Glancing at my Twitter feed today, seeing it replete with internecine battles, brings to mind an admonition delivered in a somber moment from our greatest comedian:

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Seriously, people. Why so venomous toward each other? We don’t want the bad guys to win, do we? Although there are more than a few among us who have already thrown in the towel, declared 2012 a lost cause and moved on to dream of a Marco Rubio (or Paul Ryan, etc) Christmas in 2016. Seriously? This year is a goner?

Let us review. Massive unemployment, crushing debt, a foreign policy of appeasement combined with willful ignorance of reality, open warfare on business, serial abuse of executive privileges, and a smothering acid flow of government regulations seeking to run all aspects of our professional and personal lives. And there’s no way a GOP candidate can beat Obama? Bull. The only guaranteed losers in 2012 are people who embrace the defeatist mindset, one that sulks and snarls whenever a whiff of contradiction comes its way.

Example: I’m reminded of an article I read on Forbes the other day which insisted that Best Buy was in a slow death spiral; never mind how every one I’ve ever been to is packed any time of any day or night with a steady stream of purchases rolling out the door. But back to the article. The author’s primary reason for his denouement? One bad customer service experience. This, not unsurprisingly, led to a plethora of comments where people occasionally defended but mostly damned Best Buy as every slight, real or imagined, ever inflicted by someone who wears a blue polo shirt and khakis to work was told and retold.

Being a veteran of the retail wars, I read the comments with a bit of a jaundiced eye. The blithefully ignored contradiction of simultaneously demanding every retail employee be a complete expert in all aspects of anything sold by a store while insisting prices be the absolute minimum, thus forcing the retailer to cut all costs including labor to the bone — bye-bye, days when store employees were genuine experts and paid commensurately — seldom fails to rear its empty head whenever complaints about customer service are raised. Certainly genuinely poor customer service shouldn’t be tolerated. But neither should the ignorance of an overdemanding public unwilling to pay for what it wants.

This principle also applies to politics. Far too many folk demand that either all candidates achieve perfection, this being defined as agreeing with the individual on every everything, or that all others see things as they do and love the candidate(s) they love while loathing the candidate(s) they loathe. This grows even more farcical when people start crying about why so-and-so and/or their supporters aren’t 110% behind their choice… after trashing so-and-so along with their supporters.

Bit of an inflated valuation of one’s own opinion there.

Another trait among Twitter twits is decrying the popular vote when it’s not popular with them. How could people have voted for that joker instead of my candidate who is clearly God’s gift? How can people not agree with me that all the candidates are losers? Why did that state get to vote before mine and screw everything up? The list goes on. Instead of vox populi, vox dei it’s “STFU — you don’t see it MY way!!!” Obviously a new technique for community building.

So much of this stems from lack of respect for others and lack of genuine conviction about who someone supports. A hypersensitive, itchy trigger finger forever ready to blaze away at anyone who looks at its owner or the candidate they support cross-eyed reveals not passionate support but underlying insecurity about a candidate. The circular firing squad is the weakling’s realm.

The 2012 election is not lost. It’s barely started. Buck up and suck it up, people. Quit imitating the rugrats Jesus talked about:

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:

“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.’

No one is under the obligation to be as impressed with you as you choose to be impressed with yourself. Get over it and get on with it.

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