Paul Starr:
In the article he wrote for the {American} Prospect's first issue, Schlesinger observed that many people believe politics is about power, while others think it is about image, and he granted there is some truth in both of those views. But in a democracy, he continued, politics is "above all about the search for remedy."
The Democrats will lose ground this year because they've failed to provide economic remedies fast enough. But the long-run problem for Republicans is that remedy is not what they have been offering -- not for health care, for which they barely offer even the pretense of a solution; not for the recession, which their ideas would aggravate; not for immigration, one of several issues they want to exploit without facing up to the facts; not for climate change, which many of them entirely deny; not for energy, where their favorite response, as summed up in the chant, "Drill, baby, drill," was drowned in the Gulf oil spill. Events like the financial collapse and the oil spill keep reminding people that they need a competent and activist government to rein in the market. Unless conservatives abandon ideological fantasy and denial and become a responsible partner in government, progressives will dominate the search for remedy. And if that is what political tug-of-war is all about, we will ultimately win it.
I don't share Starr's optimism that progressive remedies will eventually carry the day. After all, democracy's not even safe. Just a glance at Tea Party rhetoric, where the democratic process is called "tyranny" on the basis of distorted interpretations of 18th-century political theory and accompanied by overt threats of violence - "gather your armies!" - hints at what could be. I could imagine a world where a political party rides right-wing populist racism and xenophobia to elected office...
In short, if there's one lesson I've learned since mucking around in politics, it's that good ideas don't always win the day.
Still Starr's right: only Democrats have actually tried to solve the problems we face, economically, environmentally, and in foreign policy. We may not like the policies they craft in Congress - too slavish towards established institutions and big corporations - but at least they have policies. Don't believe me? Check out this post from Montana PSC candidate Travis Kavulla on global warming:
So what's the solution? Manzi suggests that there is no obvious solution in the here-and-now, and that whatever solution is out there almost certainly has not been invented yet. I agree. Manzi's recipe is investment, not mandates or carbon taxes or the creation of artificial shortages. And I tend to agree that anything that tries to make renewables more competitive by lowering their cost is a much better option as opposed to the self-defeating path of raising the price of carbon-based fuels for only some consumers in only some parts of the world.
So the answer is...do nothing? At least Kavulla acknowledges climate change is real. And it's pathetic, really, that he gets kudos for that, showing as it does how neanderthal most conservatives' views are on the topic.
First of all, Manzi based his do-nothing conclusion on the premise that "global warming...is expected to have only a marginal impact on the world economy." Of course, folks in Montana already know this isn't true. The region's mountain pine beetle infestation is a direct result of climate change, as is the West's prolonged fire season, which accounted for an increase in the federal firefighting budget of about 1.5 billion dollars a year (pdf) from 2000 to 2005. That is, climate change has likely already cost the American taxpayer in excess of 10 billion dollars in firefighting costs alone in the past decade. And that's not even mentioning the hit in tourism revenue, and the health costs and decline of worker productivity due to fire-related air pollution.
And the rise of global temperatures is just beginning. Wait a century.
As for Kavulla and Manzi eschewing a carbon tax or cap-and-trade, which would raise the cost of fossil-fuel-based energy sources, and reliance on white-hat investment into alternative energy technologies, they seem to forget that investment follows incentive. If carbon-emitting energy becomes more expensive, consumers will demand alternative-energy sources and energy efficient homes, cars, and appliances, mass transit and bike lanes, and livable, walkable neighborhoods. The revenue collected from a carbon tax can build the new green infrastructure. And consumers eventually save money by using energy more efficiently, using less of it.
Which is another way of saying there is plenty we can do, right now. We don't have to pawn off the problem onto some unknown, future technology, and force our children and children's children to muster the courage and determination to deal with environmental catastrophe. Some of us have the courage and determination here and now. |
