Typical Politics Eh?

Do you remember the unity America felt after 9/11? Remember all those American flags outside of homes and flag stickers on cars? I sure do. I never felt more proud to be American (with exception to this year's World Cup). America never felt more proud to be American and we did something about it. We decided to take efforts to get back at those people we believed caused those terrible acts.

Unfortunately, we've faced a similar scenario this summer with the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We saw a terrible accident kill 11 people, crush a margin of our economy and instill long term devastation to the environment. So this has affected us all and made us think twice about our reliance on foreign oil, but what have we done? Have we united together and sought to end this dangerous and risky style of oil drilling? Have we at least tried to decrease the need for it by increasing the use of cleaner and renewable sources of energy? Sadly, we haven't done much but condemn the oil companies for their lack of proper preventative measures.

We did see a glimpse of possible climate change legislation, but Republicans walked away and Obama kept his mouth shut. This isn't a very clean cut blame game, just a multi-level disappointment. Seeing Obama speak to the Democrats about the need to pass health care the day before the vote really felt like history. I wish I could relive that moment again. I wanted to see him rally the members in a similar way but now behind a strong energy bill that worked to right the wrongs that have recently occurred in the Gulf and have occurred for years in the US. Who could really say they aren't for fixing what caused the oil spill? Or for decreasing our dependence on foreign oil? This is what has puzzled me. Not one Republican was willing to work with his friends in the GOP to get some strong energy legislation passed?

Oh wait, I'm forgetting something. IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR! How could I forget? 2001 wasn't an election year for Congress, but 2010 is an election year. So Republicans won't let the Democrats have anything tangible to bring with them to the November election, and Obama is scared to get involved because he thinks it will only scare away Republican backing. So we all lose for the sake of a damn election?

This is why I have to explain other reasons why I study Political Science, because moments like this even make me sigh under my breath, "politics."

Read more on the lack thereof of climate legislation here.