Another Democrat came out this week for the nationalization of the oil industry. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), a boob if there ever was one, thinks that it "sounds like a very good idea". He's not alone. In a recent Rasmussan poll a plurality of Democrats - 37% - agreed with him; only 32% disagreed. Maxine Waters, a few weeks ago, was the first nationally elected Democrat to advocated it, if a little more comically. But there is really nothing funny about this. This is a party poised to take over the White House and to strengthen their hold on both Houses of Congress. The Democratic political class is almost always more to the left than the electorate at large that vote them in. So it is safe to say that by early next year there will be a majority in Congress that favors, even if secretly, nationalization.
Don't think it couldn't happen. What we have here is the convergence of two things that are anathema to the left: oil and profits. The left is against lifting the ban on off-shore drilling not because they are primarily concerned about the ecological consequences, but because they are against oil itself, against drilling in all forms. They would prefer there be no drilling, and no oil, and much government-subsidized alternatives. They are not really concerned about the drastic consequences this would have on the economy; many of them look forward to it as a good thing, for they hate capitalism and the lifestyle it affords to so many of us. Indeed, I believe that for many the whole global-warming scam is simply a front for their hatred of capitalism. They are for whatever regulation, taxation, penalization, or outright nationalization that can be done in the name of global-warming - even if there is little real evidence of man-made global warming, and even if the policy they advocate has little chance of success - because it means more government control, less private enterprise, and the reduction and/or the elimination of corporate profits. Profits, you see, are bad, and so too are oil companies. The combination of the two, for those who think this way, are an evil incarnate equal to nothing else in this world except perhaps George W. Bush.
1 comment:
I would certainly like to think that we don't have enough morons in this country for something like nationalized oil to actually happen.
I can understand the frustration with high gasoline prices, which motivates some of these people. Of course, some also say we can't drill in ANWR because it will take five years for that oil to reach the pump. The fact that these same folks have been saying the same thing for at least eight years is funny, in a way.
And while I agree with you on the global warming scam, again I don't think we have to really worry. The only action that will be taken is to make promises about what will happen in 2030 or 2050. The only way we could actually do these things is to stop driving and stop using electricity, and you know neither of those will ever happen.
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