George W. Bush led and misled the nation into two wars and charged the costs – enormous costs – on the national Visa card. Barack Obama took office and continued the practice, racking up more millions in debt for future generations to deal with. The wars continue. After nearly seven years, Iraq has settled into a mire of internecine and sectarian conflict that could flare up at any time, but at least the death rate for American soldiers has declined.
We should celebrate that fact, right?
We don’t tally the Iraqi dead or dislocated. It’s their country but they don’t matter enough to count how many have died or fled since Dick and Junior unleashed the hounds of war.
Afghanistan is another story. We stormed in full of retributive rage, kicked Taliban ass, relaxed and congratulated ourselves while the Taliban regrouped; when it became clear the Taliban wasn’t going to fold, we found ourselves in a fight in a very inhospitable land. Obama has doubled down, sending in more troops, investing more money, changing tactics…
But the costs of the war are still out of sight and mind, off the radar of most Americans because no sacrifice is required of us; we are not asked to change our lifestyles to support the war effort, we are only asked to salute the “brave men and women who stand in harm’s way” on Memorial Day and the 9/11 Anniversary. No draft to frighten the wits out of suburban kids and make them think – really think – about the realities of war, about what constitutes a real threat to the nation’s security, and about what justifies sending American men and women to distant lands to fight and die.
No general sacrifice. No war tax to pay the costs. Business as usual with the wars as minor inconvenience, a remote event to check in on every now and then. No images of dead Americans on the tube every night. No protests on college campuses. No riots. No sit-ins or teach-ins.
Same tale in the energy sphere. As oil bleeds from the Gulf of Mexico I remember Jimmy Carter in his sweater, in the late 70’s, solemnly telling Americans that we had to change our profligate ways and learn to conserve natural resources. Thermostat down, sweater on; smaller, more fuel efficient cars; mass transit systems; regulations on polluting industries. To show how serious he was about energy conservation, Carter had solar panels installed on the White House roof. Carter was right but perhaps too far ahead of his time, too honest with an electorate rattled by the Arab oil embargo and a dragging economy to accept that even America, the chosen nation, had to face limits.
When Reagan had the solar panels removed politicians everywhere took note of the political lesson: don’t dare ask Americans to sacrifice – those JFK ask-what-you-can-do-for-your-country days are over. Promise the people small government and low taxes, cheap gasoline, easy credit, and, above all, preach non-stop the inherent beauty of the free market. Happy days are here again and will stay forever as long as Big Business is allowed to operate unfettered by Big Government.
Reagan had the lines and the delivery, the actor’s ability to make us believe in an impossible dream. One of the worst things we did was to allow the oil companies to consolidate and become bigger and more powerful than ever, with economic and political clout unseen since the days of the Standard Oil trust. Unfortunately, we do not have a Teddy Roosevelt in our midst to restore order.
We want cheap, plentiful gasoline and a clean environment, but the two are incompatible. Oil extraction is messy, dangerous and damaging to the environment no matter how much commercial time ExxonMobil or BP or Chevron buy to convince us otherwise. We can burn oil or have a semi-livable planet, but not both.
No sacrifice at the national level, no sacrifice on the local either. We demand good schools, smooth roads, fire and police protection, clean air and water, parks and open spaces, but we don’t want to pay the price for these things. We fall victim to talking points and mantras spoken by charlatans and posers: taxes are evil, government can do nothing right, privatize everything, leave the wealthy alone and the poor to fend for themselves.
The point of no return went by in a blur.
We are the United States of No Sacrifice.
Showing posts with label Energy Policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy Policy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Saturday, July 19, 2008
I Believe the World is Flat...I Believe...I Believe...
Which is more shocking, the hypocrisy of Wall Street bankers or the stupidity of our President?
When the good money is rolling in furiously and in amounts almost impossible to count, Wall Street types have no use for government regulation or oversight. It’s only when the bankers’ relentless greed turns south that they run to Daddy Fed with both arms extended. What a contrast to the distaste most banker-types feel for aid for displaced workers, single mothers, and people with mental problems; those folks must fend for themselves in order to build “self-reliance.” Heaven forbid the poor become dependent on taxpayer assistance!
Large-scale corporate welfare is hardly unusual, though government rescue of Big Business is always cloaked in the guise of keeping the economic system functioning for the good of the “nation.” We’re assured that a taxpayer bail-out is in the best interests of average people living in average towns, but we know better, don’t we?
