Only Left-Wing Radicals Oppose the War
I was watching the Sunday morning talk shows yesterday and was flabbergasted by Cokie Roberts' suggestion that Ned Lamont defeating Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primaries would be "a disaster for the Democratic Party," and comparing this situation to George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy in the Nixon era. My initial thought was "horseshit," but Glenn Greenwald articulated my feelings much more eloquently:
It is nothing short of surreal to listen to pundits like Roberts and Peretz insist that opposition to the Iraq war will doom the Democratic Party. For more than a year, poll after poll (.pdf) has demonstrated that a solid majority of Americans oppose this war and believe it was a mistake. It is due primarily to this deep and still-growing anti-war sentiment that George Bush's presidency has all but collapsed, sending his approval ratings to near historic lows.
Another thing these assholes fail to point out is that McGovern lost to Nixon only after he sold out the freaks and the kids who won him the nomination in a too-little-too-late attempt to appease the old school Machine Democrats like Richard J. Daley. Why bother voting at all if you're just going to get more of the same?
That's why it's so great to see Lieberman running scared. For too long, voters have ignored the primaries and gotten stuck with the "lesser of two evils" decision on Election Day. Hopefully, the contest tomorrow in Connecticut will strike the fear of god into all incumbent Democrats. You bastards had better clean up your act and do what's right, or else we'll cast you down to eternal hellfire come primary season. Beware!
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In a follow-up piece today, Greenwald cuts to then quick:
As he has done so many times before, Lieberman suggested that anyone who disagrees with him on Iraq -- which happens to be the vast majority of the Democratic Party, as well as the country -- is not a "strong-on-security" Democrat, and that Lamont supporters and those like them want "to compromise on national security."
That is exactly the demonization scheme Karl Rove has exploited to help win two straight national elections and will undoubtedly try this year for a third. By this "reasoning," opponents of the war in Iraq and other Bush policies criticize those policies not because they consider them counterproductive and misguided, but because they are "weak" on defense and want to "compromise national security."
More than anything, that is what accounts for the strong hostility toward Joe Lieberman -- he not only supports Bush's policies on the most critical issues of the day but echoes Bush's most virulent political attacks on Democrats. And he's been doing that for several years now.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/08/08/lieberman/index.html
Posted by: Derek Phillips | August 8, 2006 10:06 AM