BCT Editorial – 6/27/08

This page was last updated on June 28, 2008.

Broken branch; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 27, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Energy crunch can’t be addressed under current conditions.”

The editorial laments “ideology-driven politics” in Congress. Isn’t “ideology-driven politics” (politics driven by core principles) what we always say we want? I thought partisan party politics was the bad boy.

When you read, “Congress cannot function without a centrist approach,” remember Times editorials refer to politicians with Americans for Democratic Action liberal quotients of 93% and American Conservative Union conservative ratings of 8% as centrists.

The editorial told us, “On Tuesday, House Democrats failed to revive a bill to punish price gouging at the pump while at the same time blocking Republicans attempts to end a federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. This political and ideological rigidity leads nowhere.” Naturally, the editorial failed to note Republicans were actually trying to increase future energy supply while Democrats were trying to pass laws against non-existent “price gouging at the pump.”

Did you notice the common thread of the three allegedly centrist “Want” paragraphs? Whether or not we agree with the choices, each “Fine,” “OK,” and “Sure” is a “compromise” that requires us to give up some liberty (via increased regulations, government spending, and/or taxes) in exchange for the opportunity to increase domestic energy supplies. This trait demonstrates there’s nothing centrist about today’s centrism. For far too many people, centrism is simply a euphemism for leftism.

In general we don’t lose our liberty in huge chunks. We lose our liberty bit by bit via seemingly minor compromises over a long period of time.