I've been saying all along that Obama wanted to focus the election on supply-side economics. Obama's been saying it for the last few months. And now Mitt Romney is saying it.
For once we have an election around a very clear policy issue. Everybody agrees the current system aren't working; so much is obvious. The question is whether the current problems are because we're going in the wrong direction, or because we haven't gone far enough.
The good thing about Ryan is that he is willing to explain exactly what "far enough" means. The Ryan plan is the logical extension of Reaganomics; it's where trickle-down economics has to eventually go. The logical extension of the Obama plan, of course, is Europe or Australia.
Americans get to decide what they want. All the side issues, Romney's taxes and Obama's birth certificates and all that jazz, will fade into noise: what really matters is the direction of policy, and to his credit, Romney has joined Obama in making this choice clear and obvious for the electorate.
We get to choose our future. As unambiguously as the choice has ever been. Either we go back to the New Deal, or we abandon it. Either we forge ahead to Ryan's vision of the future, or we turn into some version Europe. There's no middle path, no imaginary compromise that leaves the USA unchanged except for the bad parts. We can't stall any longer, living off the past: we have to pick a direction and move.
I say we, but of course, I mean you. I've already picked a direction and moved. Speaking as it were from one possible future, I have to say: the nanny state can be silly at times or even slacking (we have laws against pornography to protect people, but still don't have gay marriage!), but it's wonderful to not live under a cloud of fear and gloom. Simply knowing that no matter what, I will always have access to health care, is a huge relief. Knowing that the clerks at the gas station are making a living wage, with the same health care, with the same educational opportunities for their children, makes a better life for me. Even if I can only go out to dinner once a month instead of once a week. (And have to pay 21% tax instead of 19%.)
I like the choice too. It's not cynical at all. This guy is for real. He is against some of the entrenched interests killing America. You know, the old people. Jokes aside, Ryan makes no bones about what he wants to do as you said. In fact I'd swear you were listening to me talking to Nicole this afternoon... Anyway, I approve. If Ryan is portent, this election will be the first in my memory where the outcome will mean something. I feel like we have been moving steadily to right for some time. Obama is a better speaking Bush Jr. Clinton was a Republican. We've not had a liberal in the White House in so long I doubt we'd know what to do. I see Obama as the establishment candidate. Raping tax payers for the rich. I see Romney as a new kind of candidate. One willing to actually kill the tax payer for the rich. This should be interesting!
ReplyDeleteI agree - this is the first epochal election since Reagan. I think it could set the course of American history for the next 30 years.
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