Conservative blinders

Digby brings to my attention the words of the venerable conservative icon Rush Limbaugh:

With gasoline prices now under two bucks in most places and dropping, and the price of oil (I checked it right before the program) below $50 now ($49 a barrel it was earlier today.) So with the gas price under two bucks and oil plummeting, what would you say, Pelosi and Reid, if the car companies could become profitable by selling SUVs or go broke by turning out the green cars that you're going to demand they make?

Ah, the hypocrisy of the Right Wing mindset.

This is what I like to refer to as "conservative blinders." You're focused exclusively on short-term interests because things are precisely the way you want them. Nevermind that they're going to change, and nevermind that you're not going to like the change. Things are the way they are right now and thus there's no need to change anything.

Gasoline is under two bucks in most place right now but we had a taste of what life is like when it's over four bucks. The price of oil is under $50 a barrel right now, but we had a taste of what life is like when it's over $150. What makes you think those prices aren't going to skyrocket again? What makes you think it's safe to drive SUVs without concern for the future, either to our pocket books or to the global environment? Things are the way we want them right now, and the future will just sort itself out, right?

Short-term policies are a specialty for the GOP. Deregulating industries are good for the nation -- in the short term. Global warming is a problem for the future, so we'll let our children and grandchildren worry about it when it comes time to pay the bill. About the only long-term thinking the GOP ever engages in amounts to gambling: their policies are good for the rich and you want to be rich, right? So support our policies in the increasingly rare event that you get to be rich like us!

I don't want Detroit to start putting out efficient, environmentally-friendly vehicles because they're going to be cheaper. I want Detroit to do it because it's going to be better for everybody in the long run. I don't want my children or their children to have to pay the bill we're creating for them. Of course, if they can't put out a car that won't fall apart while I drive it, I'm still not going to buy from them. My Corolla just passed the 225000 mile mark on its original engine, and it shows no signs of dropping any time soon. Until Detroit can match that, I'm going to continue to buy Corollas in the future.

At least, I will when I have the money to do it. For some reason, the GOP is good at producing policies to protect the rich, but not so good at producing policies that help people achieve that increasingly rarefied status.

Obama Meets With Dangerous World Leader Without Preconditions

An Open Letter in Protest of California's Proposition 8

http://www.mayerdan.com/2008/11/an_open_letter_to_the_supporte.php

You have given your time, your money and your energy to a cause that has attempted to create a second-class citizenry in the United States of America. You have given your time, your money, and your energy to the cause of corrupting the Constitution of California with the first mention of discrimination against its own people. You have given your time, your money, and your energy to the cause of destroying thousands of loving unions between two people. And, congratulations, you succeeded. So, now the question that you should ask yourself: Are you happy now?

We certainly are not. In fact, we are furious. The problem is, you see us as gays and lesbians, but we see ourselves as Americans. You would do yourself a huge favor to look back through the history of this great country and see that in the war of oppression against Americans, your side has always lost. Not only have you lost, but your failures are seen as epic and painful embarrassments that we, as a country, try our hardest to forget. We don't want to believe that America would allow segregation, Japanese internment camps, prohibiting women from voting, and most ironically, the anti-Mormon movements of the 19th century.

The only difference between this Civil Rights movement and all of those that have come before us is that you can't tell us apart by the color of our skin, our sex, or the country that our parents came from. We are your sons, your daughters, your mothers, your fathers, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins, your doctors, your lawyers, your teachers, your public servants… and not one of us looks like the other. Actually, we look just like you.

Maybe you didn't think Obama would win, but he did, and you will hear the echoes of his landslide in our calls of "YES WE CAN" until we are equal.

We are Americans, and we will not give up. We never have, and we never will. The only end in sight is equality, so for the sake of your children's pride in the actions of your generation, please get out of our way.