Abstract

Wonking With the `New Democrats.'

This article presents information on the 1994 annual conference of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), held in Washington DC. This conference was, reportedly, a weird mix of triumphalism and defensiveness. A past chairman of the group now resides in the White House, a member of its associates serve in the Administration, and some of its pet policies, such as welfare reform, are high on the political agenda. Yet for the several hundred DLCers who came from points nationwide to gather in a Washington hotel, the resentment that drove a small group of Democrats to found the council in 1985, dammit, minorities, labor and liberals are ruining the party, remains at full throttle. The DLCers mused over how critical they should be of the President, Bill Clinton when he yields to liberal pressure. The group supposedly cannot strike too hard against a President who boasted to the crowd that his Cabinet contains seven DLC members and who embraces the DLC slogans and most of its ideas.