Maybe, just maybe

It’s hard to remain optimistic about Obama’s chances, given all the idiots out there and the scenes from McBush/Qualin rallies that look like Nuremburg, but there are a few telling events that made it look possible.

First, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker comes out against Palin. She is excoriated by her previously fawning fans and is shocked, shocked at the murderous hatred contained in the thousands of nasty emails and postings.

Next, William F. Buckley’s own son, Christopher comes out online for Obama. His employer, the National Review, founded by his father asks for and gets his resignation.

Now, it looks like Colin Powell is coming out for Obama. I’m sure his former right wing pals will call him rather scurrilous things that rhyme with bigger and back blastered.

But I can’t think of any Progressive types coming out for McCain. Have I just missed them? Except for a few bitter idiots who felt Hillary was mistreated who claim they’ll vote McCain, I can’t think of one.

When you google “democrats for mccain” you get a series of sad little blogs written by obvious fakes claiming to be lifelong Democrats who are now by McCain, given away by the standard right wing rant by the second or third post. So do we have a chance? Do we overcome the vast ignorance and intolerance that has blighted so much of this country for so long? Time will tell.

One thing’s for sure; the poor bastard who wins the election will be facing all holy hell in January. This might be the worst condition any President has had to step into in American history; two wars, economic and financial collapse and a mind-boggling deficit. Good luck!

If it’s Obama, there are two things I hope he thinks to put in place. They have each occurred before in our history, and only need to be started and funded. The first is a modern version of the WPA, FDR’s make work program that created many of the roads, bridges and state parks we enjoy today. The modern version could focus entirely on fixing our broken infrastructure of crumbling roads, bridges and railways.

The second would be a Manhattan Project style all out effort to develop and deploy alternative energy. America cannot get back on its’ feet economically while sending billions and billions of dollars to the Middle East. For God’s sake, I hope the next President will tell us that the most patriotic thing we can do is carpool.

Drill, baby, drill? Yeah, whatever, it might make a difference of a few cents a gallon in decades, but why not develop alternatives right here in the good ol’ US of A? It could be the basis for a revival of manufacturing here; instead of making low wage service workers, we could have well paying jobs right here. I really don’t think we’ve quite reached the level of being the lazy slackers popular in the media, but we could use a kick in the ass to get out of complacency.

I’m pretty sure the impending economic brush with death could be the catalyst required to get us off the pot and out there innovating. It’s been estimated that it would take a 94 square mile photovoltaic array to provide the entire electric output the nation requires. We drove across the American west last fall, and let me tell you, there are a hell of a lot more than 94 square miles of empty, barren and eternally sunny space out there. Why not give it a whack? What could it cost compared to a multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq and a trillion dollar Wall Street bailout? And we’d have gained the economies of scale and expertise to manufacture and export this stuff to the rest of the world. What’s to hate?

Both readers of this blog know that the math usually kills my brilliant plans, like the tidal power harnesser, but I’ll give it a shot here anyway. On the scale we’re talking about, I’ll assume an installed cost of two bucks a square foot, which is about 20% off the national average, according to the EIA. 94 square miles is 2,620,569,600 square feet, which means for about $5 billion and a tiny corner of the Mojave, we could be done with oil, coal or any fossil fuels forever. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!? Isn’t that, like, a few weeks in Iraq?

Man, I believe Exxon made several times that in three months earlier this year. Why wouldn’t we divert a large portion of public money into building massive solar PV farms and a national grid upgrade to support it? Why wouldn’t we take a portion of bailout money and use it on wind farms? Driving across Texas and Oklahoma, it is stunning to see the hundreds of ginormous windmills twirling away across an otherwise blank landscape.

While we’re at it, we could fund development of cheaper and more efficient fuel cells, so we can store excess capacity as hydrogen, and have something with which to generate at night or when the wind stops.

Anyway, this is pretty off-topic, but the idea of an Obama Administration just offers so much hope for this kind of thing. Imagine a world in which Americans are admired, American green technology is sought after and American foreign policy is humble. It gives me shivers. As my friend Conrad says, “I liked it better when they liked us.” That pretty well sums it up.

Anyhoo, here’s to hopeful thoughts for the future in an America where we kick the petroleum habit, root out and destroy what’s left of racism, teach the world peace by example and help out the less fortunate, which unfortunately is about to include a lot more Americans.