I Flip-Flop.... Do You?

So this is what the American public is reduced to? Simple little phrases, uttered by simple little people to try and simplify really complicated issues.

"Flip-Flop" the verb, and "Flip-Flopper" the noun, are adding to the generalized embarrassment that this country has become and no one seems to mind.

The term "Flip-Flop" was coined by the Bush administration. That should be enough for any intelligent person to never use it in a sentence. Unfortunately, most people are absolute morons and these morons have actually convinced themselves that changing one's mind, for ANY reason, is a sign of weakness. That starting out wrong, and staying wrong is actually better than ultimately being right!

Go back and re-read that last paragraph.

Morons!

I thought after the past eight years we were ready to get serious in this country. Apparently I was wrong. Both sides, Republican and Democrat, are using this nauseating verbage every day it seems to describe something I've always found appealing in intelligent people. The ability to change one's mind when being presented with new information.

It's true that the act of forming an opinion and standing by that opinion is a sign of leadership. However, the refusal to alter that opinion when presented with overwhelming evidence to the contrary isn't leadership at all. It's hard-headed stupidity and until the American public is will to recognize and accept this we will continue to deserve the kind of "leadership" the Bush administration has demonstrated these past eight years.

As a small example.

OFF SHORE DRILLING

This issue is so dumb it's actually mind-blowing. It's a knee jerk reaction to a huge problem. A problem so large that it's going to take decades to remedy it and no single thing will fix it.

Gas prices are through the roof because of greedy oil companies and now people are willing to listen to these same companies as they offer solutions to the problem they helped create. Meanwhile, Exxon/Mobile reports another quarter of record profits and we're supposed to trust them and their solutions?

Not me! Here's a few things to keep in mind as this issue continues to become this election cycles gay marriage. This year's wedge issue...

1. Most experts agree that it will take a minimum of six YEARS to actually find and harvest any oil here in America. At that point the total amount found will equal about .002 percent of the world's oil supply.

2. During that six years we will continue to pay the gas premiums we are now. If John McCain is allowed to present this as the cornerstone of his energy policy I can assure you that the price of gas and food will continue to strangle the average American family.

3. Simply harvesting oil isn't enough. We still have to refine it! Neither side has actually discussed this idea. The solution would be to build more American refineries. This is the solution of many oil executives. A simple way to increase their output and produce more profit. There is a bigger question in all of this...

Where are we going to build these extra refineries? They pollute tons and aren't environmentally sound. No one wants them built next to their homes! Sorta like prisons. Everyone wants more of them, just not in their backyards.

4. Even if we do harvest and refine this .002 percent of the world's oil there's no guarantee that it will actually wind up in American cars and homes. Currently over 90 percent of all the oil produced in America winds up in the foreign market. It's shipped to places like Europe where they pay more than double what we do already. These American oil companies have ZERO intention of keeping this extra oil here at home. No way and no how. It doesn't make any economic sense to do so.

In the end this is a typical American "solution". Instant gratification to a problem 100 years in the making. It's impossible to solve these problems by simply drilling more. Impossible!

Unfortunately the American consumer is so dumb that Barack Obama has had to change his stance on the subject. He's gone from being totally against the idea to now agreeing to compromise on the subject and use the issue as part of a larger, further-reaching, energy policy.

FLIP-FLOPPER!

That's what the talking heads on right-wing television and radio would have you believe. They call it "flip-flopping" while I call it actual leadership.

See, when the majority of the electorate want something it's important to listen to them. Even if they are wrong. That's the idea of a "democracy" and our "by the people, for the people" idea of government. Obama has realized that simply saying no on this subject isn't going to work. He's agreed to compromise with the people on the Right. People who owe big oil most of their senate and house seats in the first place. He's agreed to re-visit the idea and possibly make off-shore drill PART of a much larger energy policy. Give a little to get a lot.

Work across the political aisle to try and find a solution everyone can feel comfortable with.

Obama is smart enough to realize getting everyone on board is better than leaving half the country behind. After all, he's not running for President of the Blue States.

The McCain camp has jumped all over this and are trying to sell it as weakness.

I would say that electing a man willing to try and listen to both sides and adjust his thinking accordingly is a sign of strength and intelligence. If nothing else, a breath of fresh air. After all, the "our way, or the highway" policies of the Bush administration these past eight years have lead this country into numerous dead ends both here at home and abroad. Most of these policies are ones the McCain camp is all too willing to see continue the next four years.

If "Flip-Flop" is code for changing one's mind then I'd rather have a flip-flopper in charge than an old, stubborn man that refuses to reconsider his thoughts or ideas no matter what anyone thinks. Imagine a world where no one ever changed their view of what was right based on new information and public opinion....

A flat world, the sun revolved around when the moon made of cheese wasn't filling the night sky. A country where black people weren't considered whole humans in the eyes of the law and where women didn't have the right to vote.

What a wonderful place indeed.