The light dawns... ever so slowly...

An epiphany for the Los Angeles Times:

The basic question posed by the likes of Republicans Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry is:  "Would this person do a better job as president than Barack Obama has?" The basic question posed by Rep. Ron Paul's candidacy is: "Why do we have a federal government?"

...Paul isn't saying the federal government is wasting every dollar it spends; he's saying the federal government doesn't need to do much of what it does. Which gets us back to the existential challenge that Paul poses to Washington. Why is the federal government performing so many functions? It's a good question to ask in these cash-strapped times, yet government officials rarely take it seriously. That's true in part because every program is guarded by a phalanx of interest groups. Rather than trying to redefine government's role, lawmakers often try to do the same things with fewer dollars.

Paul laid out a detailed vision of government that pushed me to think about what I want from Washington and what would be better left to the states, cities and private industry. I wish his rivals would do the same.