Monday, August 07, 2006
Family Business
The only remaining question about the Democratic primary for Senate in the state of Connecticut is how just wide Joe Lieberman's margin of defeat will become. The MSM is framing this as anti-war, dovish liberals taking the Democratic Party into the abyss just like in the '70s with Vietnam. This perspective is wrong on so many fronts that it should be obvious to anyone paying attention, but few people actually pay attention any more so let's spell it out.
Democratic support for Bush's Misadventure in Mesopotamia™ is only a symptom of the root problem. It is certainly true that anti-war, dovish liberals oppose the invasion and subjugation of Iraq, but that's like saying that the NRA opposes gun control legislation or the NEA opposes voucher legislation. That simplistic labeling doesn't account for hawks like John Murtha who previously hadn't opposed anything military-related, who was the poster-boy for the military industrial complex. That labeling doesn't account for Al Gore who hadn't opposed a military intervention since Vietnam, and he volunteered for Vietnam service. That labeling doesn't account for Pro Life Democrats like myself finding common cause with Pro Choice Democrats on the utter wrongness of invading Iraq as a response to an attack based in Afghanistan.
Opposition to this war is not based upon a philosophical opposition to all warfare, it is based upon American patriotism that recognizes that in the 227 years prior to Bush's unilateral invasion of Iraq America had never unilaterally invaded a sovereign nation that posed no threat to the United States. There was that little thing with the War of 1812, but we see how well that went. Point being, unilateral invasions of sovereign nations are precisely what the United States has stood against for at least the last century, and opposition to this invasion was not and is not purely the purview of pacifistic progressives.
The truth of the matter is that the no-violence-ever crowd comprises an exceedingly small percentage of those who viscerally oppose Joe Lieberman and his ilk, and the root cause of our rejection of their ilk has little to do with the Iraq War itself. This is best illustrated by a side-by-side comparison of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson. By virtually every measure Ben Nelson is right of Joe Lieberman - well right of Joe Lieberman - yet you hear no calls for Nelson's ouster. You hear no condemnation of Ben Nelson. You hear nothing negative about Ben Nelson whatsoever - why is that? Ben Nelson voted for the war every time a vote came up, yet there's not a peep from the "anti-war Left" - why is that? Ben Nelson votes against the majority of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate frequently, yet there is no netroots movement to rid the Senate of Ben Nelson - why is that?
Ben Nelson is loyal to the Democratic Party.
Ben Nelson represents one of the reddest states in the union, and if he is to maintain his seat in the Senate then he has to vote according to the will of the people of Nebraska - he represents Cornhuskers, not Golden Bears. What's more - and this is the primary difference - Ben Nelson never undercuts his colleagues, he never gives the GOP political cover by being the token Democratic sponsor that allows the GOP to call a purely-partisan piece of legislation "bipartisan" - the working definition of 55 Republicans plus Joe Lieberman these days. Ben Nelson never publicly attacks the patriotism of his own party, never uses Republican talking points to denigrate his own party, never takes his party to task for failing to be the Republican Party. And Ben Nelson certainly has never kissed George Bush.
I know it was you, Fredo. You break my heart. YOU BREAK MY HEART!
This is the beginning of a purge - every Fredo that was supposed to be loyal but who instead made deals with the enemy that ended up getting members of the Family whacked , they are all about to be served; in 2006 Family debts are being settled. What upsets the MSM is that the one who is giving the orders to whack the power-brokers is the punk upstart who wasn't supposed to amount to much. What really upsets the MSM is the sure knowledge that the punk upstart is taking over its territory as the dispenser of truth, the framer of issues, the filter of information, so the MSM is fighting back. Unfortunately for the MSM, very few people actually pay attention to them any more.
Democratic support for Bush's Misadventure in Mesopotamia™ is only a symptom of the root problem. It is certainly true that anti-war, dovish liberals oppose the invasion and subjugation of Iraq, but that's like saying that the NRA opposes gun control legislation or the NEA opposes voucher legislation. That simplistic labeling doesn't account for hawks like John Murtha who previously hadn't opposed anything military-related, who was the poster-boy for the military industrial complex. That labeling doesn't account for Al Gore who hadn't opposed a military intervention since Vietnam, and he volunteered for Vietnam service. That labeling doesn't account for Pro Life Democrats like myself finding common cause with Pro Choice Democrats on the utter wrongness of invading Iraq as a response to an attack based in Afghanistan.
Opposition to this war is not based upon a philosophical opposition to all warfare, it is based upon American patriotism that recognizes that in the 227 years prior to Bush's unilateral invasion of Iraq America had never unilaterally invaded a sovereign nation that posed no threat to the United States. There was that little thing with the War of 1812, but we see how well that went. Point being, unilateral invasions of sovereign nations are precisely what the United States has stood against for at least the last century, and opposition to this invasion was not and is not purely the purview of pacifistic progressives.
The truth of the matter is that the no-violence-ever crowd comprises an exceedingly small percentage of those who viscerally oppose Joe Lieberman and his ilk, and the root cause of our rejection of their ilk has little to do with the Iraq War itself. This is best illustrated by a side-by-side comparison of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson. By virtually every measure Ben Nelson is right of Joe Lieberman - well right of Joe Lieberman - yet you hear no calls for Nelson's ouster. You hear no condemnation of Ben Nelson. You hear nothing negative about Ben Nelson whatsoever - why is that? Ben Nelson voted for the war every time a vote came up, yet there's not a peep from the "anti-war Left" - why is that? Ben Nelson votes against the majority of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate frequently, yet there is no netroots movement to rid the Senate of Ben Nelson - why is that?
Ben Nelson is loyal to the Democratic Party.
Ben Nelson represents one of the reddest states in the union, and if he is to maintain his seat in the Senate then he has to vote according to the will of the people of Nebraska - he represents Cornhuskers, not Golden Bears. What's more - and this is the primary difference - Ben Nelson never undercuts his colleagues, he never gives the GOP political cover by being the token Democratic sponsor that allows the GOP to call a purely-partisan piece of legislation "bipartisan" - the working definition of 55 Republicans plus Joe Lieberman these days. Ben Nelson never publicly attacks the patriotism of his own party, never uses Republican talking points to denigrate his own party, never takes his party to task for failing to be the Republican Party. And Ben Nelson certainly has never kissed George Bush.
I know it was you, Fredo. You break my heart. YOU BREAK MY HEART!
This is the beginning of a purge - every Fredo that was supposed to be loyal but who instead made deals with the enemy that ended up getting members of the Family whacked , they are all about to be served; in 2006 Family debts are being settled. What upsets the MSM is that the one who is giving the orders to whack the power-brokers is the punk upstart who wasn't supposed to amount to much. What really upsets the MSM is the sure knowledge that the punk upstart is taking over its territory as the dispenser of truth, the framer of issues, the filter of information, so the MSM is fighting back. Unfortunately for the MSM, very few people actually pay attention to them any more.
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