I actually understand not taking the lead on the Gulf Oil spill initially. It made political sense. BP fucked it up, BP should take responsibility for it. If the administration had put its face on the disaster to early the press and a large part of America would likely have made Obama the scapegoat. But now its time to put his hands in the muck.
Let's face it in our 24 hour Sarah Palanized world, one line ("No big government") solutions are what gets all the air time. Simple answers are what a lot of people want, or maybe they are what a lot of politicians and media executives think we want. It would have been so easy just to say this is Obama's Katrina. Fortunately last month when the MSM tried that, it didn't stick. At first.
Now I'm starting to feel like it is. I'm also starting to feel like there is some merit to associating the administrations reticence to be visibly involved with the crisis with the overall ineffectiveness of the response. That is why at this point I would encourage the administration to get their hands on this thing now before public opinion starts to slide. As we know from Katrina once the slide starts the fall is hard, and you never really recover.
Let me put this issue in to context. I believe that it was both morally and politically correct for the administration to lay the blame squarely at BP/Halliburtons feet on this. Because, simply put they are to blame. Although the US government is the final arbiter of who can drill where in this country, BP possesses the technology, BP fought for no oversight, and BP made the series of decisions that led to this platform sinking.
Now if we drill deeper (pardon the pun) and get in to the how and why of the issue we can conclude: yes politicians have been egregiously complicit in the destruction of our environment. Yes politicians are guilty of defending oil interests. Yes politicians have been short sighted in their commitment to fossil fuels. Yes politicians have allowed regulators to collude with industry and regulation to atrophy. But politicians did not sink that platform, BP did.
That said I believe the most important lesson to take away from this mess has not been fully articulated anywhere. We need to acknowledge our own responsibility for this catastrophe. I don't just mean our need to drive big cars and use up all the worlds resources, that goes without saying. Its much deeper than that in my opinion.
The people of this country need to understand that we are suffering from the affects of 40 years of Ayn-Rand-Freakshow-laissez-faire economics. They need to fully grasp that and deal with it.
The politicians who support this philosophy have been rewarded by being reelected and bolstering their numbers. They have in turn sown the seeds of this philosophy throughout all the institutions of government appointed and non appointed. It is the no government, no regulation, politics is bad philosophy that permeates every level of our government and media now, and it has cost us dearly. I say politician because they are from both parties. It was a democratic senator who got on TV and said "we need that oil for our country and our jobs" knowing full well that "that oil" would be going onto the open market enriching a foreign corporation.
We are ultimately responsible for the election and reelection of the men and women that have made these horrendous decisions. Whether it was out of listlessness or a complete disregard for our social contract we did this. We (or the majority of the voting populace) turned away from civic responsibility. We accepted this Ayn Rand shit hook line and sinker.
Even if we didn't knowingly do it we accepted it. We chose the easy way out and allowed the right wing to slime everything from the great society, to labor laws, to voting rights, to environmental regulation. Instead of serving as the firewall against history revision and preventing this erosion of our civic responsibility, the media bobble heads followed us right off of the cliff. It is as if we tapped out in the late 70's and have been socially unconscious every sense.
Here are just a few clues as to how bad it has gotten:
The need for healthcare should not have pitted people (on social security and medicare) against each other in yelling matches, calling each other socialists.
The efficacy of and need for the 64 civil rights bill should not even be a topic of discussion.
An ignorant demagogue like Sarah Palin should never have happened.
The Presidency of George W Bush should never have happened.
The reality is that as liberals got beat up, America got dumbed down. But here we are, and in the final analysis we are to blame for the BP fiasco.
Now what better way to redeem ourselves than to take this latest tragedy in the gulf and conquer it. Not with corporate friendly half steps, focus grouped half truths, and right-wing theories that have been shown ineffective. But with a big social contract, as big as the gulf tragedy itself. All those "conservative" shrimpers and fishermen and oil workers down in the gulf, do you think they trust the private sector now after a month of this? All those southern politicians who trash the federal government but receive the bulk of federal assistance proportional to their populations, do you think they will keep singing the "gub-ment bad" song?
Mr. President here is what you do. Put your little blue ribbon commission together with the requisite republican and democratic representative. But don't stop there. By Wednesday have a nationally televised prime-time press conference and be straight with the American people. Just like we are going to war (which in effect we are), speak directly to the citizens of this country. Tell them where we stand in stopping the flow, how bad the spill is, how long it will effect our environment and what we stand to lose because of this. Be brutally honest with us because again this is war. Explain that you allowed the "free market" a month to try and fix this mess, unfettered with any government oversight. Explain that you gave them tax payer funded assistance but asked for nothing in return even allowing BP to control coast guard resources.
Then explain that BP has failed. They have not only failed they have lied and covered up. Now it is time for "big government" to take over and try and fix the wreckage. Don't be timid about it either. IF you have to nationalize BP's American assets, do it. If you have to deploy the US Navy, do it. If you have to ask for help from Europe, do it, they owe us anyway. Do whatever it takes but staying out of the fray isn't going to cut it anymore, because very soon you will be forced to take ownership of this mess by the media and your political enemies. In fact it has already started and this time it may stick. You might as well own it on your terms. What is critical is that YOU need to explain to the American people what is going on, not BP. Time is of the essence Mr President. And we don't have much of it.