1. The Nation is moving leftward, away from the right.

Contrary to the DLC's version of reality, the political center is now to their left. We are not the "fringe left." We are the center. With all due respect to these "centrists," they’ve missed much of what has happened in this nation during the Bush presidency. Tremendous shifts have occurred over the last 5 years. The nation as a whole is moving to the left rather than the right. According to Pew Research, since 2002 Democrats have opened a wide partisan advantage against Republicans. (link )

In 2002, the country was equally divided along partisan lines: 43% identified with the Republican Party or leaned to the GOP, while an identical proportion said they were Democrats. Today, half of the public (50%) either identifies as a Democrat or says they lean to the Democratic Party, compared with 35% who align with the GOP.

What happened to cause this shift? One important factor is that Independent voters have turned against the Iraq War and in favor of many more liberal approaches to government. As Steven Thomma of McClatchy (the title of his piece suggests that it is only the Democrats who are moving leftward, but the article itself talks about independents also) noted last week in reference the Pew Polls, the most notable shift occurred because of opposition to the war in Iraq. (link ) Thomma didn’t point out, but I will, that this was something the Netroots was in step with, along with mainstream America, while the supposedly centrist DLC Democrats only grudgingly agreed to oppose the war, if that.

But it isn’t just Iraq. Major shifts have occurred in domestic politics as well, changes that may well outlast the Iraq War. One major change is the beginning of a renewed alliance between labor and the Democratic Party. As Markos and SusanG (Go Team!) noted yesterday in the Washington Post, the alliance helped bring about important political victories that were popular with the electorate (link ):

A concerted grass- and Net-roots effort, bridging online activists and the labor movement, forced Democratic officials to reject any "compromise" with right-wing interests seeking to gut Social Security. Democratic poll numbers rose in the wake of this victory as Bush's fell. Standing strong for a core Democratic program was not only good for our country, it was smart politics.

Not to dwell on the point too long, but the supposedly centrist Democrats have openly promoted a pro-business agenda that favors the wealthy and is often counter to the interests of working Americans. The most obvious effort is Free Trade agreements that have cost working America lots of jobs while reducing the labor costs for corporations. And don’t think for a second that the labor leaders who have allied with the netroots don’t notice the difference on this. And, strictly mathematically speaking, there are a lot more working Americans than there are wealthy Americans. So, mathematically speaking, the center of America is not among the wealthy who benefit from an agenda that is too favorable to corporate America.

Back to that aforementioned shift leftward, via Media Matters , other polling also shows that the public is moving much closer to the progressive view. The latest survey of the National Election Studies (NES) shows, for example, a preference for a vigorous government role in a complex world. Sixty-seven percent said we need a strong government to handle complex economic problems. Nearly 58 percent said government should be doing more, not less; and 59 percent agreed that government has grown because the country's problems have grown.

Furthermore, polling by the General Social Survey (GSS) reveals a strong desire for greater equity in America, and desire for the government to help achieve it. Americans certainly want to keep what they earn and expect greater work to yield greater rewards, but that's only the beginning. GSS polling since 1978 reveals a clear and steady preference for government action to achieve income equality. With the brief exception of 1994, the year of the Republican takeover of Congress, people have expressed a preference for government action to reduce income inequality.

2. The DLC isn’t winning elections. And there is a reason for that.

This is not a conservative majority nation. And despite Ed Kilgore’s efforts to paper over the differences between the DLC and the netroots/labor coalition and pretend the DLC remains relevant (this is just his latest effort), I find this dKos diarist close to the mark if not dead on:

It illustrates a fundamental problem with the DLC method. When conservative voters have a choice between Republican-lite and a real Republican, they vote for the real Republican. What do liberal or progressive voters do when faced with the same choice? They either hold their nose and vote for Republican-lite or, and this is key, they don't vote at all...
The basic premise is that Democrats have better ideas and should put them forth in an honest, open fashion. There is no need to induce cognitive dissonance trying to be both liberal and conservative at the same time. Candidates should stake out their positions, stick with them and run as a Democrat, against the Republican party.

If you want to see how progressives win votes by presenting better ideas instead of the DLC-endorsed watered-down Republican-lite nonsense referred to above, watch this clip .

3. The DLC types are betraying us on important legislation for the wrong reasons.

There are many who would say that the recent disappointing FISA vote came due to the whispers of "centrist" Democratic consultants (and members of the DLC) that a vote against this supposedly necessary security measure would be a show of weakness. If so, that’s the same thing they said when they advised voting for the Iraq War back in 2002. And we all know what a winning political maneuver that turned out to be.

The DLC types also stood with Lieberman, before we helped kick him out when he was trying to run as a Bush-kissing Republican with a pseudo "D" by his name. Expect the DLC types to give us similar fits when we try to respond to the Petraeus report. Rumors are already circulating on the Hill that the Blue Dog Democrats are threatening to vote with Bush on the war.

4. We need the DLC types.

Despite my strong disapproval of their actions, I want to convert the DLC types, not kick them out of the party. Even though some of them still haven’t admitted their Iraq War votes/advice were completely wrong, they have the chance to redeem themselves and help end the Iraq War. They have a chance to acknowledge that they have been completely misreading current American political history and change to reflect where the nation is now.

5. We need to talk about why the nation as a whole is moving leftward.

Some of this is easy to see: Response to the Iraq War; response to Katrina; response to job losses. I think a big part of it is response to the Bush presidency itself. The DLC types have completely misread this trend and maybe discussion of it will help them see the light.