In a clear sign of internecine divisions at TNR, Jonathan Chait
demolishes TNR's loopy "endorsement" of also-ran Joe Lieberman. Chait agrees with the general consensus on the Democratic side of the aisle, that TNR is on more of a road to nowhere by endorsing a guy with as much popularity as Ralph Nader.
Chait's choice quotes below...
An endorsement isn't just a statement of ideological affinity. It's also an attempt to influence an election. As such, it takes place at the intersection of political hope and political reality. Jon Chait wrote about the first half of this equation, noting that Joe Lieberman is hardly the perfect embodiment of TNR's ideals. But the magazine's endorsement runs into even larger problems in its collision with political reality. The truth is, Lieberman stands no chance at all of becoming the Democratic nominee for president, let alone of beating George W. Bush in the general election.
To some it may sound unseemly to allow one's endorsement decision to be contaminated by such temporal considerations as electability. But an endorsement is at least partly a recommendation for how others should vote. And voting is a necessarily messy business, with imperfect choices and important real-world consequences. As many of us lectured the Naderites in 2000, it's just not responsible to make political decisions without considering, well, politics. That doesn't mean that we should muzzle our ideals, only that we must mix them with a consideration of how those ideals can be achieved. Ignoring electability makes for easy moral posturing, but it is not a mark of moral seriousness.