The Right’s (Snake) Oil Lie

Monday, July 28th, 2008
by TXProgress

Right Wing candidates and pundits are telling Americans that the few remaining restrictions on oil drilling offshore or in environmentally sensitive areas are causing the rise in gas prices. This isn’t just a lie, it’s a willful and destructive lie that puts our very nation at greater risk.

The Washington Post is this week running a series, “Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices,” that gets it right. High oil prices are the result of greatly increased worldwide demand and diminished production. Production is not diminished because a few places in North America aren’t being drilled. Diminished because of historical economic forces and the nation’s and the world’s absolute failure to come to grips with the urgent need to develop alternative sources of energy.

But the Right’s Big Lie will prove effective unless it is countered, loudly and persistently. Realists and progressives should not make the mistake of assuming voters, if given the facts, will reason to the right conclusion. The truth about oil prices needs to be delivered over and over again in a variety of venues. Emails, talks with friends, speeches to parent and business groups, book clubs, political clubs. Visits with editorial board. Morning TV talk shows. Radio talk.

Some progressives are arguing that the public sees through the deception. I would remind them that that’s what the John Kerry campaign said about the Swift Boaters.

The Right’s lie will work because of its simplicity and because the Right is disciplined about delivering messages. The problem with this lie isn’t that it might work a little to elect Right Wing candidates this year. It’s that it’s the equivalent of using leeches to bleed the disease out of people. We can’t drill our way out of this.