Opportunity. Responsibility. Community. Those New Democrat themes rang out over and over at an extraordinary, historic forum entitled "The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century," hosted by the Democratic Leadership Council on April 25 in Washington after the close of the NATO summit.

The participants were President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Netherlands Prime Minister Wim Kok, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema -- the leading figures of the global Third Way movement.

Progressive political leaders created this movement to deal with new social and political questions posed by economic change and globalization. It seeks to strike a new balance between the imperatives of economic dynamism and social justice.

This politics goes by different names in different countries. It's New Democrat in America, New Labour in Great Britain, and the New Middle in Germany. Whatever its national label, Third Way values, ideas, and approaches to governing are modernizing center-left politics around the globe. The Third Way uses innovative ideas and modern means to advance fundamental progressive principles.

The Third Way philosophy's first principle and enduring purpose is equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none. Its public ethic is mutual responsibility. Its core value is community. Its outlook is global. And its modern means are fostering both private sector economic growth today's prerequisite for opportunity for all and an empowering government that equips citizens with the tools they need to get ahead.

How Far We've Come

Coincidentally, April 25 was almost 10 years to the day that I journeyed to Little Rock, Ark., to recruit then-Gov. Clinton to become chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. Many of the New Democrat themes and ideas developed during his chairmanship have defined the Third Way in America. As President, Clinton put those themes and ideas into action.

Shortly after the 1992 presidential election, Tony Blair, who was then the British shadow home secretary and just beginning his efforts to modernize the Labour Party, paid his first call on us. Today, as Robert Philpot notes, Prime Minister Blair enjoys approval ratings not seen in Britain since the days of Winston Churchill.

The President best summarized our progress in his speech to the DLC last December. "These words -- opportunity, responsibility, community -- came to identify and embody a new approach to government and politics, tying our oldest, most enduring values to the Information Age," he said. "We said we were New Democrats, and we called our approach the Third Way.

"These same ideas are reviving center-left political parties throughout the industrialized world as people everywhere struggle to put a human face on the global economy," the President continued. "And it all started with the DLC ... Today, less than 15 years after we started, the ideas pushed by the DLC are literally sweeping the world."

With that incredible track record, you'd think our ownership of Third Way politics would be undisputed. Think again. The 2000 election will likely be a battleground for possession of the Third Way.

The evidence is clear: Republicans are trying to steal our politics. They're not even being subtle about it. Two GOP groups, The Republican Main Street Partnership and the Republican Leadership Council, have sprung up explicitly to emulate the success of the DLC.

The Republican Main Street Partnership is a group of moderate House Republicans led by Rep. Amo Houghton of New York -- one of a handful of Republicans who had the courage to vote against the articles of impeachment lodged against the President. But Houghton makes no bones about what his group is up to. In a recruitment letter to DLC supporters recently, he wrote: "The Republican Main Street Partnership was created early last year to mirror much of what the DLC has done ... and we are borrowing heavily from the DLC success story."

The New York Times says the RLC "unabashedly seeks to replicate the methods and successes of the Democratic Leadership Council."

Then there's copycat GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush, the Texas governor, who is now the party's frontrunner for the 2000 nomination. All last fall during his gubernatorial re- election campaign, he traveled across the state in a bus with the words "opportunity" and "responsibility" plastered on the side. I call that New Democrat Lite.

Now Bush calls himself a "compassionate conservative." That seems to me to be the latest effort by Republicans to do for their party what New Democrats did for ours in 1992 to redefine and capture the political center.

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery. But for Democrats, imitation in this case poses a serious political challenge. We can't afford to take this intellectual piracy lightly.

The actions of many congressional Republicans notwithstanding, not all Republicans are fools. Republican governors in particular understand the power of the New Democrat message. They know it is a winning political formula precisely because its ideas work. And they are bound and determined to steal that formula from us.

But the would-be Republican hijackers face great obstacles. For one thing, there aren't many GOP centrists left. They've been systematically purged from their party for the past quarter century.

More importantly, opportunity for all, mutual responsibility, and fostering community aren't exactly Republican themes. Unlike New Democrats, most Republicans believe that economic and social progress is generated by the efforts of a few wealthy elites, not by the talents of all us. They tend to embrace President Reagan's ethic of every man for himself, not President's Kennedy's ethic of asking what you can do for your country. And they tend to view government as an alien creature to be stamped out wherever possible, not the agent of our collective will and our instrument for helping Americans help themselves and each other.

Those facts give us a distinct advantage. But our continued possession of the Third Way in 2000 and beyond is not preordained. We will have to earn our ownership by keeping our politics dynamic; by lifting it to the next plateau; by tackling today's and tomorrow's problems with innovation, courage, and a dedication to New Democrat-Third Way principles. We cannot afford to rest on President Clinton's successes; we need to build on them.

If we do, the differences between the imitation and the real thing will become very obvious. And the success of the global Third Way movement -- so clear at the DLC forum on April 25 -- will be secured in the country that gave it birth.

Al From is president of the Democratic Leadership Council.