The Lesson of the Oil Drilling Debate

Officially, Congress is on a five week recess.

And yet, inside the decorous chambers, insurgent House Republicans remain, pledging to stay ensconced within the chamber until they sufficiently embarrass House Democrats, or force them come to back into session.

Gleeful reports emanate daily from conservative publications imploring these "true Americans" to fight on, no matter the cost. For the first time during this political season, it even appears that the GOP has an issue that may catalyze the electorate in their favor. And boy have they attempted to capitalize on it, facts be damned!

In fact, the fervor with which these lawmakers have shown during the nascent debate leads one to believe they consider it almost their own Alamo.

But instead of protecting Americans from Santa Anna's army, these "patriots" fulsomely claim to be protecting all of America from the cripple of gas prices. According to this claque of Republicans, the continental oil drilling that they presently remain in Washington to support is both the panacea and the last bastion that we have against the rising tide of astronomical energy prices.

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So, what exactly has inspired these Republicans to eschew their beloved vacations, and stay instead to advocate for continental oil drilling?

Given their propensity for 2 day work weeks while in the majority, it certainly can't be a pure love of legislating.

As aforementioned, their commandant George W. Bush has deserted them in favor of a luxury box at the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, so he obviously can't be the forerunner of this protest. Incessant campaigning on behalf of drilling also prevents days of valuable campaigning in battleground districts.

And nevertheless, the Republicans remain, despite the litany of risks because they are buoyed by a tide of public opinion in favor of drilling. Poll after poll has shown that anywhere from a majority to even as much as 70 percent of Americans support the idea of expanding drilling on the continental shelf.

It appears that the public sentiment, for once, is the sole ferment that led to the Republicans putting on this fanciful, although ultimately inconsequential protest.

The title of the post references a pivotal lesson to be gleaned from this debate, and this specifically arises from these public opinion polls:

The public still has not learned their lesson about the deceit of the Republicans, even after 8 years of Bush rule.

Amazingly, after all of the tomfoolery and deceit that has been evinced by the Bush Administration, and their Congressional lackeys, the public still manages to fall for their scams. Inexplicably, the public has yet to realize that the Emperor has no clothes when it comes to Republican policies. That the party itself is bankrupt of ideas has mysteriously yet to dawn on the majority of Americans.

As most experts note, offshore drilling will not produce tangible economic results for 15 years, at the very earliest, and yet the GOP can mount a successful public relations campaign by focusing on that illusory solution. They can only do so because the public, who is normally blase, or even disdainful towards politics as a whole, is foolish and complicit enough to endorse their piecemeal, ineffectual solution. Even after 8 years of lost wages, decreasing public services and a drastic heightening of societal inequality, the electorate as a whole still cannot see through the duplicity of Republican policies.

The propensity of voters to fall the canard the Republicans are currently shamelessly selling has been a hallmark of the Bush years, and it has in large part, led to the troublesome situation in which we now face. As Thomas Frank so eloquently put it in What's the Matter with Kansas? voters responded to having their jobs outsourced to the third world by fervently promising to endorse a cut in corporate tax rate.

And, on and on it goes for these dimwitted souls, who torpedo any sort of reform that would require a mere modicum of sacrifice with their uninformed decisions which are all too susceptible to the soundbite political messages espoused by the Republicans.

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Ultimately, politicians foremost goals are to keep their jobs, not to propagate necessary and beneficial policies upon our society. Because of this, public pressure is often perversely successful at dictating public policy, irrespective of the long term consequences that policy may cause.

Barack Obama has already started to crack under the increasing pressure, as evidenced by his recent shift towards a limited endorsement of off shore drilling. Expect Congressional Democrats, who have hitherto resisted the heat, to eventually cave as well, if the concerted pressure from the Republicans, who purport to speak for the public, continues.

If that were to occur, those of us who have the perspicacity to see that offshore drilling is a fool's errand at best, and an environmental disaster in waiting at worst, will end up yet again forced to deal with the consequences of the misinformed majority.

That being the case, it got me to wondering: Is there any way to make a political efficacy test a prerequisite for voting??