And so Murkowski conceded the election yesterday, as she really should have done. Miller will be the candidate going forward. Does it seem to you that the conservative media is making too much of this, when the liberal media isn’t making anything of it at all?

It is, of course, a primary in Alaska, for crying out loud. So what?

Here’t what isn’t being said: Miller is a very different candidate from Murkowski. Murkowski is a Republican, of course, and you would think that any GOP victory over a Democratic opponent is a good one. Perhaps; but you need to appreciate the symbolic victory here.

Many on the right were so horribly turned off by the obscene spending of the last few GOP years that a lot of us gave up on trying to distinguish the elephant from the donkey. Radio commentators and book authors basically accused them of being two sides of the same big-government tax-and-spend coin. Sure, Republicans were less likley to hurt big business, but come on—both were living off the largesse and being quite generous with our funds. Judge Napolitano declared that no matter what side each party took on an issue, the problem was that both sides were framing the issue to begin with.

Murkowski, whatever her strengths or faults, became prominent in this era, and certainly the whole sins-of-the-father ensured that she would be linked with this era. Miller, on the other hand, appears to be a legitimate small government guy who, Republican or not, would work to pull us back in a smarter direction.

And each time one of these guys wins, the incumbent Republicans have to take notice. After all, this is what it evidently takes to win elections. And unless they want to be the defeated incumbent, they better start accepting the smaller-government-now populism engulfing the country. Likewise, the non-incumbent candidates are seeing what it takes to win, as well: if you want a majority vote, you need to be a smaller-government-now candidate.

Miller, for all the initially trivial aspects to his deserved win, is a bellweather for what is coming. And the more Millers that win, the more that others will adopt the same goals.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.