Believe it or not, Republicans really are as destructive and foolish as you always thought

I have been trying to lay reasonably low this election season and not say anything too unsavory about either candidate.

But this latest bit of whackiness enters the realm of the sublimely wrong headed--and as such it would be criminal not to at least mark it for posterity and for those of you daily pressed with other concerns the so called conservative revolution has wrought: unnwinnable wars, unpayable gas prices, unaffordable health care, etc., etc. The closest comparison to this remarkable feat is probably the self defeating antics of Ronald Reagan tearing down the solar panels on the White House, circa 1980.
An inspired moment--that tough old celebrity hack qua President taking on those mean old photo-voltaic cells. I guess that's true business efficiency as only the highly evolved conservative mind is able to interpret it, much less embrace.

This time, Republicans have decided to make an issue of getting good gas mileage. Why don't they like good gas mileage? Because Obama suggested making sure your tires were properly inflated and that your car had a recent tuneup was a great way to ensure that you got good gas mileage. Obama observed that coastal drilling would save us so little oil and so little money even twenty years from now, that you can actually save more money immediately by doing “simple things” such as keeping your tires properly inflated.

Where did he get that crazy idea? From George Bush’s Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency…. Their joint site fueleconomy.gov is loaded with fuel-saving, money-saving tips. Keep your tires properly inflated, for example, and you can save up to 12 cents a gallon.

Compare that immediate savings from that single tip, with what coastal and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling combined would get you two decades from now: 6 cents a gallon.

And that’s being generous, because Bush’s Energy Department says we can’t expect any impact on prices from coastal drilling until the year 2030.

But I guess, for Republicans, unless a method destroys something significant, a coastline say, a city, or a country, it doesn't really count as a worthwhile measure, no matter how much or little you save. So now they are going to trot around with little tire gauges to mock Obama's statement and ostensibly his energy plan. This plan was actually one of the saner things said in our public square on the topic and it's a shame it will be thusly mocked, but mocked it will be, an action reeking of gimmickry and the intrepid politics of Karl Rove. Like wearing bandaids to mock John Kerry's purple hearts, and putting ink on their finger tips to embrace the happy 'victory' of Democracy in Iraq--circa 2005, during the slaughter in that country and it's emptying of over a million of its citizens, the tire gauge mockery will be in lockstep with the Republican brand, image over substance; quick political profit over long term gain. In almost every instance there's no connection to an underlying reality; indeed, the reality can be contradictory and that doesn't matter: the yellow magnetic ribbon weeping for the lost troops on the back of the two ton SUV--whose gas was the cause those troops ultimately died for. The images of heroic Bush under the Mission Accomplished banner, whose great grandfather Prescott made the Bush fortune selling weapons and munitions to the Germans, who never served under combat in his life. Doesn't matter in Rove world. There's only the empty scornful symbol, utterly liberated from truth, like most of the 'deep' conservative thinkers I know. Contempt is clearly too kind a word--not for the way I feel about Republicans, though their may be some undeniable truth there--but for the way they are treating the American electorate.


A few updates from those silly conservationists: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) also recently “appealed to those with the real power to make change — average citizens — to drive slower, keep engines tuned and tires properly inflated, to buy hybrids and lower overall consumption.”

Second Update: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist also believes keeping tires inflated is important.

Third Update: Not too long ago, NASCAR told fans, “With escalating fuel prices, the time is now for drivers to focus on simple things like proper tire pressure to maximize tire performance and increase fuel economy.”

Yes. You read that right. The Republicans are pitting themselves against their own NASCAR base. What did I tell you? Foolish and destructive.