The emerging code word is “big-spending liberal.” Voters are sick of government waste, weary of politicians who solve problems by throwing money at them, and bloodied in their hides by vicious tax bites. Liberals, it is being said, are the big spenders and wasters. That a pure-bred of the species like Don Fraser was defeated in Minnesota makes it clear that the villains are being smoked out. At last.

As with all political code words—”law and order,” “national security,” “peace through preparedness”—a legitimate sentiment is being garbled by shorthand. What is lost in the translation of “big-spending liberals” is that much for the opposite case can be made.