I was just reading through Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech at the ‘92 Democratic Convention (I referenced it in my earlier post today, and figured I might as well read it in full), and wow – that was a pretty conservative speech for a Democrat. I had always figured that he had sold out a lot of his more progressive supporters after getting in office, but it doesn’t look like he ever really ran as a progressive.
I mean, I knew he had been the DLC Chair before entering the race, but I figured that had just been a way for an ambitious and little known governor to raise his public profile. And I knew he talked a lot about a “third way” of governing, but never really thought that the phrase had muscle behind it.
But check this out:
[George Bush] promised to balance the budget but he hasn’t even tried. In fact, the budgets he has submitted to Congress nearly doubled the debt.
And…
That’s why we need a new approach to government, a government that offers more empowerment and less entitlement. More choices for young people in the schools they attend- in the public schools they attend. And more choices for the elderly and for people with disabilities and the long-term care they receive. A government that is leaner, not meaner; a government that expands opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.
And…
An America where we end welfare as we know it. We will say to those on welfare: You will have, and you deserve, the opportunity, through training and education, through child care and medical coverage, to liberate yourself. But then, when you can, you must work, because welfare should be a second chance, not a way of life.
I knew he did all those things, and it isn’t as though I didn’t know he spoke about it at the convention… I had just never put two and two together. I’ve followed politics pretty closely for the last decade, and I can’t imagine a Democrat besides Joe Lieberman (or Evan Bayh, or some of those frightened Dems circa 2002) giving a speech like this. It actually makes me feel a little bit better about Clinton… I mean, yeah, he was an anti-populist Democrat, but at least he was up front about it.
