Radiofree West Hartford - THE BAD LIBERAL by Tim Siggia

THE BAD LIBERAL

By Tim Siggia

August 29, 2006

Yes, Virginia, there is a bad liberal, right here in Connecticut. His name is Joe Lieberman. He is not bad in the sense that all liberals are as seen through the eyes of conservatives. He is bad because he is seen that way by his fellow liberals. Joe, you see, apparently has forgotten to whom he owes his first allegiance.

Make no mistake: A liberal's first allegiance is always to the doctrine of liberalism. Everything else, including political party, country, religious persuasion, and yes, even God Himself, take a back seat to that first allegiance. We need not look any further than the state of Connecticut to see this exemplified. Our governor, Jodi Rell, is a Republican, but to what does she show her first allegiance? In fact, the same is true of just about every Republican currently holding political office anywhere in Connecticut. Ned Lamont is an American by birth, but to what does he show his first allegiance? Don't say it's to Uncle Sam. Lamont wants him to show the white flag in Iraq, and withdraw the troops who have so far done such a valiant job of winning freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people. How many of our elected officials cite the Roman Catholic Church as their own? One of the basic tenets of Catholicism is that all human life is sacred, and that life begins at conception. Yet how many of these supposed Catholics are pro-life on abortion? (Hint: the answer is a round number.)

Where Joe Lieberman slipped up here is that he allowed his allegiance to his country to eclipse his allegiance to liberalism, and liberals, while they pride themselves on their permissiveness in other matters, are not particularly forgiving when it comes to one of their own straying from the fold, no matter to how slight a degree. The decided that Sleepy Joe must be taught a lesson, and along, in the guise of schoolmaster, came Ned Lamont. Yet Joe is still not giving up, and will now run as a petitioning candidate under the Connecticut For Lieberman Party. It's almost comical to note here that under any other circumstances but this Lieberman would have been nominated for a Profiles In Courage Award, and probably would have ended up winning it. It must be kept in mind, however, that Profiles In Courage is first and foremost a liberal award, and you don't win it by challenging liberalism. There comes a point where the line must be drawn at which courage becomes insubordination. Joe Lieberman has just shown us all exactly where that line is drawn.

So, if a liberal's first allegiance is always to liberalism, could not the same thing, in fairness, be said of conservatives with regard to conservatism? Well, not really. The big difference here is that a conservative's allegiance to conservatism does not put him at odds with his other allegiances. Rather, it confirms and strengthens those allegiances. To be a good conservative means being a good Catholic, Jew, Baptist, or whatever other denomination one may claim. It means you are giving God His rightful place in your life -- every day, everywhere you happen to be -- and not restricting him to a single hour of a single day within the walls of a single building. Being a good conservative is the very definition of being a good American. Conservatives do not scoff at patriotism, as liberals do, they value it. They honor those traditions and institutions that made our country great: capitalism, free enterprise, limited government and religious freedom. Liberals pooh-pooh such things as trite, hokey, and unsophisticated. And of course, being a good conservative means being a good Republican or a good Constitutionalist -- because these parties, for the most part, are the only ones in which conservatives are found. Of late the phrase "conservative Democrat" has become an oxymoron, that party now having embraced liberalism to the point of exclusion. And no, Libertarians are not conservatives, any more than Episcopalians are Roman Catholics. Libertarians have some beliefs which are similar to those of conservatives, but they also have those which set them apart, most notably, their strong belief in moral relativity -- a concept no true conservative could ever embrace. And finally, are conservatives forgiving of past transgressors? Just ask David Horowitz about that!

So there you have it: the Bad Liberal (Lieberman) taking on the Good Liberal (Lamont), and it promises to be a fight to the end: Lieberman running against Lamont, Lamont running against Lieberman, Alan Schlesinger running against himself, and latecomer Tim Knibbs of the Concerned Citizens Party offering a platform in which we can all believe, but coming with too little too late and virtually zero name recognition.

And the Race is on!