New Democrat Update - April 2003
HOW COLORADO DEMOCRATS CAN PREVAIL
The annual Colorado Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner last month sent a strong and important reminder to the state’s New Democrats. Despite our demonstrated success in reforming the party, much more work remains to be done.
For example, one important and very revealing disconnect showed itself. The traditional activists, who form a strong majority at such party functions, cheered most intensely when speakers lauded the significant successes of President Clinton. They did the same when the Clinton administration’s governing philosophy, responsible for those very achievements, were lambasted!
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is not between liberals and moderates, but rather between those clinging to the familiar past and those willing to embrace an uncertain future, between those who advocate idea politics and those who practice interest-group politics.
Despite repeated, poor performances on election day, many traditional Democratic leaders and activists continue to push special-interest-driven agendas, as well as far-left policies. Too often, the resulting messages, in the absence of a clear ideology or unifying sense of purpose, exclusively appeal to voters with a grievance (definitely well short of a majority), reinforcing the view that our party is a mere collection of complaining constituencies.
Many of the interest groups that provide money and troops in Democratic campaigns are fighting change. In contrast to higher visibility races - president, Congress or governor - state and local candidates especially have difficulty ignoring the pleas of the leaders of these groups who claim to speak for our party’s core constituencies. These leaders relentlessly demand spoils for their constituencies and, in the process, guard a largely discredited status quo.
Those very real pressures often motivate Democratic candidates to wait for Republicans to self-destruct. As we now well know, a strategy of relying on GOP excesses, never, on its own, builds a sustainable progressive majority coalition.
At the end of the day, traditional Democrats and the interest groups are just as reactionary as right-wing Republicans. Both are merely seeking a different version of the past.
Maybe most troubling of all, traditional leaders and activists also believe that the Democratic Party does not really have a problem. Preferring to paper over our party’s very real dilemmas and still willing to recycle the old New Deal messages and agendas, they fear change and find comfort in the status quo. In their view, open, healthy debates can only lead to irreconcilable divides and permanently damage the Democratic Party.
In sharp contrast, New Democrats believe these views of the political world represent deep denial and dangerous complacency. Before meaningful and productive change can occur, our Party must first admit the need for a fundamental reassessment of what it means to be a Democrat. The first step to solving any problem is recognizing its existence.
Solving Colorado’s very real problems, while boosting the political prosperity of our party, requires modernizing progressivism. Democrats must continue to embrace our traditional values but advance them by adapting our initiatives and policies to changing times. Our party must advocate a broad agenda for economic and social progress while clearly rejecting our own excesses of the past.
The goal remains, what it always has been, to unite the interests of those who are in the middle class and struggling to stay there, with those who aspire to get there. Colorado Democrats must define our politics so clearly that voters can instantly recognize and distinguish them from those offered by both Republicans and the traditional left.
Through words and deeds, Democrats must demonstrate that we are a party focused on genuine and relevant reform. If we fail at this goal and voters continue to define our Party in the terms of the old left, continued disappointing election results should come as no surprise.
Success will be determined when voters see the term “progressive” as meaning what is articulated in the DLC’s Hyde Park Declaration and the New Progressive Declaration. Specific initiatives, backing up these principles, are available in the DLC’s State and Local Playbook, as well as State and Local Ideas. For hard copies of these documents, send an email.
New Democrats must continue to do our part, working on winning over new supporters in the center. While challenging liberal orthodoxy and the old arrangements, we must also reach out and find creative ways to help our progressive coalition hold onto our traditional allies on the left.
Of course, we should work toward the day when voters no longer fear that Democrats will automatically comply with each and every desire of our traditional interest groups. At the same time, New Democrats must realize that traditional constituencies should not be automatically disregarded every time.
The math of Colorado’s political landscape cannot be denied. As of March 12, state registered Republican voters totaled 1,033,595, unaffiliated 899,140, and Democrats 851,113. Traditional Democrats, New Democrats and especially unaffiliated voters are needed to form a progressive majority coalition.
A closer look at the numbers reveals why unaffiliated voters are especially important to Democrats. If one assumes that a representative turnout of the two major political parties voted on a strictly partisan basis, Democrats are required to garner a little over 60% of the unaffiliated vote to win statewide elections. Of course, that means the GOP only needs just under 40% of those voters.
We must remember that winning the battle of ideas, not merely achieving power, is the goal. In the end, state Democrats must articulate a clear, forward-looking vision that offers real solutions, rooted in mainstream values, that aggressively tackle the new economic, social and security challenges of our time.
The Party’s leaders and activists at last month’s Jefferson-Jackson must realize that then, and only then, can political success come our way.
THE CONVERSATION IS COMING UP!
The 2003 DLC Conversation will be here before you know it - July 26-28 in Philadelphia! The conference is a one-of-a-kind forum for governors and other statewide elected officials, legislators, mayors, county executives, council members, business leaders, and citizen activists to meet on a national platform, compare notes and brainstorm innovative strategies for governing in their states and communities.
Last year, over 300 well-known and up-and-coming New Democrat elected officials gathered in New York City for the DLC's 2002 National Conversation. Speakers included US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen Tom Daschle, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. John Edwards, and Rep. Richard Gephardt, as well Govs. Mark Warner and Jim McGreevey. Presentations, transcripts, video clips and photos from 2002 and 2001 are available.
Be a part of the Conversation! Make sure you save the dates July 26-28 today. If you have any questions, please send an email.