For months, John McCain has been telling us that the transcendent, existential, 21st century issue is global terrorism. McCain has essentially built his entire campaign on his foreign policy and national security portfolio. But now, by adding the "Maverick's Maverick" to the ticket, McCain seems to have ground the gears and headed the campaign back to the economy and essentially taken up that old Republican chestnut, the real problem is Washington.
Once again, the subtext of McCain & Palin is that government is an alien presence...a vast structure designed to deny you your big fat slice of apple pie. We're back to the old Reagan rant that government is a malevolent force oozing the sticky goo of corruption, incompetence, and gray bureaucratic alienation as it relentlessy gumms up the works of an otherwise sleek and efficient market-based economy.
If only, if only, we could "get government off our backs." If only we could cut off its oxygen and then drown it in the bathtub. If only we could end this wasteful spending, then the native energy of the American people would be released. "I don't want to tax the rich, I want eveyone to be rich." Oh course, it's baloney.
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