Reply #59: Here it is: [View All]

[ThorsteinVeblen]

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251785&kaid=127&subid=900056

"Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, and John Edwards, who, like Britain's Tony Blair, backed using force against Iraq on the condition that President Bush challenge the United Nations to do its job. While scathingly critical of Bush's botched Iraq diplomacy, once an impasse was reached in the U.N. Security Council, they did not flinch from going to war with a smaller coalition.

This enraged "peace activists," who passionately and sincerely believe they speak for most Democrats. They are passionately and sincerely wrong: McGovernism is a distinctly minority view in the party, held mainly by left-leaning activists who have disproportionate influence in caucus states like Iowa. Polls show that two-thirds of Democrats (and more than three-fourths of all Americans) approve of the second Persian Gulf War. And lest we forget, McGovern himself suffered the worst landslide defeat in U.S. history, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia and winning only 38 percent of the national vote against Richard Nixon.

To win next year, Democrats need to return to their real national security tradition -- one that's tough enough to keep Americans safe and smart enough to build alliances and institutions that make the world safer for democracy.