ROCKMAN wrote:T - And IMHO your post only emphasizes how little difference there really is between the two parties when it comes to major policies that are actually ENACTED. That's why it's so common see the public flip flop since WWII. Yeah...lots of differences rhetoric wise. But at the end of the day not a lot of substantial difference so it's easy for the voting public (who aren't really R's or D's despite how they register) to switch hats. Of course there are the minorities of yellow dog D's and R's but they never determine the outcomes for the POTUS elections: it's always the fence sitters that will go either way depending upon the current circumstances.
Which brings us right back to what I consider a basic fact of human behavior. For the same reason Turkey is building 80 new large coal burning electric power plants, when the average citizen starts screaming to the government about expensive energy there are only a few things government can do to react.
One thing they can do is be Statesman, look to the future and say, sorry but this is the way it has to be because we are doing this for the children/grandchildren/further future.
Another thing they can do is take actions to subsidize expenses for the average citizen and the poor sector of the population.
A third thing they can do is cut red tape and issue lots of permits for construction of cheap, dirty, coal burning facilities.
That is pretty much the limit of Governments real power, they can encourage or discourage. If we stay on the growth BAU paradigm the only way to continue will be to expand energy use. The cheapest possible energy use is fossil fuels where most of the waste is dumped into the atmosphere and floats down wind instead of having to be buried or stabilized or dealt with in some other fashion.
I wish it was not that way, but that is the way it is.