Wow.
The United States is at a critical point in its history, and Mr. Lieberman has chosen a controversial role to play. The voters in Connecticut will have to judge whether it is the right one.Bingo. Despite what Barney Frank thinks, we are witnessing the dismantlement of our democracy in a rather frightening manner. We are watching the public disagree with this president's action in record numbers,yet do nothing about it. And we are watching a Democratic party trip over itself in its confusion over how and whether to oppose turning American democracy into some kind of police state.
As Mr. Lieberman sees it, this is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party ? his moderate fair-mindedness against a partisan radicalism that alienates most Americans. ?What kind of Democratic Party are we going to have?? he asked in an interview with New York magazine. ?You've got to agree 100 percent, or you?re not a good Democrat??
That's far from the issue. Mr. Lieberman is not just a senator who works well with members of the other party. And there is a reason that while other Democrats supported the war, he has become the only target. In his effort to appear above the partisan fray, he has become one of the Bush administration?s most useful allies as the president tries to turn the war on terror into an excuse for radical changes in how this country operates....
And Mr. Lieberman has helped that effort. He once denounced Democrats who were ?more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq? than on supporting the war?s progress.
As some new French friends said to me last night over dinner, if so many of you don't like Bush - 60-some percent in all the recent polls - then why don't you do something about it?
Good question.
Part of the reason we don't is because we have Democrats like Joe Lieberman who give aid and comfort to the dismantlement of our democracy. It's difficult enough to stand up to post-9/11 Republican charges that Dems are soft on Osama, but when one of your own joins the Bush brigade and accuses fellow Dems of simply speaking out for partisan gain, that makes it excruciatingly difficult to continue speaking up because it gives the Republicans the perfect weapon to use against any Democrat who dares speak out. See, just like Joe said, the Dems don't care about September 11, they don't care about national security, they simply care about scoring political points at the expense of all of our lives.
That is why this blog, at least, can't stand Joe Lieberman. America can't afford any more Joe Liebermans at this juncture in our history. We are turning into a police state. No, there are no ovens and mass executions in America. But if people believe that the only lessons we learned from World War II, from fighting the Soviets, and from every other war, cold and hot, that America ever fought is to simply avoid genocide, well, that's a rather short-sided lesson to take from history.
I hate to quote Star Wars as the authoritative word on freedom, but there was a hell of a quote in the last film:
"So this is how democracy dies, to thunderous applause."
And currently, the lion's share of that applause in the Democratic party is coming from Senator Joseph Lieberman.
It's not about the war. It's about our country.
