United Liberty
Choice for the GOP
Tue, 11/11/2008 - 11:11am | posted by Matt Wittlief
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate with Al Gore and ardent John McCain supporter, is considering a move to the GOP. According to this story from Politico, Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has approached Lieberman and discussions have taken place.
Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), is apparently upset at Lieberman’s support for McCain which was cemented with his speech at the Republican National Convention in September. Lieberman, who has served in the Senate since 1989, had to run as an independent in 2006 after losing in the Democratic primary. He has continued to caucus and align himself in the Senate with the Democrats.
This will be an interesting story to watch and will be a key decision point for me personally. I know that most of this is inside politics within the Senate, but if the GOP accepts Lieberman to their caucus it will send a clear sign to me that they have no interest in reshaping the platorm. Lieberman will be embraced by the neo-con wing of the GOP. He will not be embraced by me and may well cement my choice to officially join the Libertarian Party.
Rather than joining the LP, consider joining the Republican Liberty Caucus (www.rlc.org). If libertarian Republicans join forces, now is the perfect time to exert influence within the Republican Party. If libertarian Republicans flee the party, it most surely will mean that any chance of returning the party to a liberty agenda will be lost. Furthermore, as much as I like a lot of the LP program, the party has not shown itself to be an organization that can win elections.
I hear you, Leon. I hear you. But, I don’t think I can commit myself to joining the GOP. I’ve been very cautious on joining the LP as well - largely for the same reason you cite above. But, I think I could actually make a difference (whatever that means) in the LP. I think this is exactly the type of dialogue we need to have here to “unite” “liberty”.
Do you guys live in a state that requires party membership in order to take part in a primary? That, for me, would be the only reason I would strictly align myself with a party. Even when I’ve worked on political campaigns, I’ve thought of myself more as working for the candidate than the party as a whole.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
The only thing that has pushed Lieberman into the GOP is his support for the war, though there may be more than a few Republicans who empathize with his religious persuasion and his moralist opposition to free speech rights. Lieberman’s 2000 acceptance speech was filled with calls for fighting immorality in pop culture. If that’s where the Republican Party is now, that is very unfortunate.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
Lieberman might be the complete antithesis of me. The only credit I give him is having the guts to run as an independent and to buck the party and support McCain. Those actions don’t come without merit. But, he only wants to stay in power and AIPAC is all too happy to help him out.
Yeah, I agree. I don’t agree with him on much of anything but I thought it was pretty cool that there would be another senator with an I instead of a D or an R next to his name.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson
Only a damn fool would join either major political party in hopes of exerting any meaningful influence within them.
This will only lead either one to break its own rules to satisfy the whims of its own paymasters. As we’ve seen with people like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Barry Goldwater and untold others, they will shove you out because of their very top down structure and a small, meaningless minority of you within either party will remain - and only with strong national support.
Dan, how is that any worse than trying to run as a 3rd party candidate? Judging by your comment, one would think that the Democrats and Republicans have been around since 1776. I seem to recall that they evolved from other pre-existing political factions.
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