So this morning, after a long walk, I sat down to rest in the breakfast room. I hadn't even started drinking my gatorade yet when I noticed an article in the opinion section of the paper (I forget if it was LA Times or NY Times) from Jonah Goldberg, a man who's public persona simply reads "asshole". The articles headline was enough for me: "How McGovern beat Lieberman". Man this is infuriating, the Democrats win a real victory and the Republicans want so badly to take it away. The title is stupid and I can already see the first sentence claiming that this election is a result of the Democrats moving left over the past 30 years. I was about to snatch the article out of my dad's hand and go through it point by point and show how wrong Jonah Goldberg is and what an idiot and asshole he is.
But then I stopped and realized something, I was missing the point (and I fear many of us are as well) entirely. If we respond point by point by point to the Republican bullshit out there, we basically give them and their idiocy credence. We allow a debate to occur about the state of affairs within the Democratic Party. This is EXACTLY what they want. They've failed, the whole neocon and Republican-Jesus movement has been exposed and discredited, their Republican government has had 6 years of complete control and the country has only gone downhill despite their legislative "acheivements". What we need to do is think like Republicans and close the debate. We can do this by simply refering to Lieberman as a "loser". Let me repeat, he's a "loser", he's Joe Loserman. If you lose an election, that should be it. The voters of Connecticut voted, they decided, and Loserman lost.
If we go into academic depths to talk about anti war vs. pro war and the right of Lieberman to run as an independent and if he deserves reelection and direction of the party and all this other shit, we will run the risk of the debate being changed. I think that the show of Democratic unity behind Lamont is good. But we must continue to press Republicans on real issues. When they speak of Lieberman, we need to respond with "The voters have spoken. Joe lost. That's all there is to it." Or some form of that. "In a democracy, we respect the will of the voters". Or even "If 51% is a mandate, so is 52%". And there is another reason that responding this way is extremely important. Now some people may say that this is a Republican way of thinking, maybe it is. I really don't care. This is what is going to work and going to help us.
So the next time you see or hear Republican stupidity on the subject, don't get angry, just think Republican. Joe is a loser, he lost, we need to respect the will of the voters. And just to get you in a think Republican mood, I've included a very Republican poll about height of male Kossacks. It's sexist and reeks of heightism (a subject I may blog about next).