Losing the Center: The Decline of American Liberalism, 1968–1992

11. "There Is Nothing for Nothing Any Longer”: Dave McCurdy’s Quest for National Service

11 “there is nothing for nothing Any Longer” Dave McCurdy’s Quest for National Service Jesse Jackson yearned for relevance. Fresh from earning 6.9 million primary votes and electrifying the party faithful at the 1988 nominating convention, he nevertheless felt his political influence ebb. Denied the vice presidency, and then ignored by Michael Dukakis, he might have claimed that the “full scope of [his] leadership has yet to blossom and flourish,” but he sensed otherwise.1 Dave McCurdy similarly burned with ambition. Unlike his rival , however, the oklahoma congressman had political momentum and an organization, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).2 Founded in 1985 and composed largely of southern and midwestern officeholders, the DLC originated from the reagan revolution’s ashes. Following the 1980 election, Congressman gillis Long, Al From, and Will Marshall first organized the house Democratic Caucus into what eventually became the DLC. At one time, the caucus had chosen presidential nominees and enforced strict party discipline. By 1981, however, it hosted perfunctory and poorly attended meetings. Long as caucus leader and From as its executive director transformed the organization and with it American liberalism. A distant relation of the legendary Kingfish, huey Long, gillis Long survived the reagan revolution and remained popular with his rural Louisiana , socially conservative, yet decidedly Democratic constituents.3 With the caucus’s house Committee on Party effectiveness (CPe) as a political test tube, Long searched for a liberalism based on ideas rather than interest groups.4 in pursuit of these ideas, he hosted a weekly political-intellectual kibitz in his seventh-floor office.5 it was core CPe affiliates like McCurdy who convened each thursday in Long’s suite to plan and strategize. eschewing “blood oaths” to party orthodoxy, house moderates studied, learned, 222 Losing the Center and offered programs so that other Democrats would understand the “nittygritty intricacies” of particular legislation and issues.6 While Long nurtured young centrists and the CPe developed policy papers , these were ancillary to his central task: modernizing liberalism. generations prior to and through the new Deal, FDr had made Democrats dominant by turning formerly unorganized voters into interest groups: AfJosh McCurdy, Dave McCurdy, Pam McCurdy, and Cydney McCurdy sitting together on the floor of a living room, playing video games (courtesy Carl Albert Congressional research and studies Center) “There Is Nothing for Nothing Any Longer” 223 rican Americans, white southerners, farmers, union members, and senior citizens. While even Alexis de tocqueville witnessed citizen associations demand government munificence, before roosevelt only the goP and big business had practiced this form of client-patron governance. Doling out programs and government largesse to diverse constituencies, FDr founded his electoral coalition on a novel creation: interest group liberalism.7 Dominating American politics for generations, the coalition among these disparate factions had been undone by the cultural and political wars of the 1960s. As Long saw it, FDr’s creation had not only unraveled; it had also failed to adapt to an increasingly globalized and technological world. seeking a liberalism with the “compassion to care and the toughness to govern,” he attempted to move beyond the great Depression and the great society’s interest group liberalism.8 in search of that vision, in 1982 the CPe published Rebuilding the Road to Opportunity: A Democratic Direction for the 1980s. A summation of economic policy designed to stymie inflation and spur growth, the document represented the Democrats’ first coherent and unified response to reaganomics.9 it was intended to serve as a “general direction” for a party divided, according to one Democrat, into “five factions ,” but as Long cautioned: “nobody is bound by it. it is not the bible, it is not a platform, but it is not pabulum.”10 it was, however, a start. Dave McCurdy A start is all Dave McCurdy required. embodying the Democratic Party’s frontier roots, the great-great-grandson of sooner homesteaders made the most of every opportunity. the son of a singer–rancher–crop duster–turned– electrician loaded flour sacks into boxcars, served in the air force rotC, and painted signs to put himself through college.11 relentless at politics and love, in 1971, after nine proposals, McCurdy finally convinced his college sweetheart to marry him. While he studied law, Pam (Plumb) McCurdy attended medical school. Four years later, both earned advanced degrees from the University of oklahoma.12 “Bored stiff” by the state attorney general’s office and private practice, McCurdy...