Democrats also gave us direct presidential control of what energy sources are acceptable and should be subsidized by taxpayers (solar) and what energy sources should be killed through presidentially directed regulation (coal).

Annual deficits continue to exceed a trillion dollars, and the national debt is now up to $15 trillion.

This is the wrong road. It will weaken American families for generations.

The Republican Party -- the party that believes in individual freedom and policies that lead to growth -- has countered with a barmy campaign that has focused on anything but that.

For crying out loud, Americans don't want the federal government to control their reproductive lives any more than they want it to mandate free birth control, inspect students' school lunches or subsidize Chevy Volts.

So what do Americans want?

Clue:

Citizens of three states have focused for more than a year on Shell Chemical's interest in building an ethane cracker somewhere in Appalachia. It would take huge volumes of wet gas coming out of the Marcellus and Utica shales and produce ethylene.

The United States, which has not been competitive for that chemical feedstock in years, could revitalize its chemical industry.

Shell announced Thursday that it has taken an option on land now occupied by a zinc plant along the Ohio River north of Pittsburgh and will continue to explore the economic feasibility of a cracker.

It's a short commute for both Ohioans and West Virginians.

Assuming the company eventually builds, the implications are enormous: Such a development would create 10,000 construction jobs and hundreds of high-paying chemical jobs -- not just in Pennsylvania, but in Ohio and West Virginia as well.

That means money for mortgages and cars and schools and roads and myriad other things.

West Virginia officials played hard to get Shell's attention, as did Ohio and Pennsylvania's power structure.

Pennsylvania won, in part because Shell owns gas and liquids there, and in part because it had an appropriate 500-acre site.

Quiet old Pittsburgh, relic of a bygone industrial age, could experience an economic transfusion that only a few years ago nobody could even have imagined.

Rust Belt no more.

Just the sound of it quiets the heart.

As Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., put it, a cracker -- and all the chemical industries it would fuel -- will "redefine this region for generations to come."

"Generations" is not hyperbole, as West Virginians know from their own family histories with the chemical and steel industries.

Productive, wealth-creating enterprises provide stability, predictability and security that do affect families for generations.

That's it.

That's what Americans want.

Republicans, from the top of the ticket to the bottom, should deep-six "gotcha" sound bites and dippy press releases. It only makes them look small.

Instead, Republicans should agree upon and state in clear terms 10 things they would do to turn American industry loose and create economic security for American families.

That's what Americans want -- from the West Coast to the East Coast, from the Gulf Coast to Canada.

Does anybody blame them?

Maurice is editorial page editor of the Daily Mail. She may be reached at 348-4802 or ha...@dailymail.com.