Thank You Gas Tax!

Finally, the presidential race hinges on an ISSUE! What a novelty. Really, I mean I was so used to evaluating the candidates friends and neighbors as well an analyzing and spinning their descriptions of society, that I had basically given up hope that we would have a real look at policy. I have not been paying attention lately. I am swamped in lots of things, and I could devote way too much energy that I don't have to spare to this and so I haven't. It was such a sweet sound to hear the NPR report tonight about Hillary and John, getting reamed by economists for proposing a summer cut of the gas tax. Hillary dismissed their thoughtful, detailed and collaborative condemnation of her proposal as "elitist". Never mind that part of their analysis pointed out that it is the gas companies that would benefit from the cut. Could somebody please help me, or rather her with the definition of "elitist." The misuse of descriptive terms really bothers me here. But the rest of it makes me so happy, because we needed a blatant unveiling of the poor politics being deployed by some of the candidates. I can almost see the policy meeting: "Well, lets offer em' something they'll like. What are people freakin' about? Oh, yeah fuel! Hey lets offer a cut in the fuel tax so people can feel like their consumption doesn't have to go down. Lets use their fear of dwindling resources to create a political advantage!" Obama doesn't roll that way. Sure he has unsavory policy positions (for instance he is pro-nuclear) but his approach to coming to these positions is not based on fear, it is based on --well--HOPE and in instances like this that distinction is palpable. Tonight I also listened to "On Point" on NPR. The topic was the "Global Food Crisis". Did you know that their is a food shortage in Haiti and Peru? In the former their have been food riots. The "On Point" commentator called the audio of the riots the "sound of hunger." It is shocking and not at all surprising. The way our global food system is ordered does not favor the democratic distribution of food. Large conglomerations in places like Ecuador mean that food does not stay close to its source. Resources are used for the production of mass quantities of food for export. Large quantities of grain feed cattle in the "first-world" (or rather, the hegemonically positioned exertion of economic and territorial sovereignty that has led to a hierarchy of nation-states with unequal distribution of purchasing power which we call the "first world"). Fuel prices are a contributing factor of course, in terms of food transportation. There are global food riots! Stretching to Malaysia. How did we (maybe you did, so how did I) not know this. When will it be undeniable based on a localized experience of shortages? Could it really be that far away? Again, this is why I support Obama. We are entering into a period of severe challenges to the lives we have known. Our government has lost credibility (did you hear about how Bush insulted India?) and normalized systems of distribution are beginning to show symptomatic signs of immanent failure. Who do I want to lead us through this? A person with vision and the ability to create collaboration. A person willing to open to the people and listen to their voices and ask them to matter and make a difference. Because that is what we will need to do.