New Democrat Update - August 2005
CONVERSATION THAT MAKES SENSE
More than 300 state and local elected officials from 40 states gathered in Columbus, Ohio last month to participate in the DLC’s “National Conversation.” Attendees heard from the DLC’s new leadership team - Chairman Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Vice Chairman U.S. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, and American Dream Initiative Chair U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Outgoing Chairman U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner also made provocative speeches.
As Ed Kilgore of NewDonkey.com insightfully pointed out, “The most notable common threads at the event were: (a) a very sharp and often angry critique of the Bush administration and the GOP; (b) a sense of agreement that security, opportunity, values and reform are the four big issues where Democrats ought to focus their work and their message; and c) a concern that Democrats must soon begin to offer positive alternatives to the Republicans so that their pain will produce our gains (which isn't much happening yet, according to most polls).” Here is a sampling of what each major speaker had to say:
Gov. Vilsack took on President Bush and his administration for dividing America at a time when the country most needs unity. “Following 9/11, as Senator Bayh suggested, was an extraordinary opportunity to unite us, to bring us together, to focus us on a common purpose, to challenge us. Sadly, this administration used that tragic event for partisan purposes, to win elections in the short term, and left us without a common purpose. Trust and integrity? Not sharing with us the true reasons for going to war or the true price we would have to pay to continue the war, establishing a new standard for employment at the White House: All you need to do is avoid indictment.”
He went on to emphasize that being critical was not enough. “We can't afford to be anti, against everything. President Wilson once said that politics is a clash of causes; it is a joust of principles. Well, if we are going to have that clash, if we are going to have that joust, then we have got to be for something. And it is pretty clear that America is waiting for us. They are desperate to know what we are for. The DLC has an extraordinary opportunity to fashion a positive progressive practical agenda that helps restore the American community and renew the American dream and promise. That is our responsibility. That is what we were designed to do.”
Sen. Clinton’s talk articulated her American dream by imagining what the country could be in the not-so-distant future. Her dream includes more Americans getting much better, more affordable health care.
“By 2020, we have a reformed healthcare system that extends coverage to those who did not have it without weakening the coverage for those who did. Now, we do this by creating a more patient-centered health system and making healthcare delivery more efficient. We were wasting about $200 billion a year in administrative costs, amounting to about 34 cents on each dollar - 15 cents more than any other country spends on administrative costs. The initiative that I put together with Senator Frist and others back in 2005, creating electronic medical records while preserving patient privacy, used 21st century technology to eliminate 20th century bureaucracy.”
“We also succeeded in getting more people uninsured in larger pools with easy-to-administer options like the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan. And we cut costs further by creating incentives for reducing childhood obesity and other unhealthy lifestyles, increasing the number of living wills and lowering the costs of doctors' malpractice insurance through large self-insured pools, alternative dispute resolution models, and reductions in errors.”
Sen. Carper clarified what the Democratic Party’s economic opportunity agenda must be all about. “Democrats cannot be pro-jobs and anti-business. And at the same time, our government cannot be a lapdog of big business. But if a state or a community is blessed with companies large and small that are profitable, paying their fair share of taxes, treating their employees humanely, abiding by the law and giving back to their communities; they're hiring people - people coming out of our high schools, out of our colleges, off of welfare rolls, off of employment rolls if you’ve got all that going for you, the rest is really pretty easy.”
Sen. Bayh’s remarks on national security were especially poignant. “We Democrats have always known that it is a dangerous world and there is evil in it. Sometimes, sometimes we have to use force. Of course there is a right way and wrong way; of course there is a right time and place and a wrong time and place, but we never even get to have that discussion because too many of our fellow countrymen and women out here in the heartland have concluded, inappropriately - but they've concluded nonetheless - that we don't have the spine or the backbone to use force even in the face of the most compelling of circumstances, and that must change.”
“It must change because those in charge in Washington today have done so much to deplete our strength and to undermine our national security. On their watch - on their watch, North Korea has become a virtual assembly line for nuclear weapons. It's on their watch that stockpiles of biological, chemical and nuclear materials have gone unsecured across the former Soviet Union. It's on their watch that our nation remains woefully unprepared to face the calamity of a global pandemic. On their watch, our military forces have been stretched to the breaking point. On their watch, our alliances have been frayed. And it's on their watch that the situation in Iraq has been terribly, terribly mismanaged.”
Gov. Warner spoke about America’s declining economic competitiveness. “At a time when a commitment to education, technology and R&D has never been more important, American research and development as a percentage of our spending to our GDP has fallen sixth in the world. The United States ranks 11th in the world in broadband deployment. Less than 15 percent of our high school students take enough science and math to qualify for any kind of engineering or advanced science in college, and India alone produces four times more engineers each year than the United States. Our 15-year-olds now rank 28th in the world in math scores.”
“The last few years have seen the virtual elimination of time and space between Boston and Bangalore, between Shanghai and Chicago. And the changes are affecting how we live, where we live, how we educate our kids, how we deliver health care, how we protect and preserve our national security. And if anything, this change is now on steroids. It's accelerating in an ever-quickening pace.”
The prior day was filled with 25 separate workshops focusing on timely state and local issues including House Speaker Andrew Romanoff’s well-received presentation on setting a values-based message and agenda for state legislative caucuses. Other political topics included faith and progressivism, building a New Democratic Majority, how the right-wing machine works, the growing Latino electorate and redistricting/election reform. Policy focuses covered homeland security, creating jobs, eliminating poverty, and cutting waste in health care. In addition, the 2005 edition of the DLC State and Local Playbook, a collection of field-tested progressive policy ideas, was released.
Maybe the most excitement was generated by Chairman Vilsack’s announcement that Sen. Clinton will chair the American Dream Initiative, a year-long project of the DLC that will engage political, business, labor, civic and intellectual leaders to help shape a positive agenda for the country. The Initiative will focus on meeting the four biggest challenges facing the nation - ensuring a safe and secure America, restoring economic opportunity to all citizens, helping parents protect their children from an increasingly coarser popular culture and fixing the country’s broken political system. More details will be available in the very near future.
Of course, this year’s National Conversation was only a start to developing solutions to our biggest problems. As Sen. Carper said to close his speech, “One of the great minds of the 19th and 20th century and the embodiment of the American dream was Thomas Edison. He once said, ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’ My friends, it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”