How Do You Say It?

This afternoon, I had a chance to hear Geoff Nunberg on NPR's Fresh Air. His new book is Talking Right, subtitled "How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show."

Nunberg is a perceptive analyst. Several times in Terry Gross' interview, he pointed out inaccuracies in right-wing slurs of liberals; as one trivial example, he noted that most people who buy Brie are Republicans, not liberal Democrats.

What Nunberg hinted at but did not say outright is that "conservatives" have a built-in advantage in the debate: many of them--including most of the more influential--are unconstrained by mere truth. In other words, they lie. A lot. And when their lies are exposed, they just repeat the falsehoods, but in louder voices.

Should liberals fight fire with fire? It's tempting to say yes, but I don't think so. The President's low polls and the national disenchantment with the Republicans are directly related to the wisdom first enunciated by one of the first Republicans, Abraham Lincoln. You really can't fool all of the people all of the time.

This doesn't mean that Democrats shouldn't sharpen their message, and re-think the policies they have been championing. They should. (We'll deal with that shortly.) But they should tell the truth. As one of David Mamet's characters says, "It's the easiest thing to remember."