The results in Connecticut seem to have created a new species in politics – Progressive Yellow Dog Democrats.
The term Yellow Dog Democrats has it’s origin in the states of the old Confederacy where most Whites pledged to never vote for a Republican because of Lincoln winning the Civil War and freeing the slaves. These voters said they’d vote for a “yellow dog” if he were the Democratic candidate.
But now people who would never be considered in any way similar to these Southern racists also seem to be saying similar things regarding Joe Lieberman.
I’m referring here to people like Kos, Arianna Huffington & various bloggers who now want to throw Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Party because he has the gall to run as an independent.
Let me make it clear. I’m not criticizing elected Democrats like Hillary, Chuck, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid and others who are now supporting Ned Lamont and urging Lieberman to drop out. That’s their obligation as elected Democrats.
And I’m not criticizing the bloggers for supporting Lamont. If they’d rather have Lamont win, that’s fine with me.
My problem is their now acting as though loyalty to the Democratic Party is the supreme virtue in politics.
I find this to be a new & selective phenomenon coming from progressives, who are people who I always thought put principle above party politics.
For example here’s some of what Kos said on Wednesday –
Now, Lieberman wants to stab his allies and his party in the back. It won’t be the first time.
Here’s what we all need to do the next few days:
1. Push Harry Reid to strip Lieberman of all committee assignments.
…. Joe Lieberman is not an independent Democrat. He needs to be stripped of his committee assignments and have those handed to real Democrats. And then we need to buckle down and finish the job we started.
Arianna has written something similar and others have said that if Lieberman wins, he shouldn’t be allowed in the Democratic caucus next year.
Now leaving aside that this is self-defeating (if the Senate ends up with 50 Dems, 49 Republicans and Joe, I think Kos would like him to vote for Harry Reid) it’s not terribly consistent.
I point to Bernie Sanders. He’s been elected to Congress as a proud Socialist. The first time he won, he defeated a Democrat but since then, Sanders has not had a Democratic opponent. He’s received committee assignments as though he was a Democrat. Virtually all Democratic officials are supporting Sanders this year for Senator and they are trying to prevent any fringe candidate from getting the Democratic line against him. Has Kos demanded that Sanders be stripped of committees?
I also point to Arianna herself who ran for Governor of California as a proud independent.
Let’s go back to the past to look at some progressives and see if they were treated as pariahs for running as independents.
In a state near Connecticut, there was once a Congresswoman named Louise Day Hicks. She represented South Boston. Hicks was the leader of the anti-busing movement in Boston that fought to prevent school integration. She was a consistent right-wing vote in the Congress.
A liberal Democratic City Councilman named Joe Moakley thought he couldn’t beat Hicks in a Democratic Primary for whatever reason. So he ran as an independent. Moakley won. He quickly became a loyal Democrat, joined the Democratic caucus, was a close ally of Tip O’Neill and eventually became Chairman of the House Rules Committee. Does any progressive regret Moakley’s decision?
Closer to home, Mario Cuomo after losing the Democratic Primary for Mayor in 1977 to Ed Koch ran as the candidate of the Liberal Party and created his own Party – the Neighborhood Preservation Party. Cuomo came in 2nd in November with the Republican finishing a bad third.
Cuomo was not forced out of the Democratic Primary and in fact became the new Democratic Lt. Governor the next year.
And then in 1982, Cuomo again accepted the endorsement of the Liberal Party and pledged that he would actively campaign if he lost the Primary to Koch. This despite the fact that the Republicans were running a strong candidate in millionaire Lew Lehrman. Cuomo won the Democratic Primary so there was no issue but Mario only narrowly won over Lehrman and it is fair to say that a 3-way contest between Koch, Cuomo & Lehrman would likely have resulted in a Republican victory.
So I ask – why is Lieberman being attacked for giving the voters a choice – something progressives should be in favor of. And don’t tell me it’s because he could like Nader be a spoiler and allow the Republican to win. Nobody thinks the card-counting unknown has a shot in hell.
Look it’s OK with me to oppose Joe Lieberman. I’m far from a fan but what’s fair is fair. Don’t create a new principle and attack Joe for violating it.