It just fills me with sadness that the left (if the Democrats can still call themselves that) has nothing better to say about soaring gas prices than "unleash the strategic petroleum reserves", but that's exactly what they are saying:
"Skyrocketing gas prices have tipped consumers upside down this summer and to protect our economy, the president should act immediately to tap the SPR," Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said.
What is more it is clear they are going to use energy costs as their number two weapon against Bush come next election time, number two next to the war on Iraq that is. What is worse is they don't even have a good story on Iraq either - they didn't have one last election ("more of the same but we'll do it better") and they sure haven't expressed one this time around. Much as the majority of Americans now seem to think Bush is doing poorly in Iraq I reckon when the question is posed "Should we pull out of Iraq" the majority will still say no. Lets face it, the stigma of America being labeled a bunch of quitters or losers will just sting too bad. Even if you think that's not how such a move would be seen by any other than the insurgents in Iraq then you can bet that is how the Republicans will frame the argument, it'll go something like this:
Do you want to America to be seen as a nation of quitters? A nation of people who can't finish a job? Do you want to lose the war on terrorism? Do you want to admit all those lives were lost in vain and all those billions of your money just went down the drain? Do you want to explain this to your children? How you were part of generation Q, Q for quitters? If so then go ahead, vote for the Democrats.
Which leads me back to the number two argument against the Republicans. Instead of some pathetic call to unleash the strategic petroleum reserves the need to just come clean - Americas addiction to oil, our foreign policies, our entire lifestyle has put us at the mercy of foreign powers, to the point where they say "Boo" and we jump out of our seats and run for our guns. They need to tell it like it is, oil is Americas Achilles heel that is destabilizing the entire planet both politically and environmentally. Until America decides to come clean, kick the habit and win the war on energy independence nothing will change for the better in our lifetimes or our children's lifetimes.
Damnit, Democrats just have to give America a vision for a better future - one with energy independence. A future where you can flip a light switch, travel to work and put food on the table without worrying about where the oil to make it all happen is coming from. I mean come on, this huge nation, with massive natural resources - enough wind energy in the Dakotas alone to power us twice over, massive areas of land with virtually constant sunshine for solar power, and massive over production of grains from farms that could be busy producing bio-mass fuels. Just what is our problem? Have we no guts for making the switch, have we no taste for the glory of energy independence, are we afraid of failing, are we too soft, too bloated, too lazy to bother trying?
All the Democrats have to do is stand up and make a JFK "We choose to go to the moon" style proclamation" and get on with it. Of course it wont happen "by the end of this decade" but there's no reason why it couldn't happen within our (genX-ers) lifetimes, and certainly by the end of next decade. If you're going to blow $200 billion on something don't piss it away killing people overseas, burning oil overseas, blowing things up overseas - spend it on industries at home, giving people jobs at home, giving people hope for the future. Just that announcement alone will probably knock a few bucks of the price of gas as all the oil investors start panicking and dumping their long term gas futures. Democrats need to demonstrate that it takes more to be a world leader than to just carry a big stick and say "We are the world leaders!". You actually need to lead - lead by example and that means we have to get off our asses and just do it.
But you know what, I don't think it will happen that way. The Democrats are still basically slaves to corporate America just as the Republicans are their love child. Corporate America just doesn't want us in control of our own destiny, it wants to control it even though economics says that we should be in control of them. No its actually more convenient to rule from the position where we the people (consumers) are weak and afraid, and the government is there to protect us. If everyone had their own power at home and we didn't have troops all over the world defending oil under someone else's desserts then what would we need that huge military and oil centric economy for? Wouldn't the government have to get on with real business like solving issues of poverty, crime and actually educating its people? Perish the thought, that's much too hard! After all the Europeans have spent the last fifty years working on those issues and still can't get it right - fighting wars against the boogie man you can't see is so much easier.
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