Well, the Democratic National Convention is over, and their message was clear: they don’t like George W. Bush and John McCain is more of the same. While its a good start to denounce human rights violations and a mismanaged economy (never mind that the US economy grew rapidly in the second quarter, despite consumer confidence concerns and inflation worries), the answers to the problems they highlighted were falling short. The message of the Democrats is you can’t do it on your own, so the government is here to help. The paternalism was summed up by VP Candidate Joe Biden in his acceptance speech:
“The middle class of this country has never been as unsure of their future, and we have never been as isolated…Barack Obama has been very explicit about how he’s going to level the playing field for the firemen and the cops and the linemen and the salespersons and the nurses to improve their circumstance, so their next generation is better off than they were.” (bold added)
I actually was somewhat enjoying his speech until the dreaded “level the playing field” phrase left his lips. There it was, the political philosophy that is decidedly against “liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity”–which, by the way, is what Reason has the mission to support. To level the playing field Obama and Biden have been suggesting raising taxes on “big oil” and “the rich” to “give money back to the middle-class” who deserve it more than the evil companies that worked so hard in the first place to create that wealth. Obama suggested that his administration would support “the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.” Of course, once they start making too much money he would have them taxed and their profits trimmed. So why would they even start? As Reason staff noted for Reason.TV, issues of real hurt for Americans were largely ignored at the DNC, like the ill-fated war on drugs that is wasting kilo’s of cash every day and unnecessarily imprisoning countless citizens. The spotlight shifts to the Twin-Cities and the GOP next week, though its likely their convention will be more of the same.