Democratic Leadership Council

The Democratic Leadership Council is an influential non-profit corporation that advocates centrist and neoliberal positions for the United States Democratic Party. Moderate party leaders founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale during the 1984 Presidential election. The founders believed the United States Democratic Party needed to reform their political philosophy if they were to ever retake the White House, a goal which had eluded the Democrats since the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter. The DLC hails President Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. Critics contend that the DLC is effectively a powerful, corporate-financed mouthpiece within the Democratic party that acts to keep Democratic Party candidates and platforms sympathetic to corporate interests and the interests of the wealthy.

Criticism

The DLC has become unpopular within many progressive circles.

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Mild critics claim the strategy of triangulation between the political left and right to gain broad appeal is fundamentally flawed. Opponents believe that moderation does not inspire passion in voters and lacks the persistent principles and moral clarity which are critical to building a popular political movement. In the long run, so opponents say, a strategy of triangulation results in concession after concession to the opposition, while alienating traditional voters.

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Others contend that the DLC's distaste for economic class warfare has allowed the language of populism to be monopolized by the right-wing. Many argue that the Democrats' abandonment of populism to the right-wing has been critical for Republican dominance of Middle America. (See What's the Matter with Kansas)

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More vocal critics believe the DLC has essentially become an influential corporate and right-wing implant in the Democratic party. Among the DLC's leadership are individuals with impressive right-of-center credentials, such as Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the DLC and the former legislative director for the Christian Coalition, and Will Marshall, a cosigner of a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) endorsing not only the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, but also a foreign policy that has much in common with the neoconservative world-view. Finally, progressive detractors of the DLC note that the DLC receives funding from the right-wing Bradley Foundation as well as from corporate oil giants, military contractors, and a large number of Fortune 500 companies.

Related Topics:
Right-wing - Christian Coalition - Project for the New American Century - Bradley Foundation

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