Another Boon for Big Oil

So the Democrats are letting the 25 year old ban on offshore drilling expire. In the face of a mounting economic squeeze, the congressmen we need to rely on more than ever are giving global warming the symbolic go ahead. It baffles me that those against new drilling, against prolonging the addiction to oil and against sinking us deeper into a climate crisis are now letting go. I’d like to think that holding out would force the market to search for alternatives. All of us are well acquainted by now with the outcome of no regulation. Yet this is the pinnacle of many American’s exultation.

Drill Baby Drill! Drill Baby Drill! Watching the Republican National Convention I was of course horrified by those three words. Contrary to the obvious, the second word is the scariest. "Baby," when used for emphasis, insists on confidence. It’s a domineering word, an uncompromisingly male term that such conservatives love. What it reveals is a vehemence for learned ignorance that is truly astounding. It is a rally call to embrace chauvinism at a fever pitch. They took an issue they knew the Democrats fundamentally disagreed with, and turned it into a snide smear. "Take Global Warming and shove it," is what I heard. The implications of so many partaking in this brand of excitement spells serious trouble for the outcome of the human race.

The drilling chant also serves as another sturdy example of the conservative aversion to knowledge. This sorry display is Republican anti-intellectualism at its best. Somehow it has become trendy to buck science, common knowledge or warning signs and blindly push into the unknown; the equivalent of the Republican party piss drunk on their four wheelers, crashing down a dark road. Bush showed us better than any what happens when you rule with your gut. How can we now prove to the American people though, that ignorance isn’t cool?