What Obama can really do about the Oil Spill

James Carville's recent rant against his hero Obama points up one thing that is pretty certain to the people of the Gulf States. Someone needs to do something about it.

Obama can't since he is completely out of his depth. In fact, the worse the disaster is, ironically, the better it is for his ultimate agenda of taking over the Energy sector and wrecking the American economy. I don't know if the origin of the oil spill was a genuine accident or sabotage, but it must be seen as a god-send to the Lefty environmentalists. There is virtually nothing imaginable that could have played into their hands more perfectly than this event.

Certainly some like Carville are trying to get Obama down there to use his vaunted "leadership and intellectual powers" in the cause of a cleanup, but their hopes are wasted on Obama and even the Federal Government. No goverment is any good at this kind of thing, despite years of Liberal dogma and propaganda to the contrary. Obama, to his credit, has paid lip service to this idea, but has wisely stayed away. Even though the Liberal media are pummeling him, there is really nothing he can do about it.

Stupidly, the Conservative media like Fox, have also jumped on the bandwagon, mocking him for his ineffective response, and contrasting his record unfavorably with that of Bush who was even more strongly criticised for not acting more aggressively after hurricane Katrina. But again, there was not much he could do either. While thousands of hapless citizens sat in the sports arena crying out for some one to take care of them, they did nothing for themselvs. This was a sad testimony to years spent training a citizenry to look to the government for everything - ie: the fruit of the welfare state.

The recent flooding in Knoxville, Tn produced a response that was a marked contrast to New Orleans. The news people did not even cover it (almost didn't), but the fact is, the citizens just picked up and got about the business of putting things back together, receiving such aid as the state and neighboring communities gave. It was a "no whine" zone.

I would have thought the conservative media would smell a rat in all the cries for the FedGov to "do something" about the oil spill. Since when is it even the responsibility of the Federal government to fix every bad thing that happens to any area or group in the country? We are Americans and traditionally self-reliant. There is nothing that we cannot do as citizens when we pick ourselves up and begin organizing on the ground, unlike ineffectual top-down FEMA efforts.

There is one thing that FedGov can do, and it is almost certain that they won't do it: that is, they can suspend all environmental restrictions on local and state actions to deal with the oil. Governor Jindel of Louisiana has been virtually begging the EPA and Army corp of engineers (and probably hundreds of other regulatory agencies that form a Gulliver's web of restrictions) to stop prohibiting any effective action to deal with the spill. Like Reagan's famous quote about government from his first inaugural: "Government isn't the solution to our problems; government IS the problem." It is not that government isn't doing enough; it has already created the recipe for a much larger disaster because of its interference with those who already would have been taking effective action to minimize the damage from oil coming on shore.

Instead of looking to big government to take care of this problem, why don't we recognize that the efforts of big government are really best viewed in a support role: let them get out of the way, provide what resources in manpower and equipment that are readily at hand; be prepared to provide funds if necessary for short term relief, and as to the rest, just get out of the way of the people on the ground.

While the Lefty environmental wack-jobs would go ballistic again, one of the most universally-applauded announcements that this Federal government could make would be to announce a moratorium on all environmental restrictions on action for some extended period of time along the Gulf Coast. Such a sensible announcement would galvanize whole armies of citizens who are now sitting back and witing for "someone else" to do it, when the obvious thing is for the local and state people to take charge. After all, they are there, and they are the ones being most directly impacted. They have the most incentive to be effective, and they definitely can be.

I note sadly, that this sensible announcement is most unlikely to be made, for it would also highlight the insidious nature of those same regulations which are ostemsibly "for our good." For the most part, I am of the opinion that they are much more of an obstruction to caring for the practical living environment of our country than we realize. Relieving us of them might just prove too big an embarassment to the Lefties. So don't hold your breath.

Local people rising to the occasion is the quintessentially American way of dealing with disasters of every kind, from the Johnstown flood to the Knoxville flood. It is a sign of the times that we have so forgotten our roots that even the Conservatives are whining that Obama is not fixing the problem quickly enough. That is sad.