I’ve said that I intend to keep an open mind about the Mayoral race, because I just don’t know enough about all of the potential contenders at this point. But as the old saying goes, it won’t be so open that my brain falls out. Case in point, from Rick Casey’s column about Benjamin Hall.
“I think we need to redefine government,” he said. “I think a minimalist government is more important than a government that intrudes on all facets of life.”
A Harvard-trained lawyer with a divinity masters from Duke, Hall has a way with words: “The only government we need is the government we need,” he said. “We don’t need any more.”
You know what? After 30 years of Republican rhetoric about government being the problem and the need for “smaller” government, and after the Bush administration’s eight-year demonstration that those who have contempt for government don’t belong in it, I have no patience for this kind of talk. Now maybe Hall wasn’t being very clear about what he really meant – maybe Casey got lost along Hall’s way with words and didn’t capture his true intent. As Greg notes, Hall’s stated priorities aren’t exactly indicative of someone who’s bent on “minimalist government”. Maybe I’ll like what he has to say better the more I hear him talk. But man was this ever not a good first impression on me.