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I think there are way too many times when we actually bother to entertain these attempts from warbloggers to feel much more important about what they're doing than they actually are. I think shows like Crossfire would have survived- and thrived- if people on the left just responded to Bob Novak by saying "are you fucking kidding me?" and staring his bullshit down with supressed laughter until he ran off the stage crying. Conservatives try to implicate the left for "lowering the discourse." They're not worried about us lowering- or raising- the discourse. They're worried that we might get a clue and stop engaging them in discourse.
We've raised Ann Coulter to new heights by trying to counter her. She doesn't care. Michael Moore is delegitimized by the Right by means of sarcasm and humor. Dean was destroyed by jokes about the scream. If Crossfire opened every show with "and look what that crazy bitch said today," followed by a shot of Paul and James laughing their asses off, Ann Coulter would be the leggiest assistant corporate attorney in Accounts Recieving right now.
The right-wing bloggers don't want to hear our rebuttals. The President doesn't want to hear the Democrats' counter-proposals. History will never look back on this time and discuss how changes were made through the art of rational bipartisan discussion. But I'm damn sure history has a chance to look back on this era... and laugh.
I definitely agree. It's something I've said before in one way or another, though I obviously forget it at times too. One thing they have, which we don't, is a media willing to perpetuate all their bullshit. Michael Moore didn't become a object of derision and hate for a large chunk of the population because morons like the Perfesser and Hugh Hewitt ragged on him -- Michael Moore became an object of derision because people like NBC's Lisa Myers ran a well-advertised "fact-checking Farenheit 9/11" segment which amazingly didn't check a single fact. Since our equivalent of "Al Gore invented the internets!!!!" for some reason doesn't hit the mainstream, we continue to hope that maybe our more reasonable stuff will be picked up by the few decent mainstream sensible journalists (mostly at the Post, despite its flaws).
But, nonetheless, we shouldn't forget the value of reminding people of the jokes that they really are.