Once upon a time, Republicans may have seemed a bit dull and stodgy, but you could at least count on them for prudence and responsibility, particularly in the economic realm.  In those days, it was Democrats like John F. Kennedy who took big risks like trying tax cuts to stimulate the economy, and displayed a somewhat cavalier attitude toward the national debt.

Today, it’s Republicans--from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush--working on a run-up of federal deficits to levels that would have been inconceivable to their Democratic predecessors.

I don’t know about anyone else, but that gives me a bit of a queasy feeling.

Republicans could also once be counted on to know things that didn’t necessarily have marketing “sizzle,” but reflected a solid understanding of how the world actually works.  Thus, while the flighty movie stars of the Democratic left pushed emotionally appealing but under-reasoned and therefore impractical causes to the “oohs” and “ahs” of an adoring public, the poor Republicans were left laboring to explain totally unsexy concepts of business economics and the like.

Today’s Republicans have clearly overcome this handicap, and have in fact become the new paragons of effective political marketing.  But what’s inside their slick new packaging?  All too often, their message seems to amount to little more than “Consume and be happy.”

Perhaps left tactfully unsaid is, “And leave all the difficult decisions to the folks who have bankrolled this ad campaign.”