Dana Blankenhorn

Winning the Oil War

Vietnam was said to be “a Cold War activity,” part of a larger struggle for global supremacy between the U.S. and the late Soviet Union.

The description overlooked millions of deaths, and immense human suffering, dismissing it as a byproduct of something larger, a proxy war. Veterans of the conflict remain insulted by the characterization, but in historical terms it was accurate.

History will record Syria, then, as an “oil war activity,” just as 9-11 was an “oil war activity.” It is part of a larger struggle for global supremacy among the producers of oil and gas. The tragedy is that it’s not recognized as one.

Understanding that Syria is just one piece of a larger struggle, and understanding what that struggle is really all about, would give us a chance to win that struggle, but so far no one in power, not even President Obama, has made that connection publicly, and with sufficient urgency.

The 1940 Game

What would Democrats have done in 1940 had FDR been term-limited?

Every generation of American politics has some things in common with generations that came before. But the period that comes to mind now is that which came after the Crisis of 1932, which evolved into World War II.

As was the case then, the economic crisis and previous military conflict brought with it blowback. It created enemies who threatened the very foundations of the Republic. The difference is that while FDR faced a consensus against military conflict he had to reverse, this President faces a consensus in favor of military conflict that must be reversed.

As was the case in FDR’s time, when those against his Thesis of Unity misread the past, trying to make history repeat when the opposite tack was called for, so the case against Obama’s Thesis of Consensus is based on a misreading of history.

Back then, of course, Republicans were isolationist. Many even found Mr. Hitler compelling. These people did not want America re-arming, and their control of Congress made it difficult for Roosevelt to coax the build-up of fear and passion necessary to face the challenge.

National Security and the War Against Oil

The attacks in Paris are a reminder that, 82 years after Texas aligned America with the Saudis’ Arabia, trading technology for oil, things are getting no better.

It’s a chain of mutual dependence. They have oil. We need oil. They sell oil to buy guns. We make guns to buy oil.

It no longer has to be this way.

In just the last five years, the cost of renewables has become cost-competitive with that of grid energy. Warren Buffett buys solar power plants to assure Berkshire-Hathaway with regular electricity supplies. 

At peak times Texas gets 30% of its electricity from wind. Once, due to the peculiarities of its regulatory system, wind suppliers were actually paying customers to take that electricity, it was so plentiful. 

The Silent Majority Needs to Run

Conservatives love a parade. Liberals all want to lead one.

It’s an old political saw which speaks a profound truth. People are always more ready to fight in defense of what they have than on behalf of an unknown future.

The basic political equation I learned over 40 years ago remains M x V = P. Myths times values equals power. Old values are understood more easily than new ones. Myths are more easily created around old ideas than new ones.

America has, on the whole, been a liberal nation because our leaders have been able to wrap new values in the colors of old myths in order to achieve power.

The Founders wrapped the ideas of the Declaration of Independence around English common law, drawing a clear line from the Magna Carta of 1215 to their own struggle, and relying on contemporary philosophers like Locke, Burke and Montesquieu to explain them. The Constitution was negotiated, then explained in terms of democratic frameworks dating to Greek and Roman antiquity.

The Grail

(What follows is a work of fiction. I wrote it early this year, in about a week, after a weekend vacation to Asheville, touring artists' markets. Hope you like it.)

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It was a simple thing, I thought, something fun to have.

A cup or goblet, made of clay, and fired with a simple limestone-colored glaze. I saw it in a storeroom, by the workshop of an artist who was now working, instead, on cartoonish wiener dogs hipsters could hang on a wall.

The price was a snip, $19. I asked what inspired her to make it. She didn’t answer. All she said was, “It’s on sale,” as she wrapped it in newspaper.

I thought no more about it. I was giving my wife our hundredth honeymoon, a weekend in the North Carolina Mountains. There were other artists to visit, and the Google Map on my phone was buzzing in its cradle. We had to move on.