Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) warned that Democrats moving to the “far left” will damage their political fortunes, offering his analysis in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
“I got into the Democratic Party as a young man when John F. Kennedy was president, and oh, it was a very different Democratic Party,” reflected Lieberman. “It was a strongly anti-communist party, committed to human rights. It was a pro-growth party.”
LISTEN:
Lieberman continued, “Kennedy was for tax cuts of various kinds, including — believe it or not — the capital gains tax cut. But that didn’t stop him from fighting for Civil Rights for African-Americans, particularly. He was the leader of that.”
Lieberman assessed: “But the party now is drifting left, and [there is] an interesting distinction. There’s a difference between being a traditional liberal Democrat and being a far-left Democrat, and this is not a far-left country. Look at what’s being talked about, now. This Green New Deal, which is basically a socialist manifesto for the government to take over everything. I’m a big supporter of doing something about climate change, but this goes way beyond that, and the general talk about socialism — which to me means government ownership and control of more of our economy — it’s just not who we are. The American people will never vote for that, so either the party comes back toward center-left, or it’s going to be a losing party.”
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are not representative of the broader Democrat Party, said Lieberman.
“The Democrats took back control of the House … in last November’s elections, but it wasn’t because of Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez or Omar,” stated Lieberman. “It was because a lot of center-left Democrats won swing districts, even Republican districts. They certainly weren’t going to win those districts with a socialist platform.”
“If the party doesn’t learn that lesson — and runs someone far to the left for president in 2020 — I don’t think it has a chance,” concluded Lieberman.
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.