Here’s David Harsanyi with a useful reminder why those inclined to a more libertarian view of economics should vote against Obama:

Now, I’m not suggesting Obama intends to transform this nation into 1950s-era Soviet tyranny or that he will possess the power to do so. I’m suggesting Obama is praising and mainstreaming an economic philosophy that has failed to produce a scintilla of fairness or prosperity anywhere on Earth. Ever. If you believe that “fairness” — a childishly subjective idea that ought to be quarantined to playgrounds and Berkeley city council meetings — should be meted out by the autocrats inhabiting Washington, D.C., your faith will be duly rewarded.

There’s perhaps just a touch of exaggeration (autocrats! scintilla!) about what Harsanyi has to say (although the whole article is a must-read), but his underlying point rings true. More generally, you don’t have to believe that the free market always works well (as the events of recent weeks remind us, sometimes it doesn’t) to think that Obama’s economic theology (policy is, I reckon, too kind a word) is ultimately nothing more than an assertion of faith in an approach to economic management that combines the overbearing with the destructive, the bureaucratic and the sanctimonious. Voting against this, and other aspects of Obama’s likely agenda, may seem like a rather negative reason to vote for John McCain but, as I contemplate my first vote in the US (yup), it’ll more than do. And as for the other ways of voting “against” (Bob Barr and so on), they are, I’m afraid, just p***ing in the (righteous) wind.

Hat-tip: Instapundit