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Centrist Dems Urge Military Enlargement
Article reorganized for sense, and edited for length.Hundreds of centrist Democrats gathered in Ohio for the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council. Al From, founder of the DLC, and DLC President Bruce Reed argued that Democrats should be more aggressive in pushing values issues and take an unrelenting, hard-line stance against terrorism. "A Democrat has to show the toughness to govern," said From. "People don't doubt that Republicans will be tough." From argued that national security and safety are threshold issues for swing voters who increasingly are trending Republican. Centrists who contend Democrats cannot retake the White House until voters trust the party to protect them said Sunday the Army should expand by 100,000 soldiers and that colleges should open their campuses to military recruiters. "No political party deserves to win unless it lays out a plan for Americans to win," said From. During the meeting, party moderates were hearing from some leading Democratic figures, and some were echoing From's call for a shift in direction. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the group Monday, as does Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. followed by names of other Democrat politicians who will speak. There were few who quibbled with the argument that the party needs to move toward the middle. "I think this country is becoming more and more moderate and more and more conservative," said Leroy Comrie, a councilman in the New York City borough of Queens. From said the simple math of elections means Democrats must do better among moderates. "We have to win about 60 percent of the moderates to break even," he said. "There has never been a time when there were more liberals than conservatives in the electorate." Posted by: trailing wife 2005-07-25 |
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