Gas prices hit a record at the pump Monday, - averaging $3.073 per gallon nationwide, eclipsing the post-Katrina record. Futures fell, but that’s of little comfort now.
When the history of this era is written, Our Leader’s miniscule approval rating will be tied specifically to two factors - the war in Iraq, and the inexorable rise of gas prices during his second term in particular. The two phenomenon are joined at the hip, of course. But given the volatility of oil prices over the past few years in particular, and given the lip service paid to the idea of weaning the country off oil in Our Leader’s State of the Union addresses, why has there been no concerted national effort to do this?
When September 11 happened, I had hoped it might serve as a wake-up call for the country, not just that there were evil terrorists out there who wanted to kill us, but that - while there could never be an excuse for what happened that day, there was a rationale, and that rationale had much to do with our presence in the Middle East, our unqualified support of Israel -and of course our need for what they’ve got, the oil that flows beneath the sands, which necessitates both of the former.
After the towers crumbled we had a chance to reassess this, to step back and take a hard look at the effect our need for their oil had on our national security. But we chose not to do that, even though it would have been, and still could be, the single greatest move we could make to strengthen our national security.
We chose instead to go on offense, to pretend that our dependence upon oil wasn’t really that big a deal, that we could keep on keeping on as we always had - keep our “happy motoring utopia” rolling right along, as James Howard Kunstler might say. Just send a few hundred thousand troops, bust some terrorist heads - and go ahead, buy the Hummer.
The volatility at the pump, in conjunction with our less-than-excellent adventure in Iraq - as well as environmental concerns due in part to our continued dependence upon oil - all of this should be serving as a shot across the bow that this, the age of oil, must soon come to a close. We choose not to see it, but the signs are everywhere. And again, given that Our Leader has talked about it - why no action? Perhaps because the words are meant to lay the groundwork for ultimate change; the war in Iraq being necessary to secure what reserves we can to both stave off that day of reckoning, and husband resources as we prepare to turn the great battleship around.
At least, we can hope that’s the rationale; it would be the wise thing to do. I suppose that even with this crowd in the White House, there’s a first time for everything.
