KEY POINTS:
The veteran political and business pundit, Colin James, wrote on this page on Tuesday: "After nine years of the most repressive Government in decades ... ", and in a few words went to the very heart of this election campaign.
I would, perhaps, have used "tyrannical" rather than "repressive", for repression has undertones of the regimes of North Korea, China and the old Soviet Union. We haven't got that bad - yet - although our Dear Leader would probably be happy to oblige.
This election is not about trust, because the public does not trust politicians, except, perhaps, those of the Maori Party.
It is not about the economy, because that is in a state of flux pretty much beyond our control and at this stage is best left to Reserve Bank and Treasury experts.
It is not about tax cuts because we've had one already and if there aren't any more for a year or two, that will be seen as fiscal prudence.
It's not about Working for Families or KiwiSaver because those who can't participate in them don't give a damn and those who do care little where the money comes from as long as it comes.
It isn't about whether John Key is fit to be Prime Minister, because as long as he is not Helen Clark he can't lose.
It isn't about energy or the environment, as the Labour lapdog Greens would have us believe, because few people are interested in what might happen next year or next decade. They're too busy coping with what's happening today.
It isn't about privatisation because few people care who owns the banks or the railways as long as their money is safe and/or the service is up to their expectations.
This election is all about freedom - the freedom of the individual to live his or her life with as little interference as possible from the state, its politicians and minions.
It's all about being loosed from the tyranny of dogmatic "do-it-my-way-or-else" socialism, which contends that the state knows best how to spend our money, how we use our property and how we run our families.
It's all about freedom from fear - from the anxiety generated by the doom and gloom merchants, the Greens in particular, who demand that we circumscribe our lives in certain ways because if we don't the world will melt and come to an end.
It's all about freedom from guilt. We want to be able to fill up our cars, turn on our heaters, light our homes, run our taps (and showers), eat our food, smoke a cigarette, have a few drinks, sell land or buy or develop property without being made to feel guilty.
And it's all about freedom from presidential-style politics. We want - nay, need - to be rid of a dictatorial leader so that consensus politics again has a chance to flourish.
So Labour has to go. NZ First, led by a petty and untrustworthy despot, has to go. And the Greens must be reduced to no more than a presence in Parliament.
Labour makes much of its Working for Families scheme, but its inventors don't seem to realise that recipients would much rather have that money in direct income tax rebates.
They don't want to have to go cap in hand to Inland Revenue, fill in interminable forms that want to know everything about them and theirs except what they had for breakfast or when they last went to the toilet.
And they don't want to be left feeling beholden to the Government for the largesse when they could have received the same amount directly in tax breaks without it costing them, as taxpayers, as much again as they receive in administration costs.
None of us who don't qualify begrudges families a financial boost, but there are better ways to do it.
Winston Peters and his one-man-band party have long since had their day and the sooner we see the last of them the better. They are but a political nuisance.
The Greens have made it clear, fortunately, that they won't have a bar of National. They will, therefore, be powerless in the new Parliament so a vote for them is essentially wasted.
If a few survive, their ability to frighten the natives with predictions of environmental doom, most of it based on supposition rather than science, will, thankfully, be hugely diminished.
As Thomas Jefferson said: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of ... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government ... "
Meanwhile, before the next leaders' debate John Key could do worse than read Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
