What has happened to the Democrat Party?

In this opinion piece for the WSJ, Joe Lieberman talks about how the Democrats have gone from being a Party that loved and believed in a strong America that they were proud of, to the exact opposite today:

Democrats and Our Enemies

Joe begins the article talking about the Democrat party he grew up in, and gives a moving description of a party that was proud to be American and believed in a strong military and foreign policy. He explains how this began to unravel in the 1960's over the Vietnam war, and continued through the 70's.

He maintains that the party made a partial recovery beginning in the 1980's, as some in the Democrat party began to reclaim their party's lost tradition of principle and strength in the world. But when the Sept. 11th attacks happened, at the time when the country most needed to unite, the partisan politics of the leftists in the Democrat party tragically came forward to dominate once more:

[...] The attack on America by Islamist terrorists shook President Bush from the foreign policy course he was on. He saw September 11 for what it was: a direct ideological and military attack on us and our way of life. If the Democratic Party had stayed where it was in 2000, America could have confronted the terrorists with unity and strength in the years after 9/11.

Instead a debate soon began within the Democratic Party about how to respond to Mr. Bush. I felt strongly that Democrats should embrace the basic framework the president had advanced for the war on terror as our own, because it was our own. But that was not the choice most Democratic leaders made. When total victory did not come quickly in Iraq, the old voices of partisanship and peace at any price saw an opportunity to reassert themselves. By considering centrism to be collaboration with the enemy – not bin Laden, but Mr. Bush – activists have successfully pulled the Democratic Party further to the left than it has been at any point in the last 20 years.

Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.

In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America's friends and America's enemies. [...]

(bold emphasis mine) He goes onto to explain why Obama's foreign policy ideas are extremely dangerous and ill considered.

He also makes it clear that while the Democrat party is presently dominated by the far left, there are still many Democrats who love the Democrat party the way it used to be, and who are fighting to bring that party back. I think these are the Democrats who will vote for the most conservative Democrat available to them this fall: Republican John McCain!

Read the whole article. I believe it is in step with the times we live in.