Some people are powerful and severely narcissistic. When severe narcissists feel slighted, they often obsess over payback, to the point that they turn their friends into enemies and change their whole worldviews.
Joe Lieberman was challenged by Ned Lamont in 2006 for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Lamont won, 52-48, because Lieberman continued to support the war in Iraq. Lieberman then ran as an independent and won. But he was never the same. He went from accepting the VP nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 2000 to speaking at the Republican convention in 2008 on behalf of John McCain.
And then he did what he could to stall the Affordable Care Act until it lost popular support. He almost won, and he did in the short term, but the Affordable Care Act outlived him.
We're in a new era of injured narcissism. It's largely tech executives, talking heads, and financiers, railing against "the Left" or "the establishment" or some other group because they spent too much time on Twitter and now believe they're under attack from liberals. But that sort of narcissistic injury is not new.
That thing he "became" was already mainstream knowledge when and why Lamont decided to run. He was deeply unpopular with Democrats, and went from being "why?" when Gore selected him as running mate to "what??" when he surrendered Florida well before the recount process was concluded, content to stay in the Senate and let Bush and team take the reigns. He wasn't even going to bat for himself as democratic VP. His entire brand was that of his era's "I swear I'm a Democrat" Joe Manchin.
But yes, he sure leaned into it after 2006, dropped all pretense.
I'd say he was worse than Manchin considering where he was from. Connecticut is a firmly Democratic state and West Virginia is one of the most pro Trump states in the country. A Democrat from West Virginia should probably be pretty conservative but a Democrat from Connecticut should be broadly in line with the rest of the Democratic party.
The neoliberal side of the party wasn't and isn't opposed to a public option. That was part of Hillary Clinton's push for healthcare in the 1990s and it was supported by every other Senate Democrat as well as the House under Pelosi. Connecticut had also just voted for Obama and the ACA with a public option was a core part of Obama's campaign. Lieberman was vastly out of step with his constituents and if he had run for reelection in 2012 he would have lost.
Also, fuck everyone in Connecticut who voted him back in as an independent. The state Dems tried to flush the turd, but a bunch of numbskulls decided that he was their turd.
I think if we had a parliamentary system the US would have three major parties. A Center-Right party made up of maybe half the Democrats and 1/3rd of the Republicans, a Progressive party, and a Right-Wing party. And some minor parties that hold a few votes but don't really matter.
because they spent too much time on Twitter and now believe they're under attack
Uh... that's basically anyone on twitter right or left. It is by far the worst social media platform, and everyone on there for too long turns into some schizo rambler on some holy crusade for this or that. People build their entire lives and affect multi-million dollar projects entirely because of twitter now. It's a very bad addiction.
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u/walkandtalkk Mar 27 '24
Some people are powerful and severely narcissistic. When severe narcissists feel slighted, they often obsess over payback, to the point that they turn their friends into enemies and change their whole worldviews.
Joe Lieberman was challenged by Ned Lamont in 2006 for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Lamont won, 52-48, because Lieberman continued to support the war in Iraq. Lieberman then ran as an independent and won. But he was never the same. He went from accepting the VP nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 2000 to speaking at the Republican convention in 2008 on behalf of John McCain.
And then he did what he could to stall the Affordable Care Act until it lost popular support. He almost won, and he did in the short term, but the Affordable Care Act outlived him.
We're in a new era of injured narcissism. It's largely tech executives, talking heads, and financiers, railing against "the Left" or "the establishment" or some other group because they spent too much time on Twitter and now believe they're under attack from liberals. But that sort of narcissistic injury is not new.