Lieberman. Party of One.

So, it’s come down to this:  The tepid Joe has fallen…away from the Democratic party and toward his favorite political party:  Joe Lieberman.  If you haven’t heard, Lieberman was officially knocked out of the Democratic primary by Ned Lamont in yesterday’s election.  This could signal that the ground is shifting in terms of what kind of Dems are filtering up the grassroots.

I was holding off on this post, because I was waiting to see the outcome of the Connecticut election.  But now that it’s over, I can roll out what I wanted to blog about.  It all started with an article over the weekend in the SF Chronicle that gave us a preview of election issues that each camp is going to hit their bases with. 

For the Dems, they rolled out what they call “voter-friendly” plans under the heading “A New Direction for America.”  What is in this plan?  Here’s the top 7 in no particular order:

1. Withdraw our military from Iraq.

2.  More money for police and firefighters.

3.  End gasoline price gouging. 

4.  Protect employee pensions (what pensions?).

5.  Increase the minimum wage.

6.  Cut interest rates on college loans.

7. Better Medicare drug benefits.

Well, the Reps may be many things, but they are very savvy when it comes to stealing thunder.  So, they paraded around their “plan” to the press as well.  The Reps have titled their plan the “American Values Agenda,” and it goes a little something like this:

1.  Stop same-sex marriage.

2.  Stop the growth of Internet gambling.

3.  Protect the rights of gun owners.

4.  Ban human cloning.

5. (This one had me scratching my head) Make it harder for condo associations to ban displays of the American flag.

So there you have it!  Bread, butter, and war issues for the Dems, and “Gays, guns, gambling and the flag for the Reps. 

I like to think that the Dems have the right plans for our country, but the Reps know their audience all-too-well.  

And can I say that it’s a sad state of affairs to see that the Rep’s social conservative “base” seems to have a Pavlovian response whenever “The Big Bads” are rolled out? Tucker Carlson — a conservative who hosts a show on MSNBC called (what else) “Tucker”– had  Rachel Maddow on his show a while back (she’s a progressive talk radio host) and before they went on the air, Tucker turned to her and said something like “You know, I think the only thing that Democrats and lefties hate about conservatives and Republicans is that they think we’re a bunch of racists.”

Well, racism is too narrow of a term, Tucker. I’m going to go with bigoted.  Tucker (Can I call you Tucker?) just look at your party’s “values” plan without the B.S. glasses and tell me that you can clearly see that this plan can easily be titled “Why social conservatives hate everyone who doesn’t look and act like them.” You could subtitle the plan: “A Book for Bigots.” 

–PK