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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:55 pm Post subject: Lanny Davis: "Liberal McCarthyism" |
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When Lanny Davis is driven to pen the following, you can be sure that the lunatics have indeed arrived at the gates of the Democratic Party...
| Quote: | Liberal McCarthyism
Bigotry and hate aren't just for right-wingers anymore.
BY LANNY J. DAVIS
Tuesday, August 8, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON--My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.
This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.
I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.
Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony. Here are just a few examples (there are many, many more anyone with a search engine can find) of the type of thing the liberal blog sites have been posting about Joe Lieberman:
• "Ned Lamont and his supporters need to [g]et real busy. Ned needs to beat Lieberman to a pulp in the debate and define what it means to be an AMerican who is NOT beholden to the Israeli Lobby" (by "rim," posted on Huffington Post, July 6, 2006).
• "Joe's on the Senate floor now and he's growing a beard. He has about a weeks growth on his face. . . . I hope he dyes his beard Blood red. It would be so appropriate" (by "ctkeith," posted on Daily Kos, July 11 and 12, 2005).
• On "Lieberman vs. Murtha": "as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on" (by "tomjones," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).
• "Good men, Daniel Webster and Faust would attest, sell their souls to the Devil. Is selling your soul to a god any worse? Leiberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife's name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover" (by "gerrylong," posted on the Huffington Post, July 8, 2006).
• "Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot" (by "greenskeeper," posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).
And these are some of the nicer examples.
One Sunday morning on C-Span I debated Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on the Lieberman versus Lamont race. Afterwards I received a series of emails--many of them in ALL CAPS (which often suggests the hyper-frenetic state of these extremist haters)--that were of the same stripe as the blog posts, and filled with the same level of personal hate.
But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event--where he asked the candidate some critical questions--some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety.
I do not blame Joe Lieberman's political difficulties on the liberal blogosphere. Most Connecticut Democrats voting for Mr. Lamont are genuinely outraged at President Bush for his Iraq War policies. They are entitled to express that outrage by voting for him and against Sen. Lieberman on that basis alone, although Sen. Lieberman's record as a progressive Democrat and his opposition to President Bush not only on most domestic issues but also on the conduct of the war cannot be disputed--despite egregiously distortive ads paid for by Mr. Lamont with $4 million of his own money.
Moreover, the support he gets from these haters should not be attributed to Mr. Lamont--nor should he be blamed for their extremism, bigotry and intolerance. But he ought to denounce them. He hasn't as yet.
Mr. Lamont and all other liberal Democrats should remember the McCarthy era and not fall into the trap of the hypocrisy of the double standard--that it's not OK when Ann Coulter dispenses her venomous hatred, but it is OK when our side's versions of Ann Coulter do.
Mr. Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton between 1996-98, is the author of "Scandal: How 'Gotcha' Politics Is Destroying America," forthcoming from Palgrave.
Wall Street Journal |
HT: Powerline |
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DanVCC
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Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 55
Location: Lutherville, MD, USA
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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There is a difference between what the article calls "liberal McCarthyism" and what liberals called "McCarthyism" for 50 years. Documents that were created during the time Senator McCarthy was accusing some people of being communist and was being fought by liberals for his "radical views", have shown he was right with every accusation.
Interestingly, the term "McCarthyism" was created in Moscow and given to the movement in the USA for use. |
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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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Point well made and taken, but an acknowledgement of the blatant and now mainstream hatred and bigotry that is overcoming the Democratic Party by whatever name Lanny Davis calls it, is BIG news, IMHO.
However, I'm also mindful that Mr. Davis is joined to the Clintons at the hip, and this may be yet another episode in the "moderate" makeover of Hilary Clinton. |
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dusty
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Joined: 27 Aug 2004
Posts: 1264
Location: East Texas
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Only thing wrong with Joe McCarthy was that they (Communists) stopped him before he finished cleaning the infestation out of the country.
And they have flourished in Hollyweird, the news media, the labor unions and academia ever since.
Now we are watching them completely take over a major political party.
Worst thing is, now Communism is not recognized by the majority of Americans as a threat and all the while it is taking over our country with it's idealism and subterfuge. Kruschev is going to turn out to be right I fear.
Dusty
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:08 am Post subject: |
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| Me#1You#10 wrote: | Point well made and taken, but an acknowledgement of the blatant and now mainstream hatred and bigotry that is overcoming the Democratic Party by whatever name Lanny Davis calls it, is BIG news, IMHO.
However, I'm also mindful that Mr. Davis is joined to the Clintons at the hip, and this may be yet another episode in the "moderate" makeover of Hilary Clinton. |
So right. The Liberals of the Democratic Party has morphed their party into the Party of Hate. They stand for nothing except being against 'place any moral or American value here'. They are so intent on Bush-hating that they would destroy every freedom, right and cause that defines our country to advance their hatred of GWB.
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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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| BuffaloJack wrote: | | They are so intent on Bush-hating that they would destroy every freedom, right and cause that defines our country to advance their hatred of GWB. |
Honestly Jack, I think it goes way beyond George Bush who just happens to be the target d u jour. For some 40+ years they practically owned Congress, 40+ years during which we witnessed the gradual degradation and wholesale coarsening and gutterization of our culture for which I am deeply ashamed (see Bork's "Slouching Towards Gommorah").
That historical loss of P O W E R that commenced in 1994 is intolerable to them, and is manifest in their politics of demonization that grows more shrill and vindictive with each passing day. Lieberman correctly identified it yesterday in his concession speech and Lanny Davis fingered it as well. It has gotten to the point where they now question the very legitimacy of our electoral process in their desperation to recoup their losses and, IMHO and as you so correctly stated, they appear willing to burn down the house in order to "save it". |
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Deuce
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 589
Location: FL
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| Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| dusty wrote: | Only thing wrong with Joe McCarthy was that they (Communists) stopped him before he finished cleaning the infestation out of the country.
And they have flourished in Hollyweird, the news media, the labor unions and academia ever since.
Now we are watching them completely take over a major political party.
Worst thing is, now Communism is not recognized by the majority of Americans as a threat and all the while it is taking over our country with it's idealism and subterfuge. Kruschev is going to turn out to be right I fear.
Dusty |
WOW, so few words, so much information...add to that the years of theDems recruiting from every Crime entity in the US [mafia comes to mind] and you've got a flamable mixture to boot! Like Democracy (and other gangs), that should theoretically help it self destruct, but that just doesn't seem to be happening! Let's just hope our Constitutional Republic can withstand the onslaught...but some large Dem group has to get its head out of the sand first! I remain cautiously optimistic,
Deuce |
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