Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh!

Well, we won one. Finally. Feels good, doesn't it? Bush suckass Holy Joe Lieberman lost to Ned Lamont last night in Connecticut. There are so many things to say about this, I don't know where to start. Please bear with me as I weave back and forth between the Lamont thing and a broader strategy for those on the left.

My first thought is that even though Americans as a whole have a pretty wide and nasty anti-intellectual streak, and are slow to pick up on things, eventually they come around. The miracle of CT is that even after listening to years of inside-the-beltway pundit bullshit and horrible corporate news misinformation, the scales are starting to fall from the eyes of America. I wanted to puke last weekend when ABC's Cokie Roberts told us how a Lamont victory would 'be a disaster for the Democratic party.' Joe Lieberman has been a disaster for the Democratic party. His neo-con, DLC ways are EXACTLY why Dems have been getting their asses kicked time after time in elections. It blows my mind how the MSM has made being 'anti-war' some kind of radical notion. Or that most moderate to liberal ideas, such as non-discrimination, intelligent, respectful diplomacy, and universal healthcare are somehow now 'fringe' ideas. The dialogue and the frames need to change.

It's going to be increasingly hard to frame an anti-war position as a fringe 'liberal blogger' position when 60% of the country feels that way. That's quite a large fringe, won't you say? How much longer are we going to hear about 1972 and George McGovern? Man, that shit is sooooo old now, and most young people don't have a clue about that anyways. We need to take command of the dialogue. Now. And that has to include that there is nothing noble or good about being 'pro-war'. Killing large amounts of people indiscriminately is never a good thing, and to somehow be proud of that is even worse.

How much longer are the Repugs going to keep whining about 'cut and run'? Next time you hear that, this is what needs to be said:

"Right now, our troops are in the midst of a bloody, sectarian civil war. America, once admired and respected as a leader in the world, is now increasingly disliked and distrusted because of our unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country, something more akin to the old Soviet Union. The Bush rationale for this war, now proven to be unequivocally false, continues to morph and change almost daily. Pulling our troops out of Iraq is not 'cutting and running'. It's common sense, because they should have never been there in the first place. The best way to support our troops is to remove them from harm's way. Staying a failed course is not a viable option, and will only continue to weaken America."

Now, jeez, was that so hard? And damn it, stop letting them use that 'war on terror' frame, too. Remind people you can't have war on a tactic. It's not like fighting the Nazis. For every one you kill, five more will be there to take their place. And then point out that the ineptitude of the Bushies has continually ignored that fact. Get Bin Laden, and then work on addressing the causes of terrorism (not being held captive to AIPAC and the Israel lobby would be a great start, howzabout a little bit of balance here?).

I know, it seems like I'm borderline ranting here, and I'm trying to make this more cohesive, it's just that like many in the left blogosphere, I have a lot of emotional and intellectual capital invested in what has happened in Connecticut.

It's interesting how the punditry was framing a Lamont victory as a 'disaster.' Also interesting is the amount of knuckledraggers on the far right who wholeheartedly endorsed Lieberman. It reads like a who's who of contemporary neo-con fascism: Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Bill Kristol, and of course, George W. himself. And I hope that, when running against the now-independent Joe, that the Lamont people remind the CT voters of that fact; show the statements made by those people, show the Bush kiss, and show how Joe was the FIRST senator to stand and applaud Bush's talk about Iraq at last year's State of the Union. Show it over. And over. And over.

And when talking about our new progressive visions for America, we need to stress how THEY are the radicals, not us. It was refreshing to hear Lamont speak of 'the common good' in his acceptance speech. A few months ago, when Donny Osman, the Vermont State Senate candidate whose campaign I'm helping to run, mentioned that at his kickoff speech, the common good was referred to and went over very well with the audience. So we need to hammer these themes home, time after time. Most of the good things that have happened in this country happened because of liberal ideas, not conservative ones. Conservatism by definition goes against human nature, which is in a constant state of change, almost always toward a more equal egalitarian society.

I'm cautiously excited. The last 6 years have been very hard for forward-thinking people in this country. The pendulum, has been swinging to the right since 1968. It could very well be swinging back now. Time to relentlessly open that can of whupass on the right and thier morally and intellectually bankrupt ways of thinking.