, from a top down to a ground up strategy. We started
with the top down strategy because we believed that Democrats needed to develop a
new national agenda to regain the presidency and assume national leadership. But now
the future of the New Democrat movement depends on the ability to apply New
Democrat principles to the challenges of state and local governments and our ability to
rebuild progressive coalitions from the ground up.
In an era of decentralization of economic and political power, the impetus for political
reform and innovation has to come increasingly from the states and the localities. That
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means you. Your presence, your public actions will increasingly be the face of our
movement that most Americans see in their own communities and in their everyday
lives.
Now at the DLC, we're going to devote all of our resources to helping you deal with
that challenge.
Our think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, will continue to shape and share
innovative ideas.
Our publications, J3Il1~PiitlJ and the N~wQ~D1Q~t:[tt, will continue to search out and
write about the best new approaches that are going on anywhere in the country.
Our \Y~Gk]yJ;tXc will continue to communicate the idea of the week, which will
increasingly come from all of you.
We will expand our DLC Leadership Workshops, our efforts to teach state and local
leaders about the essentials of the New Democrat philosophy.
And building upon the success of our Sl;;tt~L~gi$l<JtiY~69Yi?myl?Qi:liQ, led by Antonio
Riley, which has helped us recruit adherents and organize New Democrat caucuses in
state legislatures across the country, we are launching at this conversation our New
Democrat Local Officials Network that will allow better and faster communications of
ideas among city and county officials.
In short, we'll do all we can to help you. But in the end, the best ideas and the most
important innovations will come from you. We need your ideas. That's why we've just
launched the new RLCJq~~~.E0.<::Di:lT1g~, a forum for all of you to communicate with us
and with each other. And that's why later this year we will undertake a major expansion
of our web and Internet capacity so we can communicate with each other in ways that
we could not have even dreamed about even a year ago.
We're devoting so much energy and so many resources into the development and the
communication of ideas, because ideas are the key to a growing, dynamic New
Democrat movement.
The bottom line is this. The success -of our movement has been built on our ideas. If we
want Americans to keep supporting us, we need to keep innovating to help Americans
cope with the new challenges and the new economy and the new social realities, the
kind of things that Kathleen just talked about.
With the successes we've had, there's a great temptation to rest on our laurels, to stop
the process of modernization that have helped us revive our party as a political force
and put us on the precipice of being the majority party in America in the 21st Century.
We cannot afford that.
In an era of transforming change, the surest way to let the Republicans steal our politics
is for us to let our politics lose its intellectual dynamism. The Republicans may be able
to raise more money than we can, and they'll certainly be able to spend more money
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than we can. But we can never allow them to out-think us.
So our challenge is to keep our politics intellectually dynamic, to keep in brimming
with new and innovative ideas. New ideas today arise from the efforts of state and local
innovators like you as you try to solve problems in your own communities. The purpose
of this national conversation is to show all of America that the best of those new ideas,
the best of those innovations, the best solutions to the challenges that our country will
face in the 21st Century will come from New Democrat leaders.
Thank you very much.
###
If you would like to comment on this Web site, please send an e-mail to .w~lnn::t~J~r@dl~;ppi,Qrg,
m
l)l,(JJQillt':P~lg~ I ,~Jl()JtJJ2IA: I "CJ\r.;hiy~ I Ih~-N~w_12~mQ<;GHMQXS:rn~n1
J.?J. LI~.P'.·inJ.:. Ict.~<Js. J9r. .:l . Ne\yC~.IJtl!':Y I Ih.~.N.~yyQ~mQ~rm
The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) & The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 400, Washington DC 20003,
Phone: (202) 546-0007, Fax: (202) 544-5002
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DLC:Politics of the 21st Century
Politics of the 21st Century
Remarks of AI From
President, Democratic Leadership Council
Democratic Party Legislative Ball
Salt Lake City, Utah
January 13, 1999
I want to talk tonight about the next politics--the politics of the 21st Century--and about
where it's headed and how we can shape it.
Fourteen years ago, in the wake of the 1984 Presidential election debacle, a small band
of NQWOGJlJQGrats--including a young Governor from Arkansas and a freshman
Senator from Tennessee--formed the Democratic Leadership Council to reverse our
party's flagging fortunes in national politics.
Today, the DLC is at the intellectual and political center of the New Democrat
movement. We develop and promote policy ideas--and we shape political strategies.
We have a small affiliated think tank, a bi-monthly magazine, a new policy journal, a
national training program for up and coming leaders, and a network of thousands of
supporters across the country.
In 1999, the DLC has a very clear mission: to ensure that the New Democrat politics
that has dominated our party for the last six years, continues to be the defining politics
for the Democratic Party and for our country after President Clinton leaves office in
2001.
