A War We Can Win

Cut car trips! That’s the word from President Bush in response to skyrocketing fuels costs and damaged production facilities. As lame, ineffectual, and small as this statement from the White House may be, it is a huge step for Republicans who have heretofore seen the energy crisis as simply a matter of a need to constantly increase supply.

 

“Go ahead, buy the Hummer. We can just tap the ANWAR to fill your tank.” Conservation was strictly for hippies and eco-terrorists. Rising gas prices have fueled support for a repeal of the Washington State gas tax increase. If rising prices are what it takes to get Republicans to mention conservation, then let’s increase the gas tax another dollar a gallon. If $3 a gallon get people to cut down on car trips, let’s make gas $7 a gallon like in Britain and see if people will reconsider taking the bus once in a while. 

 

I can’t remember whether of not I mentioned this here before, but I got into a political argument a few weeks ago in bar. I was talking to a couple of thirty-something southern guys visiting Seattle on a business trip. These two had both gone to good, private southern universities, they had good jobs, and they were the two biggest morons I have come across in Seattle. Their far-right political views went beyond fascism (and I don’t throw that word around carelessly).

 

I am not exaggerating when I say that I would have few qualms about bearing arms against these two rednecks if we had another civil war in this country. My point is that things have come to this sort of extreme in this country. The political gulf between conservatives and progressives is almost unbridgeable at this time. We can either drift farther apart, or we can decide that we should be one country instead of two. I think what this nation desperately needs is a national consensus on one single issue.

 

The Republicans would have liked for that issue to have been the war in Iraq, but too many of us knew from the beginning that the war would prove to be a disaster for the United States. Our war should be against fuel consumption. The technology is already available for cars that get 80 mpg and for trains that go 200+ mph. Let’s make it a national priority. Let’s lead the world in conservation and alternative, renewable energy sources.

 

Let’s forget this red state/blue state bullshit and work together towards a common goal of making America energy independent and ecologically viable. We desperately need to ask every American to make a sacrifice for the good of all of us, instead of just telling everyone to pursue their own selfish interests and screw the common weal.