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Caitlin Johnstone

Beltway swamp monsters like Lieberman only get called “centrist” and “moderate” because they have ideological overlap with both of the increasingly indistinguishable mainstream political parties in the United States, both of which reliably support war, militarism, imperialism, capitalism, and oligarchy.

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/violent-extremists-get-called-moderates

The imperial press have revealingly been using the words “moderate” and “centrist” to eulogize the warmongering former US senator Joe Lieberman, who passed away on Wednesday.

“Centrist former Sen. Joseph Lieberman has died at 82,” reads a headline by NPR. 

“As a moderate Democrat, Mr Lieberman developed a reputation in Washington for crossing party lines — as well as simply crossing members of his own party,” says the BBC.

“Joe Lieberman, a former longtime Connecticut senator and moderate Democrat who became the first Jewish American nominated to a major party’s presidential ticket as Al Gore’s 2000 running mate, died Wednesday at age 82,” writes The Wall Street Journal.

“Joe Lieberman, centrist senator and first Jew on major US presidential ticket, dies at 82,” reads a headline from The Times of Israel.

Joe Lieberman was a fairly unremarkable Washington politician who managed to get famous by becoming a particularly enthusiastic, inveterate warmonger and corporate marionette within the Democratic Party. https://t.co/DzUaOTnm0n

— Jacobin (@jacobin) March 28, 2024

In reality, there was never anything moderate about Joe Lieberman. He was a violent extremist, who only looked like he walked a political center line through the lens of a violent extremist empire.

In an article titled “The Extent of Joe Lieberman’s Evildoing Was Truly Remarkable”, Branko Marcetic writes the following for Jacobin:

“Like most fiscal hawks, Lieberman is also an all-around hawk, unconcerned with government spending when it’s in the service of bombing some far-off country or another. It’s hard to find a war Lieberman hasn’t supported, from both wars against Iraq (he was one of only ten Senate Democrats to vote for the first), to the Balkans in the ’90s, to Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, an ambiguous commitment in Ukraine, and many others.

“If you’re a fan of the bloated, largely unaccountable centralized security bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security, thank Lieberman: he not only came up with the idea but introduced the legislation that created it. He also supported the terrifying appointments of John Bolton under both Bush and Donald Trump, citing his ‘strong moral compass.’”

Beltway swamp monsters like Lieberman only get called “centrist” and “moderate” because they have ideological overlap with both of the increasingly indistinguishable mainstream political parties in the United States, both of which reliably support war, militarism, imperialism, capitalism, and oligarchy. Their differences are presented as massive by the imperial propaganda services known as the mainstream press to create the illusion of choice and competition, but they actually sit within an extremely narrow ideological bandwidth on the political spectrum.

RIP Joe Lieberman. Not only did he lie about Iraq and WMD in 2003, he was still lying about it eight years later in 2011, and for extra credit did it in an incredibly smarmy and sexist way. https://t.co/0SCLqiyPxW pic.twitter.com/IPvmQZoDvL

— ☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ (@schwarz) March 27, 2024

One of the worst mistakes you can make when formulating your understanding of the world is to begin with the assumption that the truest and most accurate position must lie somewhere near the center of the two major political perspectives you see laid out all around you.

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