We need--and we are determined to build--a modem, centrist, progressive Democratic
Party that tackles America's most difficult challenges with bold and innovative ideas.
That is the key, not only to holding onto the White House in the year 2000, but to
rebuilding our party at the congressional and gubenatoriallevels, as well.
New Democrats have come a very long way. When we launched the DLC in 1985,
most political observers believed that no Democrat would be elected President again in
this century. We proved the experts wrong. New Democrat Bill Clinton was not only
elected in 1992, but became the first Democrat to be re-elected to a second term since
Franklin Roosevelt 60 years before.
Today, Tbirc:i\Yay-New Democrat ideas define the center of American politics.
But we cannot dwell on our past successes, as much as we may savor them. I want to
talk instead about the next politics.
I want to make four simple points:
• First, the next politics--the politics of the 21st century--will be very different than
the politics of the 20th century.
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• Second, the dominant politics of the next century will be the Third Way--the
politics shaped first here in this country by Bill Clinton and the New Democrats
and later by our friend Tony Blair and New Labor in Great Britain.
• Third, the next politics will follow a very different set of political rules--rules
that began to be obvious in last year's congressional elections.
o
And finally, I want to talk about how the Democratic Leadership Council can and
will play a defining role in shaping that new politics.
The first point: demographic change will provide a 21st century electorate that will
render the political approaches and political philosophies of the 20th century
increasingly irrelevant.
The electorate of the 21st century will be more educated, more affluent, more diverse,
more suburban, more independent, less unionized, and less urban than the electorate in
the 20th century.
Those changes are big, and, they are rapid. In the 1998 election, 49 percent of the
electorate made over $50,000 a year, up 11 percent from 38 percent just four years
earlier, the last off-year election. In 1994, twice as many voters, by 32 percent to 16
percent, made under $30,000 a year as over $75,000 a year. In 1998, just four years
later, those categories were nearly even. Twenty-six percent made under $30,000 a
year; 24 percent made over $75,000 a year.
The educational level changes are just as dramatic. Just in this decade, from 1992 to
1998, the percentage of the electorate that graduated college, at least, many of whom
have post graduate degrees, increased from 39 percent to 46 percent.
And, the electorate in the next politics will be much more diverse. In 50 years, a quarter
of the electorate will be Hispanic, another 13 percent or 14 percent will be African
American, 8 percent Asian. And only 52 percent will be white.
The composition of the electorate is changing too. Because of technology and the new
,economy, there is a new category in the electorate, first identified by the Institute for
the New California, which we call wired workers. It's made up of people who not only
work with computers, but work in different arrangements, in self-directed teams, not
top down arrangements. Today, nationally they're about a fifth of the electorate--twice
the number of African Americans in the electorate, and about the same as organized
labor. Wired workers will grow in numbers--and quickly.
The second big demographic shift is generational change. To be sure the country is
getting older and the electorate is getting older. But we're also going through
generational change. In the year 2000, New Deal generation voters -- those who cast
their first votes for President, for Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman-- will be less
than 10 percent of the electorate, probably around 8 percent. The dominant generations
in the electorate will be the baby boomer generation and Generation X.
Now why is that important? It is important because the New Deal generation is the one
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generation in American politics that believed in the power of centralized government.
They saw the national government save us from the depression and win World War II
to preserve our freedom from fascism and Nazism. Compare that with the experiences
of the skeptical generations that followed-- Vietnam, Watergate, political
assassinations. Double digit inflation was their defining economic experience. Baby
boomers and Generation Xers have a very different attitude about government.
For those reasons, both the political approaches and the political philosophies that
govern the old politics will be very different in the next politics.
Let's just talk about political approaches for one minute. In the 1980's the Republicans
went to the bank on wedge politics--racial and ethnic wedge politics. No one practiced
that kind of politics more than Governor Pete Wilson of California. He used
immigration and affirmative action to play white identity politics. You can't do that
anymore. In a diverse electorate you can't play white identity politics, because there's
not a big enough pool of white voters to build your majority.
That's why, to me, one of the most significant things that happened last year in
California, was not just that Gray Davis won by running as a centrist, New Democrat. It
was that in the gubenatorial primary, when there was a proposition against bilingual
education on the ballot that was popular enough to win--so it was not an unpopular
initiative--not only did all three Democratic candidates come out against it, but so did
the Republican candidate Dan Lungren. Why did he do it? Because he didn't want to be
labeled as anti-immigrant with these changing demographics.
But Democrats need to learn something too. This new, more educated, more affluent,
more independent electorate is not going to respond to interest group politics. We're
going to have to talk to them directly with our ideas because these voters aren't going to
be told by intermediaries how they should vote.
Finally, the old argument, over the role of government, the left-right argument of
centralized government, or no government, is going to be made increasingly inelevant
by the new realities of the new economy, technological change, and this new electorate.
