I don’t live in Connecticut and I am not registered with any party, but I think the Democrats’ response to Lieberman announcing his canidacy for the US senate seat as an independent is hilarious. I heard a lady on NPR this morning say something about drafting a sore loser clause in the state’s election laws. So I wonder…is this about being a sore loser or a sore winner?
Perhaps I should preface the rest of this entry with the statement that I believe American politics needs a strong third party. Most of life is lived not in stark black and white but rather an area of gray where there are more questions than answers. Why not have our political structure reflect that? Well, I suppose because living in that gray area where there are no clear cut absolutes is more unsettling than thinking you know where the lines are drawn.
So how about Lieberman running as an independent? Should he be allowed to run despite the fact that his party rejected him as a candidate. Yes, actually, he should. Our political system is based on rule by the people. Lieberman lost by a rather slim margin. There are clearly many people who still want him to be the US Senator from Connecticut. In fact, running as an independent will be more difficult for him as he faces fundraising without the support of the party. So why do the Democrats have their panties in a wad over his independent canidacy?
Simply put, he’s splitting the party. He’s splitting the vote. And furthermore, he’s put them in the awkward position of having to campaign against the man who has held that seat for the Democrats for 18 years. He makes them look disloyal.
On the other hand, I’m not altogether convinced that career politicians are a good thing for any state in the union, but these days I don’t see how you could get elected to a national office without being a career politician. I won’t bore you with a lengthy explanation of how our founding fathers never intended for politics to be a career…I’ll save that rant for later in the election cycle.
I’ll simply wrap up by saying that I find Lieberman’s actions to be more gracious and more clever than the winner’s of last night’s Connecticut primary.
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August 9, 2006 at 10:56 pm
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Jody said,
August 13, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Just checking out your blog since you invited us. I like the catwalk pic. Lookin good mama. As for the political primary, I DO live in CT. I am a proud unaffliated voter, and I was’nt about to run and change my registration so I could get involved in the nastiness. I am glad Lamont won, and I am glad Lieberman is going to run anyway. CT needs a little more dialogue of this kind. Too bad they both got a little nasty with each other.
mamajody