How to Talk to a Republican #7: Patriotism

Riding home from grocery shopping today I got behind the stereotypical SUV with the red, white, and blue AND the yellow ribbons on it displaying their patriotism. So I'm thinking to myself, here I am in a European car sans ribbons getting 45 MPG following an American car full of Lee Greenwood patriotism getting maybe 12 MPG. Which of us is the more patriotic?

I never supported the war in Iraq. All the argumentation at the beginning had too many holes in it, there were too many dots that didn't connect, too many loose ends in the Administration's justification (bait taken hook, line, and sinker by some Democrats campaigning for President today, by the way). Being a blogger in a remote corner of America, I can also state I firmly believe the war was for oil, more specifically, for strengthening a strategic presence in the area to counterbalance Iran's growing influence. The evil Emperor Cheney foresaw the day when that strategic presence would be necessary to feed our hunger for energy and when we finally piss Venezuela off so much that they refuse to sell to us. He has also foreseen peak oil, the point at which half the world's reserves are gone, leaving oil more difficult and more costly to lift out of the ground leading to a death spiral of higher prices and lower supply, the end of the American energy-based economy.

It is, Conservative wisdom would say, then in the national interest to wield considerable influence in the area and, if your only source of wisdom is the Conservative, this is a true statement. One difference between the Conservative point of view and the Liberal is that Liberals tend to view problems from multiple points of view. I would like to believe that Progressives combine the best of both approaches, pragmatic decision making (the Right) combined with a wider, less conventional approach to problem solving (the Left). So how would this Progressive attack the problem?

We actually held more influence in the Middle East through soft power before the invasion of Iraq than afterward. The supply of oil flowing from the region is diminished through Iraq's lowered potential. So given the situation as it is today, I'd assume we will have to be in Iraq for some time to make up for the loss of our soft power in the region; however, if we ever hope to regain the soft power we once held, we cannot be there in combat roles. We can train the Iraqis, we can build infrastructure and we can defend ourselves but the mercenaries and the combat troops need to come home now (realistically, as soon as possible). We need to replace the hawks currently there, not with doves but with beavers, people who can do the jobs we need done without fighting.

At home, we need to implement conservation efforts. The one effective way of doing this has already been pioneered for us in Europe. Gas guzzling cars are allowed; however, you pay tax by the horsepower, not the vehicle's value as one example. I'd suggest progressive taxation on energy use in general and that it's levied per head. I have one person living in a house, my energy tax rate should climb faster than the same house with five people living in it. Domestic supplies of energy need to be exploited as well and I don't mean corn-based ethanol. We'd literally be better off to burn the corn in a power plant or to heat homes than to distill it into alcohol to run our cars, besides, we're burning food. These are suggestions without which resource competition, read wars, will become a way of life as there is less oil to exploit and it's more expensive to pump from the ground.

So who is the greater patriot, the driver of the Made-in-America SUV with the bumper stickers supporting the war and the troops or the German sedan without a sticker to be found? I vote for the sedan but of course, I bought it. Point is, without conservation, there will be much more blood spilled for oil in the future as an inevitable consequence of our current energy decisions and decreasing, more expensive oil.

Hat tip to Jenn in SLC for finding the misprint. You won't find it again....