The "Drill, baby, drill" chant was so silly and mindless. Eight years of George W. proves that (roughly half of) America is already stupid. There is an advantage to the Republican party to keep America stupid. Much has been written on this already, but here is Friedman's most recent take on it.
Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology ? fossil fuels ? rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology ? renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution ? on the eve of PCs and the Internet ? is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. ?Typewriters, baby, typewriters.?
Of course, we?re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that ? with ?drill, baby, drill? ? why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra ?invent, baby, invent?? That is what a party committed to ?change? would really be doing. As they say in Texas: ?If all you ever do is all you?ve ever done, then all you?ll ever get is all you ever got.?
I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It?s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue ? including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.
Tom Friedman, Making America Stupid, Op-Ed, NYT, Sept. 13 2008
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