Whats New Democrat?
Washington D.C. Election eve brings fresh evidence that the greatest challenge to the Democratic Party comes not from Republicans but from Democrats themselves. Through the mail has come the premier issue of Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century, a new quarterly journal of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). All of the usual DLC suspects are here Al From, Will Marshall, Elaine Kamarck, and Bill Galston and they are ready to proclaim that the Era of the New Democrat has begun. The DLC has been struggling mightily for more than a decade to mitigate the suicidal tendencies that the Democratic Party exhibited in the 1980s. Their efforts finally paid off in 1992, when Bill Clinton ran as the first self-professed “New Democrat.” But his first two years in office suggested that there were only about six New Democrats to be found in the entire party, and none of them had White House jobs. (The few who had administration jobs, such as Kamarck and Galston, bailed out before the first term was