What Americans need as we approach the millennium, is neither a government that
tries to do things that it can't deliver nor a government that abandons them. Rather, they
need an empowering government--a government that equips them with the tools to
solve their own problems.
That brings me to my second point, that the dominant politics in the 21st century is
going to be our Third Way-- New Democrat politics. New Democrats are the
modernizers of the progressive tradition in American politics. We believe in furthering
traditional Democratic Party values with modern means.
Here are our core beliefs.
First, we believe in opportunity for all, special privileges for none. That has been the
animating principle of the Democratic party since the days of Andrew Jackson. But we
understand that in the 21st Century economic growth, generated in the private sector,
will be the key to opportunity.
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Second, we stand for mainstream values, the values that most Americans believe in:
work, family, responsibility, individual liberty, faith, tolerance, and inclusion.
Third, we believe in an ethic of mutual responsibility. We reject Ronald Reagan's ethic
of every man for himself, and if you don't make it so be it. But we also reject the ethic
of the old left that said "Don't worry if you don't make it, the government will do it for
you." We believe the new social compact-- the social compact for the 21st Century
should be built on an ethic of mutual responsibility. Very simply, government has an
obligation to organize public resources in a way that creates opportunities for ordinary
citizens. But ordinary citizens have obligations, too. First to themselves and their
families to take advantage of those opportunities and second to their country and their
community, to give something back to the commonwealth.
Fourth, we believe the United States ought to be the leader in the worldwide movement
toward Democracy and market economics. That's why we're going to continue to fight
in the New Democrat movement for expanding trade. Because that's a key to
opportunity in this new global economy.
And finally, because we're Democrats we believe in activist government. But we
believe as Franklin Roosevelt did, that "new conditions impose new requirements on
government and those who conduct government"--that we must constantly modernize
government. In the 21st century, the best government is going to be decentralized and
nonbureacratic. It's going to be a government that equips people with the tools to solve
their own problems in their own communities.
Lest people say that that approach gets away from Democratic tradition, may I remind
you that two of the most successful Democratic initiatives in the 20th century, the G.I.
Bill and FHA housing, would be viewed today as New Democrat programs. The G.I.
Bill was a voucher program. We didn't go out and build a bunch of public colleges and
tell you that you had to go to this one and you had to go to that one. The G.I. Bill
embodied the ethic of mutual responsibility. It said, to those of you who saved freedom
in the world, your country is going to offer you an opportunity to go to college--here's a
voucher, take it to the college of your choice, and get your education. That simple idea
built generations of American prosperity.
FHA housing wasn't a centralized program that built big high-rises. When we did that
is when our housing policies got in trouble. FHA housing was a market manipulation.
We changed the rules so middle-class families, ordinary families, could afford the
down payment to buy a house. Innovation not bureaucracy always has been--and always
must be--the cornerstone of our politics.
To sum up: Opportunity, Responsibility, Community. That is our mantra. Those are the
principles that will define the next politics.
Now to my third point: there are going to be different rules for this next politics. Here
are five of them.
First, ideas matter. The Republicans learned that the hard way in the 1998 election.
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.•
While they wanted to talk about investigations, the American people wanted totalk
about ideas. Increasingly with an upscale, more educated electorate, we're going to have
to connect with our voters by what we stand for and not just by the organizations we
stand with.
Second, we need to remember the fundamentals. For Democrats that means we have to
be credible on fiscal discipline, crime, and welfare. When we are, the voters will be
more than willing to listen to us on education, the environment, health care, and all the
issues we like to talk about and where we have big electoral advantages. It was because
President Clinton solidified us on those fundamental, threshold issues that our other
candidates were able to make so much progress last fall on the issues that they wanted
to talk about. That is why the old Republican battle cry of "liberal, liberal, liberal,"
didn't work last year--because it was no longer true.
The Republicans have the opposite problem. They have to remember the fundamentals
too. Their problem is that voters don't believe they don't have the compassion for
ordinary people. Voters don't doubt their toughness to govern, but they do question
their compassion to care. That's why you see Republican candidates, and patticularly
governors, trying to run as compassionate conservatives. Whatever that means.
Third, we're going to have to reach beyond our base. We need to build a coalition of
those in the middle class and struggling to stay there and those who are aspiring to get
there, the voters in our traditional base. To be successful, Democrats increasingly have
to continue to win support up the income ladder because America is becoming more
affluent. Let me give you an example of how that worked in the recent election. In the
state of California, 55 percent of the electorate made over $50,000 a year. That was an
enormous increase over the 1994 gubenatorial election. More than half of Gray Davis'
vote--53 percent--came from voters with incomes of over $50,000 a year. We can't win
anywhere any more by just talking to our base, because our base· is declining. The base
of both parties is declining. So we have to reach beyond our base.
