Oh, what the hell, it was Florida.

The sky, apparently, is falling eight months early because a Democratic candidate named Alex Sink lost to a Republican candidate named David Jolly in a special congressional election to replace a Republican who'd held the seat for 32 years. Paul Begala took to Twitter to warn the Democrats not to try to spin the result as anything but a loss, and Tiger Beat On The Potomac has sounded the sirens and is herding people into the shelters. To be fair, Sink had a lot of things going for her that not many Democratic congressional candidates in the South have going for them. She outspent Jolly. She was leading (narrowly) in most of the polls leading up to the vote. And Jolly was openly feuding with the national party. But neither candidate got to 50 percent, because a libertarian dude pulled over 8,000 votes.

So, it's a loss, and not a good one, for the Democrats going into the 2014 midterms, but it still doesn't look like much of a bellwether. The Republicans are crowing about how the result was a referendum on the Affordable Care Act, but Sink didn't exactly rise to its defense. In a low turnout election -- Nice job there again, Democrats. -- with Jolly explaining that the ACA will end democracy as we know it and kill us all, and Sink mumbling that she would "keep what was right and fix what was wrong," the stronger argument, no matter how shot through with nonsense it is, will generally prevail.

If you want to take any lesson from the election in Florida, take this one. Defend the law. Defend it on the basis of the fact that millions of people no longer face economic ruin because a member of their family might get sick. Defend the law on the basis of economic populism; marry your support for the law to an increase in the minimum wage, Elizabeth Warren's student-loan reform, and expanded unemployment benefits. (Tie it to this excellent ideathat the president announced today.) Explain, in detail, why expanding Social Security makes sense in a stalled economy. Defend the law on the basis of the fact that the Republicans have absolutely nothing to offer on the issue; the Coburn plan is a "plan" for the sake of having a "plan." It has no chance of ever becoming law.

"Fix what's wrong," conceded too damn much. There weren't enough "independents" voting in that election to make a difference. Run as Democrats. They're going to make you do it anyway.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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