Webster defines a demagogue as a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.
OK I ask you, if the Republicans have the answers then why do they need to continually resort to abject blackguard demagoguery in every stinking election? If they have facts and rationality on their side, why is it necessary to appeal to the lower instincts of the populace to get votes? We know in recent presidential election it is the so-called swing voters that provide their small margin of victory in the so-called swing states (assuming, of course, that there was no election malfeasance there, a valiant assumption.) Anyway, at this stage of things the base of each party has nowhere else to go and it’s all up to the undecided, the uncommitted. In other words ‘it’s the swing voters, stupid!’ Or it is the stupid swing voters? Are these characters all that bright? They can’t decide whether they are Democrats or Republicans, Left or Right wingers, conservatives or liberals, progressives or reactionaries. And some are so gullible and/or craven that they fall for the transparently obvious ploys by cynical Rovian-style campaign consultants every fucking time? They seem to be just waiting to be “swift boated” into voting, yet again, against their own best interests? These are the people who rely on TV advertising and slick partisan campaign literature to decide who and what to vote for - and the Repubs know it!
The latest one of these such Republican ploys is this absurd but apparently appealing idea that opening the continental shelf fully to oil exploration will somehow immediately lower gas prices at the pump. It’s always easiest to blame the ‘green meanies’ for everything. The environmentalists are preventing us from achieving “energy independence. Yet why did everyone run off and buy 16 MPG gas hogs in the last ten years? Did they think oil would stay at 40 dollars a barrel forever? Why have the oil companies and their boys in Congress not been beating the drum and pushing for offshore access especially back when the Repubs controlled Congress? Until now, it was only drilling in ANWR in Alaska that was their golden fleece? Did they think that an endless war(s) in the Middle East would not adversely affect oil prices. Why have coastal state Republican governors like Arnold Swartzenagger and Jeb Bush both been steadfast opponents of “coastal drilling?” Why was Sen. John McCain previously opposed to offshore drilling and now as a Prez candidate he is steadfastly in favor of it? The answer is simple: demagoguery works. A quick fix is to gratuitously appeal to the masses of pissed off drivers, like the stupid idea of ‘gas tax holiday.’ Scapegoating is a favorite of demagogues - blame the environmentalists, blame Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for keeping all that good US oil out of our pipelines. Give the oil companies what they want: more leases in sensitive marine areas and wildlife preserves. Forget about the larger issue of global warming and the fact that any oil found would not be available for a least 10 long years “Energy independence” is the new holy grail of the Right, a new apple pie nationalistic buzzword.
During my college boy years I lived in the Seal Beach/Huntington (named after the oil baron Samuel Huntington) Beach area. I lived where the ocean horizon was punctuated by huge multistory oil rigs. They were a normal part of an urban coastal oceanscape and we grew accustomed to them. Sure there were occasional leaks and spills. I remember seeing pictures in the newspaper of surfers covered with oil sometime in the early 60’s. Sometimes we would have use kerosene to clean oil blobs off our boards. But it was not until the huge spill off of Santa Barbara in 1969 when a Union Oil platform blew and eventually leading to a rupture in five places along an underwater fault that the potential for catastrophe of this industrial coastal arrangement hit home with a vengeance. It took a full week and half to staunch the leaking. There was a huge loss of marine life. After that the platforms would never be looked upon as benignly, and coastal states especially Florida and California from then on resisted expansion of oil leases – until now.
The SF Chronicle reported yesterday that by a small margin even Californians favor offshore drilling as a placebo to $4.00 a gallon gas. Again, demagoguery works!
