Can the re-centering of the Democratic Party by the Democratic Leadership Committee (DLC) alienate labor?
I think the DLC did very important work getting the party moving again. If the Democrats want to retain their status as the majority party, they needed to refocus their agenda. They couldn’t stay limited in Northeastern big cities and expect to survive. The DLC grew in reaction to labor unions. To some extent people grow queasy about labor unions. I think that is a mistake because by and large you can look at unions that have done bad things in the past in terms of trying to organize, as well as employers that have done horrible things to try to prevent labor unions from organizing. We have the slowest percentage of union labor in the western world. In fact the only group that’s out that’s arguing for better health care, higher wages and improved safety standards is labor. That’s it. There’s no one else trying get people to join them. You have to avoid the instinct always to rush to the center though. If you’re not there on the edge ready to fight on some issues, if you’re always tryin
