True Colors – The Re-run

True Colors is a 1991 film written by Kevin Wade. The movie opens with Peter Burton (John Cusack) and his best friend Tim Garrity (James Spader) nervously awaiting the results of Peter’s congressional election and ends with Peter facing jail time and Tim, disillusioned and bitter. Tim, a top manager in the Department of Justice and who comes from an affluent family, is an idealistic person who wants to do what is right. Peter, who is embarrassed by his lower-class roots, is willing to use and manipulate anyone to get ahead. He plans a career in politics. In his blind ambition, Peter ultimately falls under the influence of organized crime, uses manipulation of his best friend and the truth, public corruption, and physical infirmity of his Senator father-in-law to gain support for his run for congress. Ultimately, Peter’s egotism and arrogance lead him to reveal his “true colors,” to Tim, who secretly captures Peter’s admission of guilt on surveillance tape and turns in his best friend.

Similarly, social progressives (“democrats”) ("Peter") have spent the past fifty years manipulating the American people ("Tim") and the truth to achieve their conversion of a capitalistic America to a socialistic America. They are starting to demonstrate their “true colors.” And we have it on surveillance tape (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUaY3LhJ-IQ&feature=related) at least when it comes to their understanding of how America’s energy policy and markets should work.

The brouhaha started about two weeks ago, when Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) challenged the President of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, to guarantee the American people that the prices they pay at the pump will go down if the oil companies are allowed to drill wherever they want off of US shores. Mr. Hofmeister responded, “ I can guarantee to the American people, because of the inaction of the United States Congress, ever increasing prices unless the demand comes down and five dollars will look like a very low price in the years to come if we are prohibited from finding new reserves and new opportunities to increase supplies.” To which, Ms. Waters responded, “ Guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be all about socializing … ahhh, ahhh, (3 second pause), will be about (3 second pause), basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.” The word that this social progressive could not find in her vocabulary was “nationalize.” Not to be outdone and to clarify the record, on June 18, 2008, Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), explicitly stated the social progressives’ intent: “So if there is any seriousness about what some of our Republican colleagues are saying here in the House and elsewhere about improving the number of refineries, maybe they would be willing to have these refineries publicly owned by the people of the United States so that the people of the United States can determine how much of the product is refined and put out on the market. To me that sounds like a very good idea.” It sounded so good, that Malia Lazu, of Oil Change International, an Obama supporter, unequivocally stated that the oil companies should be taken over by the government.

So there it is. The democrats’ strategy is to nationalize … or euphemistically, socialize, if you listen to the eloquence of Maxine Waters … a major segment of the United States economy because, at the core of it, they do not understand basic economic theory. I guess when all you have in your tool chest is a hammer, all problems look like a nail. Hopefully the government will be able to “nationalize” the oil industry better than they have regulated the commercial nuclear electric industry, which they managed to kill. After almost 30 years of discussion on the burial of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, we are still 8 to 11 years away from a final decision. In the meantime, France has no problem with nuclear waste: they have been vitrifying it for 20 years, and now nuclear power represents 80% of their electricity production.

Unfortunately, no rational, prospective decision will be forthcoming from the “democrats.” Generally, they do better when a lot of polling data and prior historical data exist, which they can second-guess. Hindsight is always 20-20. However, when pushed to make a critical decision, rest assured they will show their “true colors.”