Great Big Elephants in the living room

Kim DuToit has a wonderful writeup of some of the political issues that are very critical but which neither side seems to be addressing: bq. The economy. Yes, I know that everyone's talking about jobsjobsjobs like that's all there is to the economy, but that's not the point. Fuckface babbles on about how he'll lift the economy by creating a trillion new jobs in the first ten seconds as President, and GWB talks about the Dow and also jobsjobsjobs, but both of them ignore the first of the Elephants In The Living Room: the price of oil. bq. Here's the bottom line: if the price of gasoline was about $1.10 a gallon (instead of the $1.76 I paid yesterday), this economy would be going to the Moon, Alice. It is, in fact, the only thing which is preventing a 1990s-style boom from taking place. Why, then, are neither GWB nor Fuckface talking about it? bq. Because they both know that no matter who, the U.S. President can't do a damn thing about it. bq. All the other parts of a robust economy are in place: new housing starts, factory orders, retail sales, a stable and effective work force -- all are slightly positive (in terms of trend -- I'm not interested in monthly hiccups). What's holding everything up is the brake on personal consumption which a high oil price creates. When it costs $50 to fill up the SUV, and your electricity bill is $1,000 instead of $350, people don't have much spare change to fling around -- and for producers, who also have to bear those high costs, the answer is to increase prices, which further dampens demand. Note too that the airlines (another economic belwether) are struggling; when the price of oil goes up by $1 a barrel, it can add $5 million a month to a typical airline fleet's overhead. You have to sell a lot of $400 tickets to earn sufficient profit just to break even on the $5 million. And business travelers, on the advice of the accountants, are video- or teleconferencing rather than pay the $1,400 business fares. I am just excerpting some paragraphs - it's quite the screed. Kim then goes on with item two: bq. Our trade imbalance with China. Never mind that China is, at the end, the real enemy. The fact of the matter is that instead of dealing with other (and non-Communist) countries like India, Pakistan or Taiwan, all of whom have large (and cheap) labor forces who would be able to produce all the cheap crap our society demands, the stupid fucking Commerce Department continues to support Most Favored Nation status for China, even as the fucking Chinese threaten to invade Taiwan, test nukes which could reach the U.S., and with their outmoded industries pollute the atmosphere in a manner which makes 1960s Pittsburgh look like Lake Tahoe on a winter's morning. bq. I'm not arguing about the pros and cons of "outsourcing jobs", which is how the lying bastard politicians prefer to frame the exercise. The plain fact is that Hanes can't make $2 T-shirts in the United States because of (union-inspired) high labor costs, (Green-inspired) environmental regulation, and (greedy government-inspired) high taxation. Of course Hanes is going to look elsewhere to have those T-shirts made, when Wal-Mart insists on paying no more than a dollar per. Again, there is more. Kim then addresses the big issue -- what is the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats and what are the key issues at stake here: bq. The chasm. I keep reading articles about the growing divide which separates the Democrats from the Republicans, and the anger and intransigence which characterizes it. bq. Here's the third Great Big Elephant In The Living Room: it's not about Democrats and Republicans; it's about socialism and republicanism. While the Democrats could continue along their merry little way, planting socialist seeds with gay abandon, everyone was happy. Liberal judges were appointed, state schools become models of socialist / collectivist indoctrination, industry became subservient to environmentalism, and so on. Everyone was happy, of course, except conservatives, but as the Left controlled the media, only we conservatives knew about it. bq. Then four things happened which finally broke the peace. bq. Firstly, Ronald Reagan (a conservative) became President, and his policies led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its Commie satellites. As the shortcomings of communism became more and more apparent, the Left discovered that their "shining city on a hill" was instead a dark, mean and grubby place. When a religion is comprehensively proven to be a pack of lies and nonsense, you can expect its acolytes to feel angry. bq. Second came the Republican Revolution of 1994, where conservative Republicans were finally able to win control of Congress, and start a program of rolling back government. To the people for whom government is the sine qua non of an orderly society, this was anathema -- but it was tempered by the fact that the Executive Branch was headed by one of their own: a charming, amoral collectivist who worshiped power for its own sake, and was ready to deal away some of their cherished principles (eg. unlimited welfare) to hold onto that power. bq. Third was the blow which set the Left stove temperature to "broil": the impeachment of Clinton as a liar and molester, and the subsequent election result which delivered Executive power to a [gasp!] conservative Republican. bq. Remember, however, that conservatives had been feeling their own anger towards the Left: Clinton's horrible collectivist agenda (eg. national health care under his wife -- another collectivist, and unthinking obeisance to environmentalists and the gun control lobby, to name but three). bq. The fourth event was the loosening of the stranglehold of "mainstream media" over the issues of the day: first by the growth of conservative talk radio (thank you, Rush) and then the Internet, which drove a stake through the heart of the media monopoly. For the first time, the Left realized that not everyone felt the same way about the world as the editorial committee of the New York Times (and they were terrified by the extent of the opposition); and conservatives realized that they were not alone, and that there were millions of others to whom the word "progressive" was NOT a Good Thing. Very astute observations. Visit his website for the full article.