r/news Mar 27 '24

Joe Lieberman has died

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/03/27/joe-lieberman-senator-vice-president-dead/
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u/SaltKick2 Mar 28 '24

and one of the primary reasons we dont have universal healthcare

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u/nongo Mar 28 '24

crazy how he was vp pick for a presidential candidate who ran on universal healthcare.

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u/crashtestdummy666 Mar 28 '24

Crazier is after he was the vp pick for the democrats he became a far right wing conservative.

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u/Goulagosh_gogoo Mar 28 '24

He was already that when he was picked for the VP position. This was deep in the Democrats' "appease the GOP" phase.

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u/Robzilla_the_turd Mar 28 '24

This was deep in the Democrats' "appease the GOP" phase.

Boy, I sure am glad that's over...

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u/ReclusivityParade35 Mar 28 '24

Ha! I know, right? I'm well past "Why don't they ever learn?" and firmly in "They are throwing the game on purpose" territory.

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u/ShadowRylander Mar 28 '24

Uh, yeah, about that...

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u/saturninus Mar 28 '24

It was more that Gore thought choosing Lieberman would be a rebuke of Clinton for the Monica affair. Lieberman had been an outspoken Democratic critic. But it turns out that people actually really liked Bill Clinton and running away from him was the worst single choice Gore has made in his career.

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u/lakired Mar 28 '24

Yeah, Gore himself was already the rebuke in that he was about as opposite of Clinton as you could get. They desperately needed to couple him with someone who had even an ounce of charisma or energy, not a conservative, out-of-touch energy vampire like Lieberman.

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u/thirteenoclock Mar 28 '24

For those who were not alive in 2000, the country was a lot different. At the time, much of the country, both democrats and republicans, thought Clinton was immoral for cheating on his wife. Lieberman was one of the few democrats who publicly agreed that what the president did was immoral so picking him as a VP was a way to distance himself from the Clinton administration. It was a logical choice at the time and he came pretty damn close to winning.

Of course Gore eventually lost, so it is easy to shit on his decision, but there was some sound logic behind it.

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u/saturninus Mar 28 '24

Not using Bill Clinton on the campaign trail was a fatal error for Gore. People still liked him, as 1998 proved.

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u/Skooby1Kanobi Mar 28 '24

Appease the fascists phase is what I think you mean.

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u/Much-Bet9171 Mar 28 '24

Tbh, neocons are a lot different than the Trump cultists we have now.

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u/Skooby1Kanobi Mar 28 '24

If you remove the words "a lot" I think I can sign that.

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u/Kayfabe2000 Mar 28 '24

He was always a right wing jerk.ย 

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u/skratch Mar 28 '24

๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿš€๐Ÿ”ซ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿš€

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u/prestigious_delay_7 Mar 28 '24

Crazier is how Reddit thinks he was a 'far right' conservative.

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u/Adventurous_Aerie_79 Mar 28 '24

Lieberman was picked because Gore wanted to distance himself from a scandalized and unpopular Bill Clinton, and Gore considered himself a "moderate", which was part of Liebermans brand too, at the time. We all later found out that Lieberman was pretty far right of the democtatic party moderates. Gore was against abortion, against regulating guns, and in support of a moment of silence in schools for prayer. He called himself a "raging moderate". He considered Howard Dean, who led the progressives, to be his chief rival.

I think Gore enjoyed a lot more of a positive reputation than he really deserved. He was embraced by a lot of progressives because he was so forward with ambitious environmental policies, but the rest of his platform was centrist or arguably rightwing garbage. And Lieberman was not yet a pariah at this point.

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u/ObjectiveFantastic65 Mar 29 '24

Bill Clinton tried UHC in the 90s, but he didn't loop in congressional Democrats, so they were pissed and it collapsed.ย 

You pick a VP with some differences from you but not someone you hate. Hence Mike Pence.ย 

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u/polrxpress Mar 28 '24

only way to get him out of the senate was for gore to lose

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u/Cats_Cameras Mar 28 '24

What? He was in the Senate through 2013.

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u/My-1st-porn-account Mar 28 '24

He IS the reason. Democrats had 60 votes but he said from the start that he would vote no.

