Before we walk further down this path…

Barack Obama says the credit market’s collapse is proof that free markets don’t work without the government intervening (pay no attention to government intervention that made credit looser than it should have been).

John McCain doesn’t make a strong case that Obama is wrong. Because of that, every employee on McCain’s staff (and McCain himself) will owe those of us who like the idea of living in a free country an apology.

Put aside the peripheral issues and focus on the big picture.  Come January, we could experience a major shift to the left. Why wouldn’t we?  Sure, we could hope that Obama sees the light, as Christopher Buckley hopes.  I won’t hold my breath.

Watch this famous October 1964 Reagan speech and understand what kind of future we might have to face.

Reagan gave this speech 31 years after the start of the New Deal — and 34 years after Herbert Hoover started initiating desperate and ill-conceived government plans to “rescue” our ailing economy.  Neither Hoover nor the New Deal brought us to prosperity: the end of World War II did.

If you asked the average American, the economy in 1964 probably seemed remarkably good. Unemployment wasn’t exceptionally high for the time (although it’s lower today).  Inflation was “under control” (although it would be considered high by today’s standards).  The Vietnam War had not become so controversial.

Yet Barry Goldwater still built a dedicated following.  He lost in a landslide, but the “conservative movement” picked up steam.  A delegate at the 1968 Republican Convention (the one that was conducted in an orderly manner) even cast a vote for Reagan, fearing Nixon was nothing more than another Eisenhower Republican.  He was right.  Nixon embraced Keynesian economics and did his part to ensure the inflationary problems that Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter flailed at unsuccesfully would be as bad as they were.

In 1976, the groundswell from the Right kept growing, but Ford squeaked out the nomination over Reagan.  It wasn’t until 1980 that Americans declared themselves ready to move Right.  Over the next 28 years, we’ve seen our taxes drop into a more sensible range, seen wholesale welfare reform, expanded global trade (improving the lot of the whole world), and developed some of the world’s best innovators.

We’ve also seen spending increase, which is the reason we’ve had deficits almost every year, save two over the past 60-plus years.  No one wanted to talk about cutting spending except for Reagan, who was vilified for it. Reagan was largely unsuccessful in getting spending under control because it was lower on his list of priorities. Cutting taxes and rebuilding the Defense Department took precedence, and he couldn’t get Tip O’Neill to sign off on either unless he played a little ball.

Anyway, think about the prospect of a temporary economic downturn being followed by a period of slow, anemic growth.

That’s where we’re headed.  The Republicans don’t seem that eager to prevent this, which makes me wonder about their very survival.

Let me return to the subject of Christopher Buckley, who says he’s voting for Obama.  This is more a condemnation of McCain’s lousy campaign than an endorsement of Obama, whom Buckley admires as a writer.  Buckley is convinced that  Obama will quickly learn that his desire to raise taxes on the five percent of Americans who tend to employ other Americans and to raise capital gains taxes and to strip down NAFTA and every other free trade agreement would be disastrous.

That’s too big a gamble to make.  As for McCain, he should read Buckley’s thoughtful commentary and decide how he wants to spend the next three weeks.  News cycles move quickly these days.  Media is more accessible than ever, which makes it easy to get a coherent message out.  Tell us the big ideological differences and the implications of an Obama presidency.

Otherwise, we could all be in the wilderness come next year. All of us not being the Republican Party or conservatives, but the United States.