The great divide!

There is a great divide in the Democratic Party that has come to head in the last few days with the editorial by Markos Moulitsas in the Post. There was an immediate attack by the DLC's hitman, Marshall Wittman. In addition there was Jonathan Chait's attack on those who attack Joe Lieberman, more of the evil lefty netrooter meme. While the DLC/Clinton Democrats may have much in common as Duncan (Atrios) Black pointed out. But as Kevin Drum noted there is still a divide, the Iraq war.

So what's left? Iraq, of course, the motherlode of disagreement between the netroots and the vast TNR/DLC/mainstream Dem axis. And on that, I have no idea how to square the circle. I don't think anyone else does either.

I think the divide is much bigger than the Iraq war but a major philosophical division, US hegemony. Bill Clinton did indeed represent a new kind of Democrat, the corporate Democrat. US foreign policy has not revolved around keeping America safe but making the world safe for pillage by large American corporations. The war in Iraq is just the latest example of a corporate war. Although there were other considerations in the end it was all about oil and US control of the middle east. Nearly every foreign policy action has been to protect the interests of multinational corporations which have historically made life worse for the citizens of the victim countries. This may prove to be an insurmountable divide and oddly enough something those "lefty netrooters" have in common with the old school conservatives like Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts.