The Democratic Leadership Council, which wrote the playbook for Bill Clinton's successful 1992 run for the presidency, warns that unless Democratic candidates redefine their party and change the way they address voters, they will lose another national election.
Democrats have lost the last two presidential elections and Republicans picked up seats in both the House and Senate during the last mid-term election in 2002.
"Our policy messages do not resonate with people," said Michael Shellenberger, co-director of American Environics, at an event sponsored by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
According to the organization's website, DLC founder Al From "leads a national movement that since the mid-1980s has provided both the action agenda and the ideas for New Democrats to successfully challenge the conventional political wisdom in America and, in the process, redefine the center of the Democratic Party."
Exit polling from the 2004 presidential election indicated that "moral values" affected how voters cast their ballots more than any other single issue. Among the voters who cited moral values as their most pressing reason for voting, 80 percent said they had voted for President Bush over Democrat John Kerry.
Since then, Democrats have tried to make inroads with values voters.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the Christian Broadcasting Network in May that "one of the misconceptions about the Democratic Party is that we're godless and that we don't have any values." |