Chains, My Government's Got Me Locked Up In Chains

IF Vice President Joe Biden didn't mean to imply that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wanted to return black people to slavery when he told a predominantly African-American audience in Virginia this week that "They want to put ya'll back in chains"--then he must have meant a time when all of us had our freedoms infringed upon.

Maybe Joe meant an era when the Federal Government had to get a warrant to execute a wire tap on citizens' phone conversations.  Or did he mean a time when people getting on an airplane didn't have to have their privates touched or exposed on a video screen?

Was the Vice President referring the years when adults could choose not to purchase health insurance from their employers?  Or companies that couldn't afford that benefit didn't have to buy it?  Did he mean that period when the Catholic Church wasn't required to pay for contraceptives and abortions?  Or was he talking about that time when insurance companies didn't have to consider a 26-year old, non-disabled person as a dependent?

You know, Uncle Joe must have meant those dark days when electric utilities could use the cheapest, most efficient ways to produce energy.  Or the era when you could buy whatever kind of bulbs were necessary to properly light a space.  Maybe he was referring to the times when you could purchase gasoline without small-engine-destroying ethanol in it.

Perhaps Mr. Biden was thinking of the days when people in New York could purchase any size of soda.  Or San Fancisco residents could buy Happy Meals with toys in them for their kids.  And Chicagoans could indulge in some Foie Gras while dining at Charlie Trotter's restaurant.

Was the Vice President going "old school" and referring to those times when an 18-year old (who can vote, join the Military and buy a house) could enjoy an ice cold beer after work?  Or was he referring to the decades where people could drive without their seatbelts on?

So, IF Vice President Joe Biden wasn't making racial assertions about slavery, I have to wonder what he was talking about--since it seems the "chains" we wear today are a lot heavier than those of the past.