-By Warner Todd Huston
Columnist Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner, has found the enemy and he is us. During a recent episode of the Chris Matthews show, Tucker decided that because we are “addicted to petroleum” we are our own enemy just as much as communism was our enemy during the Cold War.
Tucker characterizes our “addiction” to oil as an “external threat” — just like communism was — and presents oil as an enemy that we should defeat. Tucker also makes excuses for Obama saying that it’s “harder” for him to call on Americans to sacrifice because of this addiction.
Leave it to a member of the Old Media to construe capitalism, progress, a growing standard of living, and even our own fellow citizens to be as great an enemy as an antithetical foreign system that was sponsored by those that promised to destroy us. Leave it to a member of the Old Media to pinpoint our own system as the enemy.
But one wonders, if we take Tucker at her most hyperbolic word, wouldn’t the solution be to increase oil and natural gas exploration on our own soil? If the enemy is oil from abroad, why aren’t we looking for our own to supplement what we purchase abroad and, thereby, take some of the power away from foreign suppliers?
For that matter, why not enlarge our nuclear power capacity in this country if we want to alleviate the supposed over usage of oil? Even France is smart enough to rely heavily on nuclear power.
Tucker also makes the absurd claim that the BP oil spill is a result of our not listening to failed president Jimmy Carter back in the “malaise” days of the late 70s. Of course, it is rather childish to draw such a simple-minded conclusion. Accidents sometimes happen but we don’t cease all activities because of accidents. We kept exploring space after the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, didn’t we? Well, we did at least until Obama came to office and canceled nearly all our space exploration programs.
Tucker is too typical of the Old Media, though. They never see an enemy as evil as our own system, our own citizens, and history. No foreign threat is ever as bad as we the people to these folks.
Noel Shepard posted the shocking video.
Transcript
CYNTHIA TUCKER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: And one of the differences between the ’50’s when Sputnik was launched and now, that was a battle against Communism. It’s always much easier to rally Americans against an external threat, an external enemy. In this case, the enemy is us. Americans are addicted to petroleum. We use way too much oil. So it’s a little harder for the president to turn around and call on Americans to sacrifice. You remember what happened to Jimmy Carter when he did that.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Exactly.
TUCKER: Now I happened to think Jimmy Carter was right.
HOWARD FINEMAN, NEWSWEEK: Because you’re from Georgia.
TUCKER: Well, if he had done the things that, if we had done the things that Carter called for then, we may not be looking at this huge oil spill now.
(Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 200 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
Huston has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Huston’s work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Michael Savage. He has appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy show, dozens of local shows from coast to coast, and many blogtalk radio shows.
Mr. Huston has appeared on local TV news to discuss his writing, has been a guest of CNN’s blogger lunch, and has appeared on Breitbart TV’s B-Team show.
Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com and has a blog on the Tribune-Owned http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/ChicagoNow.com website. He is a well known writer on Illinois politics.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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