No Blood For Oil made for a good anti-war slogan when gas was going for the same price as Two Buck Chuck. But with gasoline now regularly priced at $4 and in Canada, where I’m sitting at Starbucks, what calculates to SIX BUCKS -- and that’s for the cheap stuff! -- I’m not so sure the saying holds. As Wanda Sykes recently said on Conan: “If anybody drives a Hummer, you should be able to shoot at them.” Arnold Schwarzenegger…excuse me, Governor Schwarzenegger (still sounds weird), better watch out the next time he drives to lunch at the Ivy, Leo DiCaprio might just do a drive-by out the window of his Prius.
(BTW, you can check out Wanda’s spiel here, it’s hilarious. You need something to do between your coffee break and lunch, right??
Okay so here’s what really gets me: What are we doing about this? People complain, and complain, then whine a little, and then go back to complaining. Politicians pander with meaningless filler the Gas Tax Holiday (sorry, Hill, a dud that died on impact) or more ethanol subsidies. Wow, genius move. Gas prices continue to soar, and now we have food shortages! There are honest-to-blog food riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt! Take one a part rising fertilizer costs (fertilizer is often made with petroleum products), mix in farmers selling their crops for ethanol instead of food, and don’t forget politicians who can’t think further ahead then tomorrow’s paper (or if they’re wired, the next Huffington Post blog entry) and you have a recipe for one flaktastic disaster.
Well, thank our lucky stars for the timing, cause it’s not as if we’re also mired in a financial fubar of a subprime mortgage crisis. Oh right, we are. All right, this is a bad time. Reminds me of the softly-spoken line that started Showtime’s Huff: “It just never stops.”
In this BPB that you read somewhat regularly, Kevin and I try to break down the ultimate in spin (i.e., BS) to get to PR fundamentals (like always-thoughtful communication). Gas Tax Holidays are spin. Ethanol is spinning us mad. George Bush running ads in the 2000 GOP primaries claiming he’s a responsible environmental steward while John McCain can’t be trusted is a big ole spinning top… Scratch that, it was a giant, mind blowing, nuclear bomb–tagged lie.
I mention the last example because regardless of your "poleanings," in this upcoming election we all have to band together and see past the spinners to get the truth-tellers. I am beseeching us all, not just you coastal rats, to listen up, put your ears to the fire, and make politicians stop the garble and make sense. There’s no better time! This time our wallets are at stake!
We’ll hear politicians and interest groups giving us simplistic solutions dressed up as policy (Drill in Alaska! Tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve! Invade Iran! Invade British Columbia!). But maybe, maybe-maybe, we’ll hear some pols make an honest effort to communicate complicated choices to the people of our pissed-off, pissed-on nation. And then we’ll get carefully-crafted PR efforts that golly gee have a couple of solutions tossed in, which clearly contrasts to solutions that pandering sloganeers toss at us now.
When it comes to $4-plus gas, a real PR effort devoid of spin would sure be something. Hey, Beav, let’s call it leadership!
To end on a sweet (and I mean sweet!) note I'd like to initiate you to Two Buck Chuck, in case you've neglected it: Charles Shaw Wine will set you back a buck ninety-nine at Trader Joe’s. Try it… Go right now, I’ll wait. Take a sip? It’s not bad. Funny world, this one.
Ok, but...
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that gas prices/energy is one where good politics and good policy just don't overlap. That's a rare situation in political communications.
As an example, take education. Fully funding education is definitely good policy, and for most of the country, it's good politics. Lowering health care costs is good policy, also good politics. (NB: We're talking in broad themes, here not policy specifics.)
But gas prices, well, that's a different story. Good politics dictates that we do something, anything, even if it provides minimal relief, like the gas tax holiday. But, good policy dictates something entirely different - as you point out. Good policy means letting the market do its thing, without artificially deflating fuel prices, which basically disincentivizes driving and forces people to take a bus, a train, or blog-forbid, those two fleshy appendages at the end of your legs. Good policy also dictates a massive (and tax-increasing) new investment into what would essentially be a crash alternative-fuel development program. And, oh yeah, the government is going to have to force-feed some societal changes down peoples' throats too, to get them out of the car.
All of that is well and good, but if you buy my argument that on gas prices, good politics and good policy rarely (if ever) overlap, then how do you turn good policy into good politics, too?
You can't have me thinking about two-buck chuck when I'm working form home and there's a bottle right over there... dangit!
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, more to the point, I've been having this same discussion with friends since election season started. And we keep coming back to the idea that intelligent discussion doesn't get good ratings. I mean EW wrote up the news nets this week! an entertainment mag!
If we want to do this right, we've got go beyond good messaging on our end that is issue-focus. We all have to try and talk about this with friends and family and get them to change the channel tgo something that respects their collective intelligence.
Supply and demand meet at a price. Increase the supply and the price goes down. So which will it be No Blood For Oil or No Drilling For Oil?
ReplyDeleteBTW Canada is so far doing a pretty good job of getting the oil to consumers. Keep it up.
M. Simon - there is no supply crisis for oil right now, and the market for oil is not a free one, so the laws of supply and demand don't apply as much as you would think.
ReplyDeleteIncrease the value of the dollar and the oil price will go down - stop borrwing/prinitng money to pay for the things this country needs and start living within our means as a country, i.e. get rid of those dumb Bush tax cuts and stop spending billions on an unecessary war. - then we will see gas prices fall into line with our wages.
Just my two cents :^)
Oil companies don't set the price of oil; markets do.
ReplyDeleteReally, really great rant! Well done. Feel better?
ReplyDeleteI do, actually. Thanks! (Did you mean me...)
ReplyDeleteHa! Way to end a good rant: with a mention of 2-buck Chuck. That commie-fabulous wine (well most of it IS Red, isn't it?) is about the only thing that is right in the world these days...
ReplyDelete