New Democrats Move to the Middle
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The D em ocratic leadership council discusses its strategy to redefine the Democrat Party By AI F.-om
eforming a political party gives new meaning to the Democrat and Republican Party mascots, the donkey and the elephant. Like tryi ng to lead a stubborn donkey or an elephant that doesn't want to budge, it isn't easy to move a political party. For more than 15 years, New Democrats have pushed and pulled our donkey party back into the political mainstream. We had to, out of political necessity. In 1984, the party of Franklin Rooseve lt , H arryTruman and John Kennedy and the party that led Amenca to most of its economic and social progress in the 20th cen tury. lost 49 states. By 1992, it had lost five of the last six presidential elections . and most experts said it would not win the preside ncy agai n in the 20th century.
The national parry had clearly lost its way. Rather than giving up, New Democrats formed the Democratic Leadersh ip
iog considerable res istance, the OLe bu ilt a modern, progressive D emocrat Parry that tackled America's challenges through modern means and fresh ideas. The resuh:Just eight years afte r the 1984 de bacle. Bill C linto n , fo rmer chair of the DLe and leader of th e New D emocrat movemen t ,
won the White H ouse. I n 1996, he was reelected. It was t he fi rst time in six d ecades that a D emocrat retained the presidency. Because his political success was built on his New Dem oc rat ideas, C linton's victories redefined the party. When, after some early setbacks, he put those ideas into action, he reinforced the new definition of the Democrat Party and dearly put it in the vital center of American politics. And because the movement is grounded in
Democratic Leadel'sh~ Council
Ripon forum • Summer 200 I
Council and set out to rebuild the party by redefining it. We believed if we stood fo r good ideas that con nected with the everyday needs of the American people, voters would once again turn to Democrat s for national leadership. Qverco m-
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