Victor David Hansen creates a bit of a firestorm at CBS, where one of his articles, Please, No More Pie-In-The-Sky Sermons, is cross posted. He starts of discussing the difference between more rural, down to Earth, middle of the road Americans and the elitist San Francisco folks regarding gas prices.
After listening to these quite different motorists, I can confirm an obvious rule about energy use: The wealthier and better-educated seem less concerned about the price of gas.
Indeed, from my informal conversations at two very different gas stations, I would go even further: The wealthy, particularly those who are politically liberal, also like that high-priced gas translates into less burning of fossil fuels by others and helps accelerate research into alternative energies.
What these elites don’t seem to realize is that the energy policies they tend to advocate are for the present paralyzing almost everyone else in the country – and that the truly ethical and environmental solution would require embracing positions long considered anathema to traditional liberalism.
The debate in Congress over more refineries and nuclear power plants; drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts; and developing oil shale, tar sands, and liquid coal usually follows a script fit for a soap opera: Grasping Republicans supposedly wish to enrich energy companies, while idealistic Democrats want only to protect the environment. But those black-and-white positions, hatched in the good old days of $1.50-a-gallon gas, should now be revisited on the basis of far different moral considerations.
One is fairness to the poor and middle class. Like it or not, radical environmentalism (and those behind it who provide the lobbying, funding, and influence to block energy legislation) appeals to an elite not all that worried when gas prices rise or electricity rates go up – since fossil energy use goes down.
That elite is, of course, the people who will vote Democrat, and do not really care one wit about the average American. They profess a love of the middle and lower classes, but, face it, the Democrats and their supporters feel elitist, even when they are the lowest of the lower classes. They have been taught that they are entitled.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress, in particular the House, have done exactly nothing regarding energy independence, despite their promise for the 2006 mid-terms.
Teach the Democrats are now the majority, I can’t see how that would make them also the elite.
So in order to be “elite” you have to be a minority? The uber-libs have always been “the elite”. They claim to know what is best for everyone and throw temper tantrums when people don’t agree.
Look at what high fuel prices are doing to the average American. Everything is going up, not just the cost of a gallon of gas. Look at how much food prices are rising (thank you very much ethanol lobby). And what are the liberals doing? Crying that “big oil” is screwing everyone. No plan to fix it, no plans to help out “the little guy” they claim to care so much about… by not doing anything they can claim a Republican President was in power when fuel costs went through the roof, therefore you need to vote for us. That’s a very good plan (well, for the cheese-eating elitists).