Friday, May 05, 2006
Regarding the politics of high gas prices...
To begin with, Trying Times will concede that the Democrats plan to give consumers $500 rebates because of soaring gasoline prices is mostly politics and definitely bad policy. However, to hear Rick Santorum say that Republican Lawmakers are "putting together a plan that is almost exclusively focused on increased supply and conservation" can only induce a hearty scoff. Precisely how is the idea of "increasing supply" a long term solution? Are we going to breed some new dinosaurs in the hopes that future generations will reap some oilly windfall? One can only assume that Republicans mean to open up other reserves, like, say, the Arctic National Refuge in Alaska. Yeah, there's a long term solution. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski describes calls for a rebate of this sort "short term; it's not a fix". We agree. The only real way to deal with this in the long-term is for government to get involved and force Americans not only to conserve but to use new energy resources. There in lies the dilemma for Republicans. Government intervention is the antithesis of their ideological worldview (at least when it comes to economics; put aside for the moment their need to tell us when to have babies, sex, use drugs and medicine, etc.). This ideology is precisely why they should not be in charge of our country right now. Certainly not to the extent of controlling all 3 branches of government, anyway. What we need is 2 party rule (remember the 90's?) when we had a government led by a Democrat with good ideas policed by a Republican congress to watch that those ideas don't get out of hand. Our energy problems will never be solved while one party rule is maintained. Democrats, if given some power, would hopefully call for higher nation wide emmision standards (something we already had during the Clinton years!) and reengagement in a world wide effort to conserve energy and develop new energy resources. We have the strength and will to create a new world no longer dependent on oil and the messed up political region from which that energy source emanates. We simply have to let government take the lead, which will never happen if Republicans stay in power.
To begin with, Trying Times will concede that the Democrats plan to give consumers $500 rebates because of soaring gasoline prices is mostly politics and definitely bad policy. However, to hear Rick Santorum say that Republican Lawmakers are "putting together a plan that is almost exclusively focused on increased supply and conservation" can only induce a hearty scoff. Precisely how is the idea of "increasing supply" a long term solution? Are we going to breed some new dinosaurs in the hopes that future generations will reap some oilly windfall? One can only assume that Republicans mean to open up other reserves, like, say, the Arctic National Refuge in Alaska. Yeah, there's a long term solution. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski describes calls for a rebate of this sort "short term; it's not a fix". We agree. The only real way to deal with this in the long-term is for government to get involved and force Americans not only to conserve but to use new energy resources. There in lies the dilemma for Republicans. Government intervention is the antithesis of their ideological worldview (at least when it comes to economics; put aside for the moment their need to tell us when to have babies, sex, use drugs and medicine, etc.). This ideology is precisely why they should not be in charge of our country right now. Certainly not to the extent of controlling all 3 branches of government, anyway. What we need is 2 party rule (remember the 90's?) when we had a government led by a Democrat with good ideas policed by a Republican congress to watch that those ideas don't get out of hand. Our energy problems will never be solved while one party rule is maintained. Democrats, if given some power, would hopefully call for higher nation wide emmision standards (something we already had during the Clinton years!) and reengagement in a world wide effort to conserve energy and develop new energy resources. We have the strength and will to create a new world no longer dependent on oil and the messed up political region from which that energy source emanates. We simply have to let government take the lead, which will never happen if Republicans stay in power.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Message to Rush Limbaugh: If you go to jail, it means you were arrested. It doesn't matter how much time you spend there. Your parsing of the english language by calling this trip to jail "voluntarily processed" is, shall we say, Clintonesque, to use the common vernacular. Trying Times would suggest that although you claim to have "won", your "sobriety" begins when you surrender to the fact that addiction kicked your ass. What you've "won" is a lifetime of treatment centers, N.A. meetings, and mediocre coffee.
