The founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist party organization that helped propel Bill Clinton to the presidency, said the organization's core philosophy remains viable although the "ideas are going to be different because the times are different" than they were 25 years ago.
The organization's central principles -- opportunity, responsibility and community -- were based in part on the "importance of growing the private economy," Al From said Monday during a noontime appearance at the Clinton School of Public Service.
Although members of the national Democratic Party complained about the organization's emphasis, they couldn't quibble with the results that included Clinton winning the White House twice after the party had lost three successive presidential campaigns, often by landslide margins, he said.
Further, From said, "It brought America a decade of prosperity that we could only wish for today."
About 60 people attended the lecture, which From used to promote his book, The New Democrats and the Return to Power, which argues that Clinton and a "small band" of other political figures used the Democratic Leadership Council to provide a foundation for a "new generation of progressive politicians both in the United States and around the globe."
Among the attendees was former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Bob Nash, a top official in Arkansas government and the Clinton White House.
From, who led the organization from its inception in 1985 until his retirement in 2009, now runs The From Company, which offers strategic advice to private clients.
The organization's ideas have included the Earned Income Tax Credit, which From said was more effective in reducing poverty than any other government program, welfare tweaks, charter schools, trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and government change.
But offering programs and paying for them are predicated on the idea that government policies also would be used to allow the private economy to grow, From said.
"We worry so much about passing out the golden egg, but you forget to take care of the golden goose," he said. "Economic growth is a prerequisite for opportunity."
From touched briefly on the current political climate, which he said presented a "real tough challenge for Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, [U.S. senators from Arkansas and Louisiana, respectively] and other Democrats to get the base of their party energized."
But the U.S. Senate, From added, suffers from a constitutional bias favoring Republicans because though big states, such as California and New York, have sizable Democratic majorities, and "there are too many conservative small states."
Metro on 09/16/2014