A Classical Method for Dealing with Joe Lieberman

An original ostrakon, from 5th-century BC Athens, banishing Cimon (Kimon):

And a contemporary model bearing Senator Lieberman's name:

I wanted to respond briefly to so many of your emails expressing the desire to see Senator Joe Lieberman banished for his attempt to block health care reform earlier this week.

I salute your democratic reflex: Yale historian Donald Kagan has noted the tradition of the non-violent ostracism that ancient Athenians enacted against too-powerful citizens who threatened their democracy. The Athenians took a vote, writing the name of the offender on shards of broken pottery. If there were enough of these shards, or ostraka, the offender was sent out of town for ten years.

The ostracized citizen was allowed to retain his property and access to his funds. It wasn't always a perfect method (is anyone surprised archeologists later found evidence of pottery-rigging?), but Kagan notes that in various ways it protected the young democracy from would-be tyrants, while, I guess, protecting the tyrant from the outraged citizenry. Like an extended "time-out."

To honor your own classical intuition, I have made an ostrakon reflecting your thoughts on Lieberman. I hope these funny images will remind you of how far we've come since the birth of democracy, and how far we have to go. But mostly, I hope it will remind you that democratic traditions weren't built by people who were easily satisfied, or even easy-going people, but by an engaged citizenry.