Whenever a Democrat is in the White House and his already unbearably high price of gasoline becomes even more unbearable, the tortured phizogs of the Borglike Republican Collective begin sputtering Outrage on behalf of The Common Man, the Rs' singular concern.
These selfless protests of the Democratic president's fecklessness radiate throughout the republic, and soon, Americans of all classes and all political persuasions are cursing the White House occupant for their unbearably painful, unfueled-up anguish.
Meanwhile, one crucial element behind the nation's outrage goes unmentioned by the Democrat, which I find quite odd. These, it seems, are the words not to be spoken by the Democrat, preferably in stentorian tones:
U.S. presidents don't set and cannot control the price of oil, whence your gallons of gasoline. Other than cartels' unilateral production outputs and price-fixing, international events can swiftly disrupt oil's market stability — disruptions such as ...
Middle East diplomacy in action:
After Iran rained down a missile barrage on Israel in retaliation for the killing of a Hezbollah leader, Israel vowed to retaliate against Iran for having retaliated, which will compel Iran to retaliate for Israel's retaliation, to be followed by Israel's retaliation against Iran for having retaliated for the last — but not final — retaliation.
Middle East diplomacy's affect on American consumers:
A barrel of Brent crude had been trading at about $71 until yesterday, when Israel announced its next jingoistic act. This raised the price modestly, to around $76, reported The NY Times. The weak increase was largely due to less Chinese demand and oil's higher production, mostly by the U.S.
So far, then, Americans have been lucky. But weak increases could pump themselves up to stronger ones if Israel hits Iran's exporting ports, or if Western sanctions on Iran are screwed down tighter, or Iran hits oil facilities in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates or jams up the Strait of Hormuz.
And, as Bush II's Donald Rumsfeld once brilliantly observed, we know there are things out there we don't know. We do know that yesterday's 3% price increase came on top of the previous day's 5% hike, as the Times' DealBook reported. Together they could suggest the onset of a grinding pattern. One research firm has projected increases from $13 to almost $30 a barrel, depending on the unknowns we know.
All of which is to say, and say it in the simplest as well as most honest way, that a lot of American consumers only show their ignorance of exceptionally elementary, easily understood facts of oil's economics. Their ignorance is buttressed and safeguarded by feigning Republican pols, but there's also the enduring absence of Democrats' simple, honest, easily understood rebuttals.
Accompanying their generic outrage is the Rs' principal line of attack on Democratic administrations — their almost criminal negligence in the production of more U.S. oil. But worse than the lie is Democratic presidents rebutting it. They defensively enhance the lie's credibility by playing Republicans' game of this vacuous distraction.
A politically ruinous distraction from? See above. A Democratic president saying as often as necessary, Listen up, people of America, neither I nor a Republican president can set or control the price of oil. Those haranguing Republicans are lying to you, big time. Oil is a global commodity, produced globally and traded in global markets. We chief executives of the United States have no power over other producers and speculators who are market-involved.
Now, do you, good people of America, prefer Republican lies over the plain simple truth I just gave to you? About the price of gas, Republicans have been taking you on trips to the most ludicrous of falsehoods. They know it, as do I, but they sure don't want you to know it. Do you also prefer rewarding them by believing and repeating to friends and family the barefaced lies about the price of gasoline that they've been peddling for years? And destroying your faith in the country you love?
I think not. So next time you hear a Republican politician huckstering this same old lie, tell him to go soak his shameless head in a barrel of Brent crude. Tell him you know better.