Bad for the Jews, Bad for the Country

Among the candidates considered by Al Gore for the vice-presidential nomination, Joseph Lieberman was the most politically conservative. While Bush supporters are claiming that Lieberman's voting record shows a man closer to Bush than to Gore, and may be lamenting the political capital Gore may thereby accumulate with conservative voters, the rest of us have a deeper concern. Joseph Lieberman is likely to accelerate the process in which the two major parties seem to be merging into one pro-business, pro-wealthy, elitist, and morally tone-deaf governing force.

Joseph Lieberman will also give greater prominence to the tendency in the Jewish world to subordinate values and spiritual goals to self-interest and material success. All the more ironic, then, that the media is responding to his nomination by talking about his willingness to critique Clinton on moral grounds or his Orthodoxy as proof of having a spiritual center.

In short, Lieberman's nomination is bad for the country and bad for the Jews.

Lieberman joined with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to create the Democratic Leadership Council precisely to transform the Democratic Party from its previous New Deal roots as the champion of working people, minorities, and the poor to a party that would cater to the needs of Wall Street and to the upper middle class. And they've done a great job. With Democrats on board, the gap between rich and poor has accelerated in the Clinton/Gore years, environmental protections have eroded when they conflicted with corporate interests, and instead of using the end of the Cold War to dramatically reduce the defense budget and redirect spending to rectify the history of inequality and provide basic social services, health care, and education, defense spending has been treated as sacrosanct, and savings were found by eliminating welfare.

There were those who argued that all this was Clinton's doing, and that Gore in his heart was a more progressive and caring person who had to hide his true feelings in order to remain in Clinton's good graces. In selecting Joseph Lieberman, Gore has unwittingly given great impetus to the Naderites and others who argue that the trajectory of American politics is to reduce even more the differences between the two major parties. Before the American people have a chance to register their desires, the party supposed to be representing the only chance to restrict corporate irresponsibility has already made its lunge to the right.

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