Holding Liberals Accountable For Energy Woes
By Christopher Adamo (07/10/08)
How long can Congressional Democrats hope to continue their anti-capitalist, anti-American agenda without facing accountability from the voting public? Current indicators are that they intend to hold firm on their signature issues, believing that the public will simply not recognize the correlation between their actions of recent years, and the horrendous economic fallout that ensued as a direct result. And nowhere can this relationship be seen more clearly than in the skyrocketing energy prices currently threatening to squeeze the vitality from the American middle class.
Simple economics, the principles of which are becoming painfully apparent to every American who stops to fill up the family sedan, dictate that when disproportionate multitudes of customers have to compete for a limited supply of fossil fuels, prices will rise. Thus all of the liberal/environmentalist efforts to curtail the availability of the world’s oil, specifically by hamstringing America’s ability to exploit its own natural resources, have only succeeded in driving up the cost of those resources for all who want or need them.
Concurrently, liberals are showcasing their disingenuousness by making two distinctly disparate claims regarding the economic repercussions of their actions. On the one hand, they castigate market speculators as the ultimate culprits of the current price spike. Yet in the very next breath, they deny any possible immediate benefits from renewed exploration, drilling and production by Americans. Rather, they insist that any advantage from expanded supplies would not be realized for at least a decade, as if those evil speculators could somehow remain totally blind to consequent changes in the oil market until newly produced American gasoline is running in the streets.
Even a cursory examination of the many contributing economic factors reveals how the current prices of diesel fuel and gasoline are being artificially inflated, and who is ultimately to blame for the problem. And the picture is not pretty.
From a worldwide perspective, the “free market” would currently yield a much lower price for a barrel of oil than recent numbers which exceed one hundred forty dollars. This fact being well understood among oil producing nations, particularly in the Middle East, where major oil producers banded together to form the infamous “Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries” or OPEC.
Under its auspices, participating nations agree to non-market driven limitations in their oil production, thus ensuring that any losses in profit from volume sales would be offset by increases in profit margins. This often tenuous agreement has at times completely collapsed, specifically when a member nation determines that it can reap significantly larger profits from selling a much higher volume at a lower price. Yet with worldwide demands as high as they currently are, the accord remains stable.
In essence, an artificial “monopoly” has been created among the member nations, whereby they can unilaterally determine what the rest of the world will pay for its energy needs. But for this monopoly to survive and thrive, it requires the defacto cooperation of all other parties involved. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this situation is that such “cooperation” is effectively coming from the Democrat controlled Congress of the United States.
By stubbornly refusing any consideration of exploring, drilling, and thus expanding American oil production, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) and Senate Majority Harry Reid (D.-NV) along with their Democrat political machine in Washington, are effectively forcing the entire American oil industry into the role of collaborating OPEC members. In a sinister sense, America is officially refusing to increase the world production of oil, thus strengthening the OPEC monopoly and its ability to deliberately inflate the price of crude oil.
It makes no difference when paying the bill at the gas pump that Pelosi, Reid, and their liberal political cohorts are claiming to do their deed for the sake of the planet, as opposed to the Arab nations who simply want to maximize profits. The end product is the same. Americans are senselessly forced to crunch their personal budgets in order to keep the family car rolling.
Elsewhere around the world, the predictable fallout from liberal policy making hits much harder. Food prices are soaring, both as a result of higher costs to grow and transport edible crops, along with the insane practice of sapping food supplies in order to use basic grains for the production of ethanol in a dubious scheme to supplement gas supplies.
Meanwhile, those most responsible for the current energy calamity offer only environmental sanctimony, entwined in the hoax of “global warming,” as their justification.
However, some current signs indicate that the public may have grown wise to the environmentalist charade, which could produce an enormous backlash in the coming elections, if those on the right side of the issue have the wherewithal to properly portray the situation. The latest Rasmussen poll shows that public approval of Congress has dropped to the unbelievable number of nine percent. This represents the first ever dip into single digits since such polls were taken.
In other words, the American public is no longer buying the flowery liberal rhetoric and its empty promises of environmental utopia that somehow always degenerates into higher costs, less freedom, and of course, larger tax revenues for career politicians and their bureaucratic legions. Instead, the people of the heartland see an accelerating decay of their lifestyles and diminishing prospects of a better future for their children.
Congressional Democrats are banking on their ability to deflect scrutiny on the cause and effect relationship of their political alliances and resulting policies, along with the horrendous consequences reaped by middle America, at least until after the November elections. However, the public has begun to grasp the painful realities of the Democrat ruse, and is in no mood to accept any more of it.
America’s families suffer a loss of buying power, and American workers are barred from gainful employment among the abundant natural resources that exist across this land and just off its shores. In response, Representative Maxine Waters (D.-CA) expresses her desire for the government to nationalize the oil industry, and Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama reveals his contempt for middle America, which he believes is excessively lavish in its lifestyles and use of energy resources.
Consequently, even at this late date, a bold and aggressive Republican campaign offensive can properly characterize this issue along partisan lines, and put the Democrats to flight. On the other hand, if the average voter can successfully be prevented from “connecting the dots” for the remainder of the election season, Democrat ranks in the House and Senate will swell, and their hold on power will be cemented for the foreseeable future.
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