Posted by
Chris Rawlings on Monday, August 07, 2006 2:53:13 PM
Ah yes! Thank you Martin Peretz for
your insightful erudition on Joe Lieberman's impending expulsion from the Democratic Party. Peretz, a refreshingly pro-war Democrat, gets it.
Finally, the contest in Connecticut tomorrow is about two views of the world. Mr. Lamont's view is that there are very few antagonists whom we cannot mollify or conciliate. Let's call this process by its correct name: appeasement. The Greenwich entrepreneur might call it "incentivization." Mr. Lieberman's view is that there are actually enemies who, intoxicated by millennial delusions, are not open to rational and reciprocal arbitration. Why should they be? After all, they inhabit a universe of inevitability, rather like Nazis and communists, but with a religious overgloss. Such armed doctrines, in Mr. Lieberman's view, need to be confronted and overwhelmed (Wall Street Journal, Today).
Indeed, this is the choice being presented to not just Democrats in Connecticut, but also the national contingent. Ned Lamont is fetchingly blind to the major threat this country faces. He shrugs off the war in Israel as another round of violence between Jews and Arabs. Or more precisely, as a result of imperial oppression by Jews, Brits, and of course, Americans.
In fact, here's Lamont's official statement on Israel (from talkleft.com):
....Unlike previous administrations - Republican and Democratic - President Bush has embraced the wrong priorities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...Let's be clear that Bush emphasized Iraq at the expense of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, and we are reaping the consequences. Just think what the situation could have been if the United States had invested its power, prestige, and resources in a peace settlement. Instead we chose a failed war and stand virtually alone, paying a heavy price for a profoundly failed set of decisions.
If you're an anti-war nutter, you have to just love this stuff.
Lieberman is woefully wrong on abortion, marriage, taxes and the rest. But he most certainly gets it on my generation's most important issue: the global war on terror.
With that said, I hope he loses. I want the country to see just how wacky the Democrats and their left wing really are. My guess is that if Lieberman loses, the Republicans have a much better chance of making gains this fall. Yes, you read that correctly. Making gains. And I hope Joe runs as an independant and wins.