Here's the problem with that approach. Most voters have the following items on their lame metaphorical shopping lists: a strong economy that encourages job creation; affordable energy; an excellent education system; a first-rate transportation network; clean air, land, and water; effective public-safety services; and a welfare system that helps those in need without encouraging dependency or sloth.
Here's what's not on their lists: higher taxes to pay for it all.
Those that the Cutler cult would label as extremists are actually just people who acknowledge that incongruity. Honest conservatives admit the only way to keep taxes under control is to reduce spending on popular programs. Forthright liberals confess that in order to provide all the services they promise, taxes will have to be increased.
Anybody who says otherwise — and here I'm thinking of people whose first names rhyme with Smeliot — isn't a moderate. That person is a liar.
If Cutler ever becomes governor, there's no way of predicting what course he might follow. During his campaign, he promised to reorganize government, reduce regulations, and lower electricity costs. In other words, he'd do what LePage is doing, minus the village-idiot impersonation. But unlike that alleged right-wing extremist, Cutler's agenda is a fantasy concocted of whatever soundbites play well with focus groups. In marked contrast to Democrats and other ultra-leftists, he promises everything for the price of nothing.
Even Marden's can't do that.
Governing isn't about making everyone happy. It's about making hard choices that often end up satisfying no one.
Except realists.
But that's a small group, and Cutler is writing them off.
Extreme comments may be emailed to me at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
