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| 2006-08-13 |
| What sets Lieberman apart from fellow Democrats is his belief in America. By Michael Barone Sen. Joseph Lieberman's narrow defeat in Connecticut's Democratic primary on Tuesday tells us something important about his party. Mr. Lieberman, who is running in November as an independent, can argue plausibly that his loss represented the judgment of only a sliver of the electorate: Connecticut, where most major-party nominations are decided by party conventions, has a tradition of low participation in primaries, and less than one-sixth of the registered voters took the trouble to cast their ballots in this contest. The winner, Ned Lamont, thus got the votes of less than one-tenth of Connecticut voters. Still, this was a well-publicized contest, and one in which Sen. Lieberman's opponents had reason, from their point of view, to target him. And not just for his staunch support of the American military action in Iraq. On a number of issues, Mr. Lieberman has been at odds with large constituencies in the Democratic Party. As an observant Orthodox Jew, he has consistently portrayed himself as a man of religious faith, while one-quarter of John Kerry voters in 2004 described their religion as "other" or "none." He has been a critic of vulgarity and obscenity in television programs and movies, while the Democrats enjoy massive financial and psychic support from Hollywood. He has supported school-choice measures, while one of his party's major organized constituencies is the teachers' unions. And he has been an American exceptionalist--a believer in the idea that this is a special and specially good country--while his party's base is increasingly made up of people with attitudes that are, in professor Samuel Huntington's term, transnational. In their view, our country is no better than any other, and in many ways it's a whole lot worse. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #9 lotp, yep, you're probably right. Unfortunately. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-08-13 23:31 |
| #8 I agree with you, Blondie, if we're talking the rank and file. Kos, Soros and their ilk are another matter. I think they do want power and they want to destroy the central/liberal party to force a more radical one. JMO, though. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-08-13 20:02 |
| #7 The wackos do not necessarily want to win. That would mean having to compromise on their pet agendas with some of the icky moderates and libs, and occasionally the eeeeevvvvilll Republicans. That is not their goal, as this frustrated Dem sees it. They want to be morally pure. Defeats are ok as long as their virtue is intact. (Considering how many of them are atheistic, it's the one place where they can safely express any kind of pent-up religious feeling without looking like, you know, those backward types who stupidly fill up the pews in churches and synagogues and believe in a supernatural presence. JMHO.) |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-08-13 19:54 |
| #6 I think the far left knows quite well they are killing the Democratic party. They intend to. They also intend to put an openly socialist, or even farther left, party in its place. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-08-13 18:03 |
| #5 Where are all the "Democrat Refugees" going? I'll bet they vote for that yellow dog! :-) |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-08-13 17:58 |
| #4 The moderates are already mostly gone. Now the far left is purging the liberals. Then, I guess the Boslsheviks purge the Menshaviks, then the Stalinists the Trotskyites, then the Bhukarin clique... As long as it happens quickly enough, the Democrats will lose all theit seats and some new party can pick up the pieces, like in 1854. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-08-13 17:50 |
| #3 It still looks like the far left is flexing its control of the party and forcing the moderates out. Now the party is free for the rich grandkids who never worked an honest day in their lives to run something. The dems will fail. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-08-13 09:21 |
| #2 ..the presence of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at Mr. Lamont's side on election night suggests... vote for anyone else. These two make me sick. Joe is a socialist with morals and conviction, but he's still a socialist. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2006-08-13 05:11 |
| #1 Joe: If you love America, run as an independent just in case we need a spoiler to tip the balance. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-08-13 03:59 |