Short term wins and long term goals
He's getting quite a mixed reaction among both sides of the fence on this post, but I think Matt Stoller nails what's wrong with the Democratic Party today.
"The American people know...that Democratic Senators are moral lepers, weaklings, and that is the only reason we aren't further ahead when the Republicans screw everything up. The Democratic Senate leaders will sell us out at every opportunity, be it torture, Iraq, Alito, Lieberman, the Bankruptcy Bill, or stopping war with Iran. They aren't poll-driven, they aren't fear-driven, and they aren't driven by strategic differences. They are simply driven to beat us down, their voters, by any means necessary. That's why they cheered Joe.This shameless sellout of the Democratic party stalwarts to a man who disowned them for his own political power illustrates what ails the former "people's party" today. Stoller goes on:
Whether it was a standing ovation at a caucus meeting when Joe got back to the Senate after his primary loss, or Obama refusing to come to Connecticut or criticize Joe in any way, or Bill Clinton praising Lieberman on Larry King, or Harry Reid promising Lieberman seniority, or Chuck Schumer refusing to get involved and practically being forced to not back Lieberman after the primary, or insiders telling Lamont's campaign that they would talk Joe out of the race if Lamont didn't go on the attack, it's very clear that the Democratic Party leadership is rotten to the core. With the exception of John Kerry and Wes Clark, no high profile Democrats have been there for Lamont.A lot of leftie bloggers are criticizing Matt for his honesty, and yeah, maybe the timing isn't so great for a push to win at any cost, but I'm with Matt. The Democrat's conduct in Connecticut has been nearly unforgiveable. If we forget our principles, and fail to remind the Democrats in power that we still have them, then we're no better than Karl Rove. And it won't do anything but solidify the corporate stranglehold on our government.
It's sad. Lamont can win this, and we're all doing our best to make that happen. But the important story here is not that the country supports the war, it doesn't. Lieberman is running on an antiwar platform, promising to bring the troops home in a transparently dishonest pander to the left. The important story here is that the DC Senate Democrats and DC lobbyists are not on our side. They have their own side, a side that is out of touch, immoral, and dishonest.
We can win this fight, as the polls are tightening. But it would be a whole lot easier without that knife in our back.
posted by Libby Spencer at 2:39 PM
12 Comments:
the problem with the whole country is honesty. we're not acting like a democracy. look at Israel: they had a war with lebanon that they botched. they relied too much on air power. the israeli people didn't "rally around" olmert. they called him an idiot and threatened to kick him out. they had a commision on what went wrong weeks after the thing ended. I am not a fan of israels, but they are way ahead of us on this and are behaving like a normal democracy not some 1940's version of america that never existed.
Sad but true Lester. Honesty is no longer a virtue in this country. It's become every man for himself. And they excuse dishonesty in politics because they don't value honesty anymore. It's like honesty is just for chumps now.
eventually, people are going to be tired of holding their tongues and we are going to start hearing some serious truth. everyone is talking around what they mean out of political correctness and the elections and the right wing shell game of tricking people into say something sound bitey.
except pat buchanan.
here's my version: Bush should be impeached. we should get out of the middle east and let them deal with their own society themselves. we shuold stop supporting egypt and saudi arabia and get the heck out of every muslims face. we can't put the whole middle east under martial law. we can't afford it and we have no right to do it and it doesn't make us safer. If israel can't make it on its own it without interference from us they need to call it a day. if you don't like the neighborhood, move. the arabs seem to like it just fine.
end of mean spirited attempt at honesty
That didn't so mean-spirited Lester. It sounded kind of practical to me although I don't think we can abandon Israel. They're our only true ally in the region.
actually my "honesty" is just my usual rhetoric. lol. but i don't see where we need an ally in the region. and israels gdp is like 187 or something last year. that's equivalent to spain. they are simply hiding behind us in what i think is a FUTILE effort to maintain the old paradigm of america as benevolent hegemon supporting the "nice" tyrannies and israel as the model for westernization and democracy. to me, that ended on 9/11. our foreign policy has been based on a lie. it's no coincidence that most terrorists come from saudi or egypt, the countries we support.
the saudi people didn't want us on their soil after gulf war 1. people say" we were there to prevent saddam hussein from taking over" or whatver, but we knew they didn't want us there. same as they didn't want russia in afghanistan. it doesn't matter if it appears stupid to us to let saddam hussein and his goons come over the border. it's their country.
here's an analogy: If I was driving along and saw you on the side of the road limping and wincing in pain and I offer you a ride, and you say "no" I have to respect that.
I'd have to agree that our foreign policy has been based on lies for a very long time, way before Bush.
I have been reading ronald reagans autobiography "an american life". His sense of the middle east was that all the people were insane and what you needed to do was support the dictators who were friendly to the west in the hopes that one day they'd become like the shining beacon of hope, Israel, which was the thing you protected at all costs. You could see he was starting to get it when he pulled out of beirut, he admitted that he didn't understand middle east politics so he instinctively pulled the plug on the mission (after the bombing of the barracks).
what we didn't see all through the 80's and ninties was that the billion or so arabs really resented all this. they hated these dictators and they were humiliated by Israel coming in and kicking everyone out of palestine and taking it over. they don't see the connection to the holocaust at all. If you read henry cattans "the palestine question" there is no mention of it. it's a big world
It's true Lester. The Arab street has resented US meddling in their affairs for a very long time, which is really why they hate us. Got nothing to do with freedom.
In adam smiths "wealth of nations" he lays it out by saying basically that if your nation has a surpluss, a military adventure is likely.
You're so well read Lester.
not really. i'm recently learning about economics
word verification: moosma
Knowledge is wonderful thing.
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