Pipeline becomes symbol in false political choice

Dec. 9, 2011
If US elections in 2012 amounted only to a contest between envy and oil, President Barack Obama would win 4 more years in office.

If US elections in 2012 amounted only to a contest between envy and oil, President Barack Obama would win 4 more years in office.

Obama knows this. Do Republicans?

That the important Keystone XL pipeline has become a political symbol is deeply regrettable.

The proposed link between oil sands of Alberta and refining centers of Texas is important for economic, even strategic reasons. Politics related to the project should be incidental at most.

But activists made Keystone XL an iconic political issue. They said it would threaten water supplies. They called the oil prospectively in it “dirty.”

Mostly, of course, they just wanted to block an important project because—well, because it involves oil. It’s what extremists do.

Obama complied. He delayed a decision whether to approve the project until comfortably after the elections.

He favored extremism over employment, political convenience over security of energy supply.

It’s what this president does.

Republicans are gobbling the bait.

In the House of Representatives, which they control, Republicans attached approval of the project to essential legislation with bipartisan support: extension of the payroll tax cut.

The Democrat-controlled Senate was considering an extension of the tax cut along with a tax hike on millionaires. Democrats hitched a tax hike to a measure everyone knows must pass knowing many Republicans won office to resist that very thing.

They knew the bill would fail, which it did. Now they’ll say Republicans favor rich people over the struggling middle class.

This is silly. It’s what Democrats do.

House Republicans stooped to equivalent inanity, daring Democrats to oppose Keystone XL, which Obama surely will.

If next year’s election were just a choice between pipeline construction, however many jobs that means, and money for the envious many from the fortunate few, Obama would win.

Obama knows this. Do Republicans?

But the election will represent more than a politically fabricated choice. It will address a vision for America that transcends empty posturing and political tricks.

Most Americans know this. Do Republicans?

(Online Dec. 10, 2011; author’s e-mail: [email protected])