Since I rarely follow the brand of semi-literate blather The Daily Sentinel allows Rick Wagner to deposit on its Commentary page from time to time, I found it a refreshing relief to read Judy West’s critique on Aug. 8.

I suppose you have to love Republicans flailing about this year, trying to find an issue or a negative strategy to overcome the general disgust for the Bush administration and their own complicity in producing the dire circumstances on so many fronts that we and the new president will be faced with in 160-odd days.

Scrambling to convince us that drilling our watersheds, oceans, national parks and wilderness areas will turn out fine, they contort and obscure while ridiculing simple ideas that could actually save individual drivers money by improving fuel economy, something Republicans have steadfastly opposed enforcing on auto makers.

I was delighted to see that Sen. John McCain finally did finally agree that inflating tires and tuning vehicles is in fact a good idea, although his concurrence came days after selling “Obama’s Energy Plan” tire pressure gauges as a joke.

Unfortunately, our politics have become that kind of joke, and the rest of the world, still very much dependent on our sputtering consumer-driven economic engine, shudders at the depths to which we have sunk. The oil companies will pour massive amounts of obscene profit into Republican campaign coffers and their own advertising to ensure the maintenance of subsidies that may have made sense 100 or even 50 years ago, but today are just unnecessary except to further bloat profits.

The real surprise would be if instead of foot-dragging and supporting disinformation, the CEOs of these behemoths were to announce to the world that they were joining T. Boone Pickens and pledging to help finance a massive investment in the alternative fuels and technologies that will help cure our addiction to foreign oil and eventually power our future, launching a creative ferment that would begin to solve so many of our problems so much more quickly.

While Democrats generally have hardly excelled in the area of foresight either, the excitement and hope and inspiration offered by Sen. Barack Obama is exactly that kind of positive, pro-active vision that recognizes realities, trusts in the intelligence, determination and work ethic of Americans, and motivates by communicating long-range plans for success. This is what real leaders do.
It is also clear to me from the ads I’ve already seen, that the other side is hoping their appeal to ignorance, fear, and continuing the failed policies and strategies of a bygone era will keep them in power a little longer.

If we cannot retire the politics of evasion, a term used by Kevin Phillips in his latest book,”Bad Money,” we may be doomed to repeat the chilling historical chronology of former world economic powers he describes in crisis and decline, unable to change course when they most needed to.

MICHAEL R. MARQUARDT
Whitewater

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