Politics & Prose: Al From- 'The New Democrats and The Return to Power'

Source:Politics & Prose- Democratic strategist Al From, talking about his book about the New Democrats, at Politics & Prose in Washington.

"From founded the Democratic Leadership Council in 1984. In the twenty-five years he served as its CEO, he achieved his goal of bringing the Democratic Party back to power. In this political memoir he recounts the development of the centrist philosophy that continues to be instrumental to the Democrats' success."

From Politics & Prose

"Al From discussing his book "The New Democrats and the Return to Power" at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on 9/8/2014."

Source:CSPAN- Democratic strategist Al From talking about his book about the New Democrats.

From CSPAN

I’m a Liberal Democrat and a New Democrat and yes those are the same things. Except I might be more liberal than New Democrats today on some social issues, especially civil liberties. Especially since 9/11 where I believe we can’t have security without liberty. That they need each other and New Democrats today since 9/11 tend to side more on security than liberty. Hillary Clinton would be a perfect example of that. But the New Democrats are the Liberals and Progressives in the Democratic Party and I’m going to explain that.

The New Democratic philosophy is not Republican light or sounding more progressive or socialist. And moving past the New Deal and Great Society and creating a real welfare state in America. But is about building off the principles of the Founding Fathers in America. And that individual liberty is for everyone. And not just European-American men, but the entire country regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, family income. And using government to expand freedom and not government dependence.

The New Democratic philosophy is about individual liberty for everyone. It is not anti-government and having a government so small that it can’t help people in need. And let the market take care of the rest.

Or a pro-big-government philosophy and using government to take care of everyone. But empowering everyone in need to be able to take care of themselves. And this blog covers a lot of different issues about what exactly that means. But New Democrats aren’t Social Democrats on the far-left or moderate Conservatives on the center-right.

The New Democratic philosophy saved the Democratic Party and represents exactly how Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992. Because pre-1992 Democrats were seen as European Social Democrats who wanted to center most of the power in the country with a big government in Washington to take care of everyone.

They were called Liberal Democrats even though the Democrats in charge who had most of the power in the Democratic Party were Social Democrats on the far-left and mainstream FDR New Deal Progressives. But they weren’t Liberals at least on economic policy and national security. 

By the time Bill Clinton left the White House in early 2001, Democrats were now clearly beating Republicans on most of the economic issues. By the time George W. Bush left the White House in early 2001, Democrats were now even beating Republicans on fiscal responsibility and the Federal budget. That is the legacy of the New Democratic Coalition that it saved the Democratic Party. And made them a governing party again

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