Bringing a Spork to a Gun Battle

I'm paraphrasing Kos with that title in his quest to get Michigan Democrats to vote for Mitt Romney in Michigan's open primary. Michigan stupidly moved its Democratic primary up so far that the party stripped the state of all its delegates. Obama and Edwards aren't even contesting the election. So with Michigan having an open primary, why not go vote for the easiest Republican to beat in the general election. It sounds like a good idea to me.

But the real reason for writing about this is that the phrase refers to the idea that this is dirty tricks. I'll quote Kos here.

There are some concerned that this is "dirty tricks" and that we shouldn't "stoop to their level". This is perhaps the key difference between traditional liberals and movement progressives. The former believe that politics is a high-minded debate about ideas, the latter have seen movement conservatives use every tool at their disposal to steal power and cling to it. The problem is, politics matter, and so does the winner of elections. You can't bring a spork to a gun fight, because like Florida 2000, we lose every time. And while some may feel proud their personal ethics weren't compromised and that we "took the high road" through the recount battle, how many thousands of soldiers and Iraqis wish that Democrats had fought a little harder for Gore's victory?

Exactly. What I find remarkable is how many progressives still see themselves outside of the party structure. They hate Bush and complain about how terrible things are and yet don't engage in the easiest way to fix the problem. I was talking to a friend in the summer, someone with a very respectable activist history. He was talking about how he hoped that young people were less partisan than they used to be. I was shocked. Partisanship is what is needed. We need to crush Republicans. Just beat the living hell out of them. If not, they will fuck us, just like they did in Florida, just like Tom DeLay did to the Texas congressional delegation in 2003, just like Republicans try to do all the time all over the nation.

How to stop this? Fight back. Punch them in the mouth. Voting for Romney in Michigan is a great idea. It will both help and embarrass Romney at the same time while also helping Democrats. What could be better than that?

On another note, one thing that irks me about Obama is his attempt to rise above partisanship. If he is just saying this while actually planning to screw over Republicans, then awesome. I would probably vote for him on that alone. But if he is actually wanting to not engage in partisanship, I would be worried whether he could get anything useful done. But that's for another post.