This diary is somewhat in response to a diary currently on the rec list.
Considering DailyKos is a site dedicated to promoting the electoral successes of the democratic party, and considering that I live in a region of the country that the democratic party needs to make inroads in to regain any kind of meaningful power, I think this is relevant.
more on the flip....
I'm responding to a diary which among other things chides readers for not driving a citroen or peugeot instead of a toyota, when in fact there are many in this country who can't afford to buy a new car or used car much less put gas in it. This in a country where for many of us, the reliability and cost of repair is an important factor in choosing a car, not to mention the purchase cost.
The diarist suggests a gas tax that would not only be punitive to the poor and middle class in this country, but also during a time when gas prices are so high, they replicate the affect of a gas tax. Give me .99 gas and maybe I'll be open to a gas tax.
You wanna keep losing elections? Suggest a gas tax during a time when gas is $3.00 a gallon in a country that is historically used to gas that cost .99 a gallon.
I absolutely do not care what it cost in europe or the UK so just don't go there.
This during a time when our country is being run by madmen who don't care if we have clean air to breath, clean water to drink, uncontaminated fish to eat.....who don't care if we can afford to put gas in our cars or have any other alternatives.
Madmen who are doing their damnedest to change the very nature of our country.
But I don't think it was the diarist that bothered me so much as some of the reponses.
It would seem that some on the far left of this would like change the nature of this country....demonizing the American dream.
I had someone suggest that my "lifestyle" was "wrong" because instead of living in an apartment in the inner city, that I live in a house in the suburbs, refuse to give up my car and use the nonexistent mass transit system.
I got the impression that I was somehow "bad" because I refused to walk two miles to the nearest bus stop and wait to take the bus another mile or so to the grocery story wherein I would then have to figure out how to carry ten sacks of groceries.
I saw numerous responses that suggested that suburban living was "evil" as if you could begin to cram all those people into an inner city situation.
I read another comment where someone suggested that we weren't living "naturally" by depending on cars.
As if depending on busses or subways is somehow natural?
Well HELL, lets just go back to horses, buggies and candlelight and live like the Amish (bless them).
That, of course would mean no computers, no internet and no dailykos, which of course we all know is "natural".
Do you people not understand what a turn off this line of thinking would be to the millions of people who live in "flyover country"? Do you not understand how irrational this line of thinking to the millions of us who live in "flyover country".
As if you could somehow undo 60+ years of suburban sprawl???
I had someone else suggest that the idea of altenative energy sources was "magical thinking" but expecting millions of people to give up the suburban living they were born into was not???
We are in an environment where one of the best environmental spokesmen we have had was AFRAID to
bring up environmental issues in 2000.
Environmentalism SERIOUSLY needs to become part of the debate, but if you take the extremist tact of demonizing the millions who live in the suburbs and drive cars you are going to piss people off and turn people off by the MILLIONS.
People are open to recycling, using energy efficient lightbulbs, adopting energy efficiency whenever possible and practical. I think people are open to mass transit systems, light rail, but they are not always practical in all areas.
The fact that you can't find a "Prius" on the lot tells me that people are very eager to adopt alternative forms of energy for transportation.
Had stong CAFE standards been in place, you wouldn't have all these people driving Hummers and the American car companies might be in better shape because they wouldn't be stuck with all these huge cars that people can't afford to drive anymore.
But no, lets demonize the hundereds of millions of people who are living the way Americans have been living for the past 60 years or so. Lets try to stuff that genie back in the bottle rather than demanding higher fuel efficiency standards, alternative energy, etc.
If you start telling the hundreds of millions of people that they are somehow evil because they are living in suburban homes and driving cars, you are going to be laughed into oblivion.
And you thought the "latte drinking" ads were bad.
Face it, to win control of the country, you have to be able to relate to the masses in "flyover country".
This isn't a good start.
So Jerome thinks dailykos is right wing, and I'm starting to wonder if it is too liberal. And I consider myself a liberal....and a realist.
The United States isn't Europe, it isn't ever going to be Europe, so lets rejoin the reality based community and find practical solutions to our problems that aren't going to turn off voters by the millions.