VP debate - not the comment readers might expect

I really can't watch these things straight through - too tedious and stupid an experience for me.

But I would give a lot of money to put an end to the faux populism that resonates everywhere in American politics. All these durn "regular folks" who want your vote while pretending they have no money and aren't famous & powerful. Not just the supposed hockey mom - it's a phony and annoying tic that apparently is obligatory for everyone. And it's a strange tic to have in a country that is so much less committed to equality than nearly every western European country.

This is not a rant but an observation - there is a trade-off between efficiency and redistribution, which one can reasonably resolve at various points along the continuum, certainly including the American one. But it truly is odd for a country that's so much less egalitarian than the norm to be so rabidly committed to fake gestures of anti-elitism, invariably orchestrated by leaders of elites.