Fourth, we have to talk to the electorate as it will be and not as it was. That's why the
old messages don't work anymore. You can't communicate with wired workers by
talking the talk of the 1950's or 1960's. And, we have to reach into the suburbs. One of
the big differences between President Clinton and the congressional Democrats has
been the Presidents' ability to win the suburbs. Out of 159 suburban congressional
districts--that's the largest block of congressional districts--the President won 104 of
those in 1996. Unfortunately, the Republicans won 92 of them for Congress. That's
where we have to make our gains because that's where the electorate is going.
Finally, and the most important rule of the new politics, is that the best government is
the best politics. Don't believe me. Ask President Clinton and his sky high approval
ratings.
Now what is the DLC doing to shape the next politics? It's very simple. First, we're
going to concentrate the work of our think tank and our new policy journal on
developing and promoting the next generation of New Democrat ideas -- ideas that are
going to tackle the big challenges facing the country.
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Second, we're going to work hard to help to identify, nurture, and train the next
generation of New Democrat leaders around the country. In the Congress, we're
working closely with the New Democratic Coalition in the House, a group of emerging
leaders who armed with New Democrat ideas can help to carry our party into the 21st
century.
In state legislatures we're developing DLC caucuses. Most important, we have launched
a nationwide program to train new leaders, young leaders in our party, on how to
practice the kind of ideas-based, values-based politics that is going to be the next
politics in America.
But I want to conclude tonight by re-emphasizing that final rule of the new politics that
the best government is really the best politics. Just think about what this Democratic
party has already accomplished, in the last six years, by following that rule.
For two decades that the American people refused to elect Democrats for President
because they didn't think we could manage the national economy. But under a New
Democrat President, we now have the best economy in most of our lifetimes.
For most of the 1980's we had to live with Ronald Reagan's label of tax and spend. But
a New Democrat President, devoted to the principle of fiscal discipline, gave us the
first balanced budget in three decades. We are no longer the party of tax and spend.
In the 1970's and 1980's we lived with the label of the party that took money from
people who worked to give it to people who didn't work. A New Democrat President
ended the welfare system, but more importantly replaced it with a work system that has
seen over the last six years, more than five million Americans move from the welfare
roles to the work roles becoming part of American society, the American mainstream.
We were a party that was often accused--and sometimes rightly accused--of being soft
on crime. I remember in the 1980 Democratic platform that we devoted more attention
to the issue of police brutality than of public safety. But with sensible, anti-crime
measures, like community policing--which we first talked about in the DLC in1990 and
1991--and sensible gun control, we have seen crime go down now for seven straight
years and the Democratic party no is no longer viewed as soft on crime. Now crime is
often our issue.
We were the party that was so devoted to big government that many people said we
never saw a program we didn't embrace. But under the leadership of Vice President
Gore and his reinventing government effort, we now have the smallest federal
government since the days of John Kennedy. And, the federal workforce as a
percentage of the whole workforce is the smallest its been since before Franklin
Roosevelt.
By adhering to that rule, we've made tremendous strides, for our nation, and for our
party. Indeed those successes have shaped the politics of America in the 1990's.
Now our challenge is to can·y our successes forward with the next generation of New
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DLC:Politics of the 21st Century
Democrat ideas put into action by the next generation of New Democrat leaders.
I believe we can meet that challenge. By pursuing our New Democrat political
philosophy, by building a modern, centrist, progressive Democratic Party for the 21st
Century, we can shape the next politics and make the Democratic Party our nation's
dominate political party again.
If you would like to comment on this Web site, please send an e-mail to _wgh_Q}ast~r@dl~npl,Qrg,
DLC Homef2.i!g.Q I About DLC I DLC Archive I The New Democrat Movement
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.PPIJ:J(JllJeD~lge
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The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) & The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 400, Washington DC 20003,
Phone: (202) 546-0007, Fax: (202) 544-5002
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Terry Edmonds
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Date
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1995-2001
Is Part Of
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36090" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
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2006-0462-F
Description
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Terry Edmonds worked as a speechwriter from 1995-2001. He became the Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting in 1999. His speechwriting focused on domestic topics such as race relations, veterans issues, education, paralympics, gun control, youth, and senior citizens. He also contributed to the President’s State of the Union speeches, radio addresses, commencement speeches, and special dinners and events. The records include speeches, letters, memorandum, schedules, reports, articles, and clippings.
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Extent
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635 folders in 52 boxes
Text
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Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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SOTU [State of the Union] 2K [5]
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0462-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 5
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0462-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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Reproduction-Reference
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12/9/2014
Source
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42-t-7763294-20060462F-005-006-2014
7763294