I almost feel sorry for Joe Klein right now. Recently he was quoted as saying, "Well they won't if their message is that they hate America–which is what has been the message of the liberal wing of the party for the past twenty years", by Eric Alterman. Klein claims he was misquoted and that what he actually said was, ""the hate America tendency of the [Democratic Party's] left wing" had made it harder for Democrats to challenge Republicans on foreign policy."
In the Huffington Post, Klein explains why he believes there is a difference between liberals and leftists:
The default position of leftists like, say, Michael Moore and many writers at The Nation, is that America is essentially a malignant, imperialistic force in the world and the use of American military power is almost always wrong. Liberals have a more benign, and correct, view of America's role in the world and tend to favor the use of military force if it is exercised judiciously, as a last resort, and in a multilateral contect (sic)–with U.N. approval or through NATO.
As of this writing, there are 153 comments to Mr. Klein's post. It's a regular love fest over there. Some of the insightful comments:
♦ You hate America. Asshole! F*** you! (Expletive deleted)
♦ …I would argue that it is the right-wing, Christo-fascists who hate America, not leftists who speak out against bad foreign policy decisions by the GOP.
♦ Evidently Mr Klein has struck an exposed nerve here ; the outcry is vigorous to say the least . That tells me that there is some truth in what he says which is hard for some to bear .
♦ "That tells me that there is some truth in what he says which is hard for some to bear."
Seablood: And your post tells me you're probably about as much of a vacuous idiot as Klein.
And on and on for seven pages. (BTW, before anyone accuses me, of course those comments were cherry-picked, but the entire comment thread is almost universal in condemning Klein. Anyone who says anything even moderately in support of Klein is piled on) The comments are all tagged as "abuse".
The folks at HuffPo don't much care for Klein, that's apparent.
Klein may have actually underestimated the problem.
One must never question the fundamental beliefs of any religious movement, to do so is to incur the wrath of the faithful, and be branded a traitor to the cause. In which case, no punishment is too severe. Recall the methods used during The Inquisition.
Surely, Joe Klein knows better, he must have thought he was addressing ordinary Americans where his comments would be taken as merely conventional wisdom leading up to his recommendations. It wouldn’t have caused a ripple.