Liberal "Netroots" Scaremongering

Democratic lawyer and leader Lanny Davis takes a good hard look at the new Left's "netroots" and compares the activities of the netroots left to the sad days of McCarthyism:

My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.

This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.

[snip]

But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event--where he asked the candidate some critical questions--some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety.(emphasis added)

I don't know if Davis' lawyer friend has any real basis for fearing for his physical safety, I don't know. But as for the threats against his clients--this is simply going too far.

Knowing that during a heated election, both sides may sometimes go to extremes is nothing particularly new. But I think the blogging left has gone too far in this case. The left can say what they want about Lieberman in the context of the election, but to attack a man's livelihood merely because you don't like his politics is childish in the extreme and does little to advance the legitimacy of the netroots left.

The actions of the netroots left takes the politics of personal destruction to an extreme. No longer is vitrol and viciousness confined to the candidates or the opposing party's policies, it is now being leveled as the supporters of a candidate or party. Such attacks will not bring more people into politics but drive more people out as those who take a much more moderate stance in the political realm.

I rarely agree with Mr. Lieberman's politics, but I believe him to be one of the most principled Senators with a solidly progressive nature. But one issue voters don't like his support of the war on terror. Fine, they have the right to express their disapproval at the polls.

Win or lose today, Lieberman will stand tall, like the man he is. He will be gracious in victory and magnanimous in defeat--I doubt we can expect the same from the netroots left.

Hat Tip: The Instapundit