If tough love and zero tolerance for failure are good enough for Average Jane, why isn’t it good enough for Bear Stearns or Indy Mac? What happened to all the happy talk about the self-regulating free market? Isn’t the All-Knowing Market God supposed to weed out the weak, the corrupt, and the inefficient?
Hypocrisy isn’t pretty and it can’t be papered over forever. Even a people as monumentally distracted as Americans will sooner or later see the beacon of truth shining through the fog.
Ah, and then there’s George W. Bush, our man-child Prez. What can you say about a man who is so out of touch with reality? You know we’re in deep doo-doo when our energy policy boils down to a bad Dr. Phil imitation: “By golly, if we want to lower gasoline prices we’ve got to change people’s psychology. We’ve got to drill and pump and refine – in the most environmentally friendly ways, of course – even though that won’t do a thing to lower the price of gas. But people’s psychology will be changed – and that’s what’s most important. Hee, hee, hee. Yessir!”
Is Bush serious? Change the psychology by drilling for crude that -- even if found and extracted -- will not be brought to market soon enough or in enough volume to alter the price at the pump by a penny? This is Bush’s plan to deal with the cold fact that Americans have lived beyond our energy means for decades? (Are you old enough, dear reader, to remember the political whupping Jimmy Carter took for calling the energy crisis of the late 70’s the “moral equivalent of war”?)
The Georgia peanut farmer must be laughing now.
On that beautiful day when W exits the White House for the final time, never, under any circumstances, to be invited back, Barack Obama will need a gaggle of shamans, Tibetan holy men, Buddhist monks, rabbis, and magicians, to cleanse Bush’s evil stench from the walls, carpets and furniture. It will be like trying to clean a cheap Hollywood SRO hotel room after the fire department carts the body of a chain smoker to the morgue. Obama’s team will need sage sticks the size of telephone poles to rid the White House of Bush’s essence.
When the story of George W. Bush is finally written it will be short and to the point: he failed at everything he attempted, and everything he touched turned to shit.
Amen.
When the good money is rolling in furiously and in amounts almost impossible to count, Wall Street types have no use for government regulation or oversight. It’s only when the bankers’ relentless greed turns south that they run to Daddy Fed with both arms extended. What a contrast to the distaste most banker-types feel for aid for displaced workers, single mothers, and people with mental problems; those folks must fend for themselves in order to build “self-reliance.” Heaven forbid the poor become dependent on taxpayer assistance!
Large-scale corporate welfare is hardly unusual, though government rescue of Big Business is always cloaked in the guise of keeping the economic system functioning for the good of the “nation.” We’re assured that a taxpayer bail-out is in the best interests of average people living in average towns, but we know better, don’t we?
If tough love and zero tolerance for failure are good enough for Average Jane, why isn’t it good enough for Bear Stearns or Indy Mac? What happened to all the happy talk about the self-regulating free market? Isn’t the All-Knowing Market God supposed to weed out the weak, the corrupt, and the inefficient?
Hypocrisy isn’t pretty and it can’t be papered over forever. Even a people as monumentally distracted as Americans will sooner or later see the beacon of truth shining through the fog.
Ah, and then there’s George W. Bush, our man-child Prez. What can you say about a man who is so out of touch with reality? You know we’re in deep doo-doo when our energy policy boils down to a bad Dr. Phil imitation: “By golly, if we want to lower gasoline prices we’ve got to change people’s psychology. We’ve got to drill and pump and refine – in the most environmentally friendly ways, of course – even though that won’t do a thing to lower the price of gas. But people’s psychology will be changed – and that’s what’s most important. Hee, hee, hee. Yessir!”
Is Bush serious? Change the psychology by drilling for crude that -- even if found and extracted -- will not be brought to market soon enough or in enough volume to alter the price at the pump by a penny? This is Bush’s plan to deal with the cold fact that Americans have lived beyond our energy means for decades? (Are you old enough, dear reader, to remember the political whupping Jimmy Carter took for calling the energy crisis of the late 70’s the “moral equivalent of war”?)
The Georgia peanut farmer must be laughing now.
On that beautiful day when W exits the White House for the final time, never, under any circumstances, to be invited back, Barack Obama will need a gaggle of shamans, Tibetan holy men, Buddhist monks, rabbis, and magicians, to cleanse Bush’s evil stench from the walls, carpets and furniture. It will be like trying to clean a cheap Hollywood SRO hotel room after the fire department carts the body of a chain smoker to the morgue. Obama’s team will need sage sticks the size of telephone poles to rid the White House of Bush’s essence.
When the story of George W. Bush is finally written it will be short and to the point: he failed at everything he attempted, and everything he touched turned to shit.
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)