Lieberman:" The Democrats *used* to be Pro-America"

[lame54]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/21/lieberman-the-democrats-used-to-be-pro-america/
Lieberman:
"How did the Democratic Party get here? How did the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy drift so far from the foreign policy and national security principles and policies that were at the core of its identity and its purpose?

Beginning in the 1940s, the Democratic Party was forced to confront two of the most dangerous enemies our nation has ever faced: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In response, Democrats under Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy forged and conducted a foreign policy that was principled, internationalist, strong and successful.

This was the Democratic Party that I grew up in - a party that was unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American, a party that was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders. It was a party that understood that either the American people stood united with free nations and freedom fighters against the forces of totalitarianism, or that we would fall divided.

This was the Democratic Party of Harry Truman, who pledged that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

And this was the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, who promised in his inaugural address that the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of freedom.”

This worldview began to come apart in the late 1960s, around the war in Vietnam. In its place, a very different view of the world took root in the Democratic Party. Rather than seeing the Cold War as an ideological contest between the free nations of the West and the repressive regimes of the communist world, this rival political philosophy saw America as the aggressor - a morally bankrupt, imperialist power whose militarism and “inordinate fear of communism” represented the real threat to world peace."

[C_U_L8R]

1. cram it lieber-clown

what a sellout.

[EV_Ares]

2. His services will no longer be needed after the election; strip him of all

committees he is on and let him slink back to his office in his empty independent status and close the door.

[Solly Mack]

3. GTMO is beyond our borders...secret prisons scattered all over

are beyond our borders...various prisons throughout Iraq are beyond our borders


Got a moral judgment on that, Lieberman?

[GoesTo11]

4. I think he's developed a psychological disorder (self-hatred)

Stockholm syndrome? He's been so eager for the last 14 years trying to suck up to the Republicans to avoid their criticism that he now is leading their charge. He hates the Democrats. He wants the Democrats to suffer as much as possible. He hates what he was. He loves his tormentors.

What a horrible excuse for a human being.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Enjoy yourself now, Joe. After January you'll be mopping the restrooms

in Denny's.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GoesTo11]

17. He's no real friend of Israel

The confrontational policies he advocates just put Israel at risk as well as not being good for the US. Israel has had a lot of pragmatists -- a huge number of people there hate war -- in addition to ideologues like Netanyahu, and the pragmatists have tried to work out some way of living with their neighbors in that region of the world. Rabin grew to understand this deeply. Even Sharon in the end was heading in that direction. The Lieberman view that essentially says that all of Israel's enemies must be vanquished is doomed to fail. His fatal flaw is his belief in his own infallibility.

I don't think he's intentionally putting Israel's interest above the US. I think he is wrongheaded in both cases but he has convinced himself that opposition to any Israeli policies means opposition to Israel and that opposition to Israel means opposition to the US. In contrast, I had no problem at all with Bill Clinton's investing his poltical capital trying to help Israel by brokering peace treaties (except that it didn't succeed), and in the big picture, what is in Israel's interst is also in the US interest. Not an issue of patriotism.

[Warpy]

23. I did specify his misperception that Israelis are also hawks

The sensible people there, and most I've met are very sensible once they get out of the IDF, know that the Iraq war has made them less safe and that an invasion of Iran would be disastrous.

Lieberman only represents the bloodthirsty and the fools in Israel and in AIPAC.

[DAGDA56]

7. If I were hearing this live, I would be waiting for the "big announcement" that Joe

is OFFICIALLY switching parties. That's what this seems to be leading up to.

[old mark]

8. He obviously fails to see any difference

between WWII and the war in Vietnam. Maybe he should read a little more recent history.
I am a big fan of FDR and Truman, and I loved JFK, but I think he made a grave error sending troops to Vietnam. I served in the Army from 1968-1971, and had several friends die for that illegal, miserable egotistical mistake. We should have sent advisors, spooks, equipment, supplies, but never ground troops.

Sounds like Iraq, doesn't it?

mark

[bdamomma]

9. Lieberman is a sick SOB.

Connecticut voters should have voted his ass out.

[rpannier]

10. And yet he stayed in the Party all those years

Maybe someone should ask him why...

[Virginia Dare]

11. Joe must be getting history lessons from Newt Gingrich..

or his hero shrubya bush...he sounds just that ignorant. Hey Joe, why don't you head over to Iraq and lead the charge yourself?

[marmar]

12. Democrats: Lieberman used to be less of an asshat.

On second thought, .......

[ProfessorGAC]

14. No. No. You Were Right The First Time

You said "less" of an asshat. That doesn't mean he wasn't an asshat before. It just means he is an even bigger one now!
The Professor

[spanone]

13. who? he doesn't exist in my political world.

make your own fucking moral judgements you traitorous asshole

[eridani]

15. Whatchu mean "America", white man?

During WW II, we were fighting other imperial powers, and if there is one thing that's worse than being a citizen of an imperial power, it's being a citizen of a country under some foreign military boot.

With the establishment of a military empire after WW II, the purpose of our armed forced became imposing corporate rule at gunpoint. (Yes, the Soviet Union was actually another imperial power which really did pose a threat, but we could have defended ourselves against it without taking on the role of corporate enforcer.) If nobody knew this before 1989, they know it now--the empire didn't say "we won" and go home for a peace dividend, they ramped up the conquest of the rest of the world. Cuban sanctions are vastly harsher today than when Cuba actually had Soviet missiles.

Lieberfuck agrees with all the other haves and have mores that "America" consists of corporate "people" whose interests must be promoted by force, even if they relocate to Dubai to avoid paying taxes. The rest of us poor saps who just live here are just as much disposable human garbage as Iraqis or Latin Americans. It's not like making the rest of the world into a safe place to outsource all our jobs to offere any benefits to us. I think we actually have a better right to the word "America" ourselves.

[NewJeffCT]

16. The Republican Party, however, has never been pro-America

pro-fascism, yes.

[LynnTheDem]

18. Coz people like JFK were so big on preemptive wars of aggression!

Poor lieBerman; stupid as a rightwingnut.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Lieberman has been in the news more and more

the past couple of weeks, and he is getting bolder in his comments...And of course, all the DUers (many long-time, well-known) stumping for him instead of Lamont in '06 avoid these threads like the plague... "Lieberman's got the experience and we can't afford to alienate him!" "Lamont is too liberal to win CT!" "Lieberman has a right to fight for his seat even though he can't win his primary!" talking points like these were on the site all duing the '06 season...And this is what it has gotten us: An open traitor in the mold of Zell Miller (actually worse than Zell, because at least Zell was still on paper, a Dem)

[Virginia Dare]

22. It appears he'd like to run with McCain..

he probably figures old Johnny is lucky if he's good for one term, and then holy joe and unleash his evil upon us all.

McCain/Lieberman--that's the ticket, the unity ticket that is....:puke: :puke: :puke:

[Fleshdancer]

20. Your fear of Islam doesn't make me anti-America Mr. Lieberman

:grr:

How dare he compare the actions of Bush to Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. How dare he claim my party has drifted away from such leaders because we don't support the invasion of Iraq and Iran.

[high density]

21. Once upon a time it was war as a last resort

Unlike our current idiots who think war is step one to solving a problem.

[kentuck]

24. That friggin' traitor!

I guess he thinks you have to agree with he and Bush before you can love America?? What a turd!

[lame54]

25. a turd alright - and after the election he will be flushed