Yeah, but can you really call Bayh a Democrat?
Beef,
No, Bayh is clearly not a Democrat who has a true place in the modern Democratic Party. He definitely should switch parties, along with other Senators like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.
I think that, as long as the Greens continue to syphon off the Left of the Left of the Democrats, and the Republicans continue with their radical social agenda, there will always be a place for the Blue Dogs in the party.
Bayh, Lieberman, Nelson, Miller, etc, are Democrats for a reason. They wouldn't find a place in the Republican party, because that party, on the national level, keeps a very strict party line, and these folks would want to cross it in too many places.
Remember how Howard Dean said that he represents the "Democratic Wing" of the Democratic Party? Well, guys like Evan Bayh represent the "American Wing" of the Democratic Party....which means they have no home in a party which would allow American foreign policy to be determined by the world opinion, the United Nations and select European nations.
I think the number of Democrats who would truly throw our foreign policy to the UN is very small. Most Democrats voted for the war resolution, because they felt that our national security was at stake. Most Democrats would tell you that, when it comes to our security, the UN can go bugger itself. But on the matter of taking "police actions" against rogue states that are not a security threat, where it is purely a matter of international law and human rights (as was the case with Iraq) it's not the responsibility of the United States to enforce. It's the responsibility of the UN. And if they're too chickensh*t to enforce their own resolutions and laws, and uphold basic human rights - which is what's supposed to be their whole purpose - why should that become OUR problem? It's vigilatism, and is not an appropriate way for the US to conduct itself on the world stage.
I think that is the position of most Democrats, it's not anti-American, and it happens to be one I agree with.
