Has anybody noticed that we pay more attention to the personal foibles of our political candidates, than any significant subject? More attention is payed to Barak Obama's name and race than what he stands for. John McCain's ads are more concerned with trashing Obama, than they are with things like energy, economy, global warming, the war, and our stupendous deficit spending. Obama's troops are trying hard to tie McCain to George W. Bush, and his policies.
I for one would like to see a reasoned approach to the problems we need to address, rather that 10 second attack ads. It would seem that instead of trying to increase the division between the "evil liberal" and the "morally superior neo-conservative" it is now time to figure out how to fix things before it is out of our hands. Gay marriage, abortion politics, and religious extremism should not be the main thrust of our political dialog. These issues and many others are smoke screens to allow the current status quo to continue unquestioned.
As this marathon election campaign drags along, we are now seeing all manner of quick fixes proposed for high gasoline prices. The republicans continually push for the right to drill for oil everywhere, without any concern for the environmental consequences. While the environmentalists don't want any changes in their back yard.
In my estimation, the high price of gasoline requires several responses. First, we MUST use less gasoline, preferably none. Second, we MUST invest in public transit, and transition to other forms of energy. Inevitably we will need to deploy known solar technologies where appropriate, wind turbans where appropriate, upgrade our electricity distribution grid, and build as many nuclear reactors as we can. Additional investment in coal fired power plants will be a mistake that has drastic environmental impacts in the future.
But our politicians continue to snipe back and forth at one another, while our current government goes on "business as usual", pork barrels and all.
08/11/08