A Call to Arms

Since being ignominiously reduced to minority status in the 2006 Congressional rout, Republicans have appeared to be sleepwalking their way to political exile in 2008. They have nominated a moderate as the presidential candidate who embraces the theology of Global Warming, wants to artificially cap America’s carbon emissions, and routinely demonizes the oil companies that keep the economy moving along. And in so doing, they seem to have robbed themselves of the gas-pump issue that could have fueled their resurrection.

Now, however, it appears that after wandering in the darkness, there may be a ray of sunshine for the GOP. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has thrown down the gauntlet against the Green Revolution. In a recent national radio interview on The Mike Gallagher Show, Mr. Boehner said of Democrats in Congress, “These people worship at the altar of radical environmentalism.” (Please note: it is not yet known how many of Mr. Boehner’s colleagues collapsed with The Vapors upon being informed of his “indiscretion.”)

In the interview, Mr. Boehner notes that the Democrats in Congress have blocked increased energy production for decades and most recently have blocked efforts to lift the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. He promised to continue working on these issues all year, “I’m going to tell you right now that we are going to fight with these Democrats up here each and every day until November, until the election, until they put real energy solutions on the floor and let’s let the House vote.”

Now, in the old Western vernacular, them’s fighting words! And welcome words at that. Yet, while they are encouraging, there’s a point that needs to be made that nobody has stated loudly and clearly enough in the energy debate: Democrats crave high energy prices!

They really do. And it needs to be said over and over again. They want high—even higher than they are today—energy prices in order to control demand. The Democrat nominee, Senator Barack Obama admitted as much recently when asked if high oil prices help America: “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment,” said Mr. Obama.

In other words, yes, he believes that the high prices help, because “our demand is badly outstripping supply…” And why would he want to reduce demand? To reduce carbon emissions, of course. Reduced demand means less energy use, which means less carbon emissions—those “poisonous” gases the Cult of Global Warming’s dogma dictates will wipe out humanity. And that’s exactly what they want.

The Greens know it, too. As AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson recently stated, “The biggest lie in America[n] politics today is to say you care deeply about global warming and advocate for the price of gas to go down. Those are mutually exclusive concepts.” He’s right. Democrats can’t have it both ways. Nor can John McCain. One either wants to make energy more affordable—thus increasing its use—or less affordable to ensure some sort of sadistic approach to “conservation.”

An even bigger point that should be made is that the theology of Global Warming, cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, and the like, are simply tactics in a greater strategy to turn the United States into a command-and-control economy.

Today, America is the bread basket of the world, much as Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa in 1980. But then the Marxist, Robert Mugabe, took over in that troubled, tragic land. He decided—as his fellow travelers in America have now done—to ration scarcity under state control. And the bloated bellies of his victims attest to the error of his ways.

Walter Williams has a good summary, “Once a food-exporting country, Zimbabwe stands on the brink of starvation. Just recently, President Robert Mugabe declared that he’s going to nationalize all the farmland. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the consequence will be to exacerbate Zimbabwe’s food problems.”

And that’s what happens when entire sectors of an economy are nationalized, as Democrats would like to nationalize the energy sector: Those goods and services become less affordable, more scarcely used until the economy collapses.

Instead, what is needed is to increase energy production to fuel a growing economy in the 21st century. Democrats may be satisfied to knock America down a notch or two until the people are living in Third World conditions. But the American people ought to not stand for it.

Now is the time for the American people to rise up and take back the energy resources Congress has locked away. Mr. Boehner will need help, for he cannot do this on his own. He needs reinforcements in his crusade against radical environmentalism. For if he fails, America, like Zimbabwe, will swiftly go from bread basket to basket case. And there will be no one left to bail us out. Or even weep our passing.