They Want War (DU Front Page)

[justicebuilder]

They Want War

by AP Short

In short, Democratic Party leaders have a lot to be upset about, and a lot of ground to make up before the 2006 elections, but the list of vulnerable points in their rivals' camp is long and growing ever longer. So it was no surprise to see the DLC hordes taking to the airwaves and focusing with laser-like precision on the single most dire threat facing the modern Democratic Party: anti-war Democrats.

According to these scions of American liberalism, the reason that the Democrats lost the 2004 elections was that a few of our higher-visibility personalities, particularly Michael Moore and MoveOn.org, opposed the Afghanistan invasion, which made us all (including, apparently, John Kerry, who supported both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars) appear to be woolly-headed leftists in the eyes of the American electorate. This theory was espoused most comprehensively by Peter Beinart last December in the DLC house organ New Republic, but it is only in the last two weeks or so that the party's right-most wing has seized upon this talking point as its flagship argument in favor of moving the party still further toward Republicanism.

The laudable tendency among Democrats who opposed the destruction of Afghanistan is to engage the DLC on the real merits of the argument. After all, on the facts the matter has been settled decisively in our favor. The war failed to accomplish its stated objective, an objective that its most realistic alternative - a widespread international law enforcement effort - probably could have accomplished: the apprehension of Osama bin Laden, still at large.

But to engage in this argument in good faith would be to miss the point of what Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden and the rest of the corporate wing of the party are trying to accomplish. The dream of the DLC has always been to drive the anti-war, pro-labor segments of the party so far underground that it becomes possible for the money men to poach well-to-do, culturally liberal voters from the GOP in places like Kansas City and Des Moines. It has always baffled wealthy, educated Democrats that other upper-class folk, who share their basic pro-war, anti-labor ideology and who have little patience for the aggressive religious populism that characterizes heartland Republican politics, should have been inaccessible to them for so long due to the Democratic party's image as the domain of unions and the anti-war left.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/04/06_war.html

[scarletlib]

1. well then they should leave the party to us and go join the

pugs. Lousy sobs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This country is about us the people. There are hundreds of thousands more of us than there are of wealthy people. These sobs are all about money--getting it, getting more of it and keeping it for themselves.

Best thing we the people could do is throw them all, dems and repugs, out of office and start over again.

[KoKo]

2. What Democrats opposed Afghanistan Invasion? I don't know any, and

yet I protested against the Iraq Invasion and some Democrats voted against Iraq Invasion, but all voted for Afghanistan.

:shrug: This article is just wrong when it states Michael Moore and Move On. opposed Afghanistan invasion.

[justicebuilder]

4. Actually, I thought the same thing about Moore when I started the article

Then I did the research.

http://www.alternet.org/story/11507

MoveOn.org has disappointingly tried very hard to obscure the evidence that they opposed the Afghanistan war, but I know they did, because I became a MoveOn member because of it. If I run across a link I will post it.

It's hard to find evidence of MoveOn's opposition to the failed Afghan war today. I suppose they wimped out because opposition to the Afghan war has successfully been hammered into the shape of treason by the right wing, with the complicity, of course, of the Democratic party establishment. It's shameful that MoveOn would abandon their principles, but of course, it happens to all institutions eventually.

In any case, in case you missed it, I am a Democrat, and I opposed the Afghan invasion and still do.

[Emillereid]

3. I think you're right -- it's war. I know I will not stay in the party if

the DLC get their way. They are wrong on policy and wrong on strategy! How many more elections are we going to let them lose for us???

[Demeter]

5. DLC Should Be Careful What They Wish For

because they can't win this one.