Put Up Or Shut Up

In choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has called the bluff of a good portion of the American electorate.  Yup, twice as many of us identify ourselves as conservatives as opposed to liberal.  Yet, we elected a Democrat last time around.  George F. Will, in his latest Washington Post oped, puts it this way...

"Twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservatives as opposed to liberal. On Nov. 6 we will know if they mean it. If they are ideologically conservative but operationally liberal. If they talk like Jeffersonians but want to be governed by Hamiltonians. If their commitment to limited government is rhetorical or actual. If it is, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan suspected, a 'civic religion, avowed but not constraining".

Human beings, said one of the wisest of them — Aristotle — are political animals and language-using animals. Americans, as you do not need to be Aristotle to know, are complaining animals. They use language to complain about politics. Mitt Romney should remind them that one function of elections is to force most voters — the winning majorities — to forfeit the fun of complaining. For example, if the swing state of Nevada, which has the nation’s highest unemployment rate (12 percent), votes for four more years of current policies, it must henceforth suffer in silence. Actually, all those who vote to continue Barack Obama’s distinctive brand of clientelism — crony capitalism — must, if he wins, become political Trappists, taking a vow to keep quiet."

In other words folks, it's time to put up or shut up.