Greater Democracy: Getting centrists to sound more progressive

April 5, 2005

Getting centrists to sound more progressive

Yesterday, I wrote a blog entry comparing The Scream to The Kiss. The timing was opportune. Last Wednesday, Joe Lieberman spoke to the Democratic State Central Committee in Hartford. Friday, my wife and I had coffee with the Senator and on Sunday, the Senator gave my wife a kiss, reminiscent of the kiss the Senator received from President Bush.

Since putting up my blog entry, I’ve gotten comments, emails, and phone calls from people all over the political spectrum. Several people have pointed me to the article in the Journal Inquirer, which asks, “Is U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman getting a bad rap”?

The article analyzes Sen. Lieberman’s voting record, and finds that he isn’t really all that different from many other Democratic Senators. So, why are people so interested in taking down Joe? Perhaps the quote from Keith Crane sums it up best.

"His record is probably no better or worse than anyone else; it probably matches Dodd's 80 or 90 percent of the time," he acknowledged. "But you don't see Dodd on Fox News bashing the Dems."

Myrna Watanabe, who was also quoted in the article, commented to me in a personal email, “Immediately, I see the problem is not that he has voted with the Reps. on important issues, he has accepted how they frame the argument. He talks about needing to "fix" Social Security, when it isn't broken, etc. He needs some vocabulary training, if he's to survive with our blessings.”

I think Myrna and Keith are on the right track with this, and it should be reformulated to be a more general question: How do we get centrists to think more progressively and use more progressive language?

Posted by Aldon Hynes at April 5, 2005 2:50 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Getting Lieberman to "sound more progressive"?

That sounds as if you have no problem with the DLC perpetuating the sham that the Democratic Party has become under their leadership.

Joe's problem is that he has spent too much time hanging out with the Republican and country club Democrats and Corporate fat cats. In turn, he has forgotten the people which make up the Democratic Party here in CT. He should spend a little time walking the front lines of the union battles if he wants to re-find his inner Democrat.

P.S. Tell your wife she shouldn't be kissing war-mongerers and torture apologists. It's unseemly.

Posted by: NoMoHoJoe at April 5, 2005 6:56 PM

Aldon,
Referring to Joe Lieberman as a "centrist" is again disengenuous.He's a corperatist.

Is Joe a centrist on domestic issues?

As long as his corperate sponsors agree and it doesn't hurt their bottom line his masters will allow him to vote centrist.
Ask Hilary and Bill where Joe was when a centrist Universal Heath care bill was trying to be put together.
Ask Joe about the Bankruptcy bill which he voted for(cloture) when it counted and then Voted against when passage was assured (sound familiar).

Is Joe a centrist on foreign policy?

NO,Joe is a NEOCON flat out and simple. He's also the worst kind of neo-con,the chickenhawk variety.A man of privelege who is happy to wave flags and preach about God in an effort to convince others that sending their children to his war is the right thing to do while his own children live in the lap of luxury.He even had the audacity to ask his underpaid campaign workers to work without pay during the final weeks of his futile presidential run while his kids recieved a 100,000 dollar a yr salary for simply being his kids.

What Joe is is a Corperatist,Plain and simple. A man who has no base in the Democratic party but who,by his own proformance at the Ct state central meeting,showed that the only thing he has to offer the Dem party is his ability to raise serious corperate cash.

As long as the Dem. party agreed to pay the bill that comes with that cash Joe was Safe. I hope the groans that I heard in that room when Joe announced he had already accepted 1 million in those corperate bribes means what I believe they do.

If I'm Correct the Dem party is no longer willing to pay the price of those bribes and Joes days are numbered . If I'm incorrect,the parties days may be numbered because that price Joe is willing to pay is putting the people interests behind those of the corperate interests. Joe has chose his side and I'm proud my party,The Democatic Party, for saying a huge NO to the small corperate (DLC ANYONE?) part of our party.

Posted by: ctkeith at April 6, 2005 1:26 PM

Joe likes attention, plain and simple. If bashing his own is what it takes, in his mind, to get his mug on the Sunday shows--so be it.

Hey, Joe! Independents can get a lot of love, too. Look into it.

Posted by: Ascendent at April 7, 2005 1:13 AM

Start by getting self-styled progressives to sound like ACTUAL progressives instead of defenders of the status quo. A little intellectual honesty would help. If the talking point to be adopted is that Social Security has a problem, not a crisis, then where's the progressive solution for the problem?

Chances are, when that question is honestyl addressed by progressives, they'd see that they're in MUCH closer agreement to Joe Lieberman since he's been more consistent on this issue for the last decade than most. Just a hint: he's against privatization and has spoken adamantly against Bush's plan to carve out privatized accounts.

Posted by: Greg Wythe at April 11, 2005 11:03 AM