Moderates Being Forced Out of Politics

Senator Joseph Lieberman, former 2000 Vice President candidate, lost the Democratic Primary in Connecticut to Lamont today. The primary was centered around his support for the Iraq war. He says he will petition to be on the ballot in November. There are allegations that someone hacked Lieberman's website, shutting it down.

This event shows how politics are becoming increasingly divided and moderates are being pushed out. People complain, on both sides of the aisle about politicians of the opposite party voting the party line. Here in Democrats say Anne Northup votes the party line. But the truth is people get upset when someone in their party doesn't toe the party line. They expect their representative to vote with the party, but they want people of the opposite party to be bipartisan. Moderates are doom to be hated by everyone it seems. We don't want our politicians to be bipartisan, in general we despise it.

This just shows the weaknesses of our two party system, and perhaps the fact that we have parties at all. Increasingly you are forced to take your personal political beliefs, discard, and choose what you see as the lesser of two evils. I'd venture, although I have no statistics to back it up, that many people's views don't line up for the most part to the Democrats or Republicans. (Maybe I'll conduct a phone poll. "How much do you agree with this statement?: I agree totally with my party's platform. I agree strongly. I agree slightly. I neither agree nor disagree. I disagree slightly. I disagree strongly.") George Washington when leaving office warned us to beware of political parties, and it would seem he was right. Although, its almost unavoidable though. People tend to associate with like-minded people, including in politics. The problem is there aren't enough exactly like-minded people to effect change. So, one is forced to compromise beliefs, values, ideas for the sake of a few of them. Perhaps the good thing is at least we have stability with a two-party system. In countries with many parties they have coalition governments which are unstable.

I wish Joe Lieberman the best of luck. I hope he wins his district. I wish there was a way to avoid the partisan nature of American politics, but I fear that is impossible.