Liberals, R.I.P.

• Position: Weakness of the Democratic Party's left - Editorial

The power of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party was on display at a tiny little conference called by the Progressive Caucus during the Chicago convention. A handful of reporters and a few Democratic legislators, including liberal Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and Lynn Woolsey of California, gathered in a hotel room to discuss the state of progressive politics.

Despite McKinney's upbeat introduction--"We're here to claim success"--it was clear from the turnout that this was hardly a show of force. The slim showing was a stark contrast to the raucous victory parties hosted by Christian evangelicals and rabid pro-lifers at the Republican convention.

The message from the Progressive Caucus, as from every quarter of the Democratic Party this fall, is: "Get in line behind the President."

"I know the President is counting on us to fill in the loopholes in the welfare bill," Woolsey announced, pardoning the President, as did every other liberal-to-leftwing Democrat at the convention, for signing the welfare-repeal law in the first place.

"A lot of soul-searching has taken place on the part of the Progressive Caucus," McKinney said. Liberal Democrats had to ask themselves, "What is it that unifies our party?" she told reporters.

The answer: "The notion that there must be a sense of fairness and, in a time of need, the government must be there to help people."

But the promise that government will help people in times of need is exactly what Clinton has repealed by signing the welfare bill. And, after selling out this one unifying principle, the President is not taking a lot of heat from the left wing of his party.

"If we were going to fall on our swords, this is where we would do it," said Woolsey. "But we know how important it is that we stay united and get our House and Senate back and get our President back."

So much for pressure from the left.

This weakness on the Democratic left is heartbreaking. And it's particularly distressing to hear progressive Democrats like Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo give speeches invoking the party's populist tradition, from the New Deal to the Great Society to the civilrights movement, even as that tradition is dismantled.

The convention was a funeral for Democratic Party liberalism, and Jackson and Cuomo were sent up to give the eulogies for the old doctrine.

"Keep that faith," Jackson intoned in a characteristically moving address.

But short of a miracle, there is nothing on the horizon to make us...