Radical Politics

Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin have something in common: they're a lot more fun and interesting--and more dangerous--than the men at the top who selected them.  Paul Ryan is now electrifying the campaign of his wooden boss in the same way that Sarah Palin did four years ago. 

It's a curious contradiction: while Republicans seem to want some kind of steadfast predictability, as seen in their selections of Mitt Romney and John McCain, they're drawn at the same time to the risky proposals of the Tea Party--but not enough to put forward such candidates for president.  It's as if they're marrying the sure and steady guy and flirting with the unreliable one.

And yet, curiouser still, is the fact that Mitt Romney in some ways hasn't been a sure and steady guy.  He gives off the appearance of a soothing "Father Knows Best" figure but without a consistent record to show what he believes.  Paul Ryan as his choice for vice president, on the other hand, has such a long record of specific policies that we know exactly what he believes.  And what he believes is a problem for women, for the elderly, for students, for workers, and for pretty much all of us--except the wealthy.

In the end, though, his presence on the ticket is a problem for Mitt Romney and the Republicans, for he highlights the party's internal conflicts and its attraction for "radical social engineering," as Newt Gingrich so aptly put it.  The wheel has turned once again: Republicans have replaced Democrats as the party of radical politics.