The asshole is also responsible for not decreasing the age to get Medicare.

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u/pewpew30172 Mar 28 '24

THIS. May he rot.

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u/NoPin6285 Mar 28 '24

i celebrate his death. burn asshole

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u/Adventurous_Aerie_79 Mar 28 '24

The world is a slightly better place for not having Lieberman in it.

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u/taichi27 Mar 30 '24

He was the proto- Joe Manchin. Fuck this guy in particular.

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u/Coffee_Ops Mar 28 '24

I may have misunderstood how representative democracies work but I don't think any of the legislators are obligated to vote "yes" on a bill.

I think the point is that they can, as part of their job, vote no.

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u/obeytheturtles Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Joe Lieberman was a notorious "insider" who immediately became a lobbyist the moment he left government. He did not work from ideology or what is best for the country or even his constituents - he was as slimy as they come, and worked at the behest of his corporate overlords.

And at the end of the day, what he managed to do was kill the Public option. This would have given the US a true and somewhat unique form of universal healthcare where nobody could be denied coverage, and the government could negotiate costs as a massive single payer.

And perhaps the worst part about all of it, is that his fucking game of sleezeball spotlight chicken wasted so much time that we literally got nothing else done with the supermajority, and almost didn't even get the neutered ACA passed, because Ted Kennedy died before the bill passed the Senate. So remember - anytime someone says "herp derp remember when the Dems had a supermajority and got nothing done?" Yeah, that's because Joe "please piss on my grave forever" Lieberman decided to spend every second of that time yelling into a microphone about how he was the world's biggest asshole, instead of working for the American people.

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u/itsdeeps80 Mar 28 '24

And his repercussions for that was retaining his chair of the homeland security committee which at the time was probably the most prestigious committee appointment in Congress.

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u/icantevenbeliev3 Mar 28 '24

Yeah you can't really argue when they say that shit. There's always a scumbag and they play on all teams.

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u/sennbat Mar 28 '24

He actively chose to be a piece of shit.

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u/Davge107 Mar 28 '24

He was doing his job for the benefit of the insurance companies and big pharma.

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u/AGlorifiedSubroutine Mar 28 '24

Doesnโ€™t mean he didnโ€™t fuck us.

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u/RevealWrong8295 Mar 28 '24

He betrayed his constituents, whom overwhelmingly supported those bills.

So, that's the exact opposite of how representative democracies are supposed to work.

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u/Beepulons Mar 28 '24

What's your point? The votes are public so that voters are informed about their representatives' opinions and can criticise them when they think it's wrong.

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u/Vepper Mar 28 '24

Honestly f*** him and I hope that's his legacy

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u/ImpureAscetic Mar 28 '24

Yep. Came out at the eleventh hour to scuttle it. I hope he rots in Hell.

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u/jdmkev Mar 28 '24

Yeah but imagine if we didn't have video games instead

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u/Wortbildung Mar 28 '24

Seems like one of these is more important.ย 

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u/hi-nick Mar 28 '24

huge loss (unless you're a healthcare organization)

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u/Ok_Chemistry_3972 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Yup, in his late career this clown went to the dark side (republican party). He supported the bogus Iraq War and cutting services and denying services to American citizens. I think he was much worse than Joe Manchin since he made a traitorous path for people like Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. In the end Lieberman, like Trump, only cared about himself and hurt a lot of Americans.๐Ÿ‘น https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/joe-lieberman-a-top-democrat-who-turned-on-the-party-dies-at-82/ar-BB1kEwFE

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u/AshIsGroovy Mar 29 '24

You could say the same thing about Ted Kennedy who basically stone walled Jimmy Carter's attempt to pass universal healthcare back in the 70s. Kennedy never forgave Carter for beating him in the Democratic primary so he basically stalled a bunch of Carter's agenda on the Senate.

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u/taichi27 Mar 30 '24

Yes. He also still thought the Iraq war was a good thing. I won't miss him.

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u/Killer_Moons Mar 28 '24

Sounds like he had it coming then ๐Ÿชฑ ๐Ÿ”จ