Bill Clinton is raising eyebrows among some Democrats these days. First, there’s his friendship with the father of “the enemy” (George Bush Sr.). And then there’s a general rejection on the part of one segment of the party of his approach of trying to rope in independent and GOP voters. Bull Moose writes:
The Moose has been struck by how many in the party have either implicitly or explicitly ignored or even rejected the Clinton legacy of the New Democratic Third Way. The Moose distinctly remembers attending countless meetings on the right in 1996 and 1997, where Republicans fretted that Clinton had gotten their number and their ascendancy was being threatened. Clinton had successfully co-opted Republican wedge issues and advanced a political agenda that was at once fiscally responsible and progressive.
Unfortunately, Clinton’s impeachment halted the transformation of the Democratic Party. Perhaps that is why the right pursued impeachment so vigorously. The DeLay gang knew a threat when they saw it.
Now, it is fashionable among some precincts on the left to disparage the one legacy that worked for the Democratic Party. They have a bad case of amnesia when it comes to recalling how Clinton offered a successful model for governance – call it Clintonesia…
….Indeed, by advancing welfare reform, Clinton legitimized government action. By balancing the budget, Clinton stripped the issue away from the GOP. He essentially co-opted conservatism and thereby was able to advance a progressive agenda.
There are some who will unquestionably respond that it wasn’t unfortunate that Clinton didn’t have the clout long enough to transform the Democratic party. They decried his veering to the right even even when he was in power as a form of me-tooism.
But it was just THAT that set Clinton apart; he was like a salesman trying to overcome all objections from a prospective buyer. And it was also the WAY he approached issues — a perspective that some Democrats might be wise to study and emulate.
Can’t you see the difference in how he approaches issues even TODAY.. HERE?
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.