Elections should be about Big Ideas

This great piece by Alvaro Vargas Llosa argues that

All elections should be about one thing: the extent of government power. After all, the power of government is what a presidential candidate seeks. And all elections, until such time as a cultural consensus is reached one way or the other, should have at least one major candidate arguing in defense of civil society against too much state power and one major candidate making the opposite argument. Whether they end up doing what they promise is a different matter.

and that McCain and Obama simply don't want to play their parts.