Reed '82 supports moderate Democratic agenda

Bruce Reed '82, a political centrist, has made a career of fighting extremism when he encounters it — even when that means making enemies within his own party.

Reed, who served as Bill Clinton's domestic policy adviser, heads the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a nonprofit organization that promotes a moderate agenda for Democrats. Supporters view the group as a healthy counterweight to politicians like Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and current Democratic National Committee chairman who sought the 2004 presidential nomination while touting a staunchly liberal agenda.

But detractors say it is a corporate-financed right wing of the Democratic Party. Others say the DLC's clout has waned since its heyday in the 1990s, when it famously spearheaded the New Democrat movement and helped launch then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton into the White House.

But Reed said the DLC still matters. "I think that a lot of New Democrat ideas that used to be controversial in the party — like fiscal responsibility and a tough stand on crime, for example — are now widely shared within the Democratic ranks," he said in an interview. "So in that sense, we're not having to fight the same old battles. So I'd say our ideas are as influential as ever, and that's what we really care about."

As the 2008 primaries heat up, Reed said he hopes to see a second Clinton presidency before long. "I am a lifelong Clintonite and enthusiastic Hillary supporter," he said. "I think the Democratic race has been a very good one. There is a range of candidates — we have a real test of ideas, which is what's supposed to happen."

Though some analysts say the Democratic Party has drifted to the left in recent times, with Dean as the DNC chair and liberal Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as speaker of the House, Reed said the GOP is out of touch with average Americans.

"One of the reasons that the Bush administration has been such a fiasco is that it has wandered so far from where most of the country is," he said. "I think the Democratic Party has become a very mainstream party over the past 20 years. We are both united and much closer to the center of the political spectrum than the Republicans are."

But Acting Wilson School Dean Nolan McCarty, who researches U.S. politics and democratic political institutions, said the DLC has declined since its days of influence during the Clinton years.

Partly, he said, this is because Democrats believed they needed to move to the center in 1992 to regain power after 12 years of Republicans in the White House. Now, though, as many Americans express dissatisfaction with Bush's policies, Democrats expect to win the next presidential election and thus don't see a strategic need to embrace the DLC's centrist agenda.

Reed "has a tough job right now because the winds in the Democratic Party are blowing against him," McCarty said. "It will be a challenge for the DLC to play an important role in the party and the nominee process leading up to the next election."

An Orwellian education

Though Reed did not anticipate a career in politics, his time at Princeton proved formative once he began making his mark in Washington.

"Bruce was really a writer and a thinker," said Joel Achenbach '82, who was opinion editor of The Daily Princetonian when Reed wrote a weekly political column for the paper. "Of course, he went on to be somebody who was important in politics, but I think of him as somebody who will be remembered for his writing, not his policy advice."

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An English major at Princeton, Reed said he envisioned himself as a writer — and, in fact, he would later enter the field of politics by writing speeches.

Nevertheless, his academic work at the University foreshadowed his approach to politics, particularly his willingness to challenge political allies. He wrote his thesis about British novelist and essayist George Orwell, whom he described as "an iconoclastic writer who spent his career challenging his friends on the Left."

Hans Fenstermacher '82, who was Reed's hallmate during their junior and senior years, said Reed's fascination with Orwell is prominent in his memories of him. "He was always reading Orwell while riding a stationary bike," Fenstermacher said.

Reed added that his study of Orwell — and his Princeton education in general — helped prepare him for politics. "Princeton teaches people to think and to challenge orthodoxy and not take the old ways for granted," he said. "I wish Washington were like that, but I still think that that is what politics should aspire to."