Carter and Kerry

The Democratic Party was at one point in its recent history a party that understood the dangers that exist in the world and was willing to actively confront those threats, by force when necessary. Since Jimmy Carter's presidency (or perhaps George McGovern's candidacy), however, the party has become one of pacifism that is unwilling to confront threats in any meaningful way. The use of US military force for the new Democrats is only an option in situations where there is no US national security interest involved - Somalia, Balkans, Haiti, etc. In all other instances, where security is at stake, force is no longer an option. Steven Hayward in a Washington Times op/ed piece thinks that this will ultimately sink the Democratic Party:

Far from being a marginal figure in the Democratic Party, Mr. Carter is the pivotal influence in moving Democratic Party liberalism away from the Cold War realism of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Scoop Jackson, and cementing it as a McGovernite party. The fate of Joe Lieberman, the last faint echo of the Truman-Kennedy-Jackson sensibility at home and abroad, in this year's Democratic primary contests shows that the Democratic Party has rejected its historic legacy. It has learned little from Mr. Carter's disastrous defeat or the similar defeat of his liberal successors. The voters are likely to teach the slow learners on the left the same lesson once again.