Up with Chris Hayes 12/8/2012 -- Energy policy

On Up with Chris Hayes this morning the panel discussed new fracking developments associated with natural gas. Hayes had two environmentalist types and two who defended fracking techniques. I didn't trust the environmentalists because they brought up objections that have been refuted in the past, and these environmentalists would know that. One of the defenders of natural gas production, Uni Blake, came across as authentic, and she patiently shot down the bogus claims that fracking is causing problems in water tables and that the regulations are insufficient.

We have more regulations on the books than are needed, so the opponents are simply playing the environmentalist game of opposing energy production because that's what they do. The environmentalists are like automatons who attack wealthy energy producers for being wealthy energy producers -- the environmentalists come across as cartoon characters, while serious players like Uni Blake come across as responsible adults dealing with the problems of producing energy without destroying the environment.

For the sake of my sanity

I'm going to stop commenting at left-leaning blogs. I'm not going to call out any one particular blog, but the left, and the moderates, are getting worse. I'm beginning to pick on up on an underlying irrational anger aimed at the right, worse than before, that's futile to argue against. I would love to understand this anger, but I don't think psychologizing a group of people is very helpful.

What's important is what they do. I don't think all these people really believe everything they're saying, it's just become a social status game and they're ragging on the yahoos (everyone to the right of David Brooks is a yahoo). But many do appear to believe what they're saying and they're backing the progressive agenda no matter what. The good news is that they represent only 20% of the population. Ordinarily, numbers wouldn't matter at the level of right and wrong, but these people are just flat-out wrong.

This is why I'm ending my participation at the left-leaning blogs -- these 20% are not worth the energy -- they're more about winning a battle than making reasonable judgements regarding principles, political philosophy and policies. For this portion of the left, reason and objectivity don't matter -- they're using political tactics and strategies, any means necessary, to win for their cause. Their cause is to prevent limited government and a free market, and to support a powerful State which redistributes wealth to achieve "social justice", whatever that is. When you try to drill down to the specifics of how this redistribution and economic intervention is good for anyone, they get fuzzy and sometimes vicious -- they just know that progressive statism is the answer. If a liberal government can manage the economy and smartly engineer society in the right direction, everything will be fine -- that's about as far as their thinking goes.

This wish-thinking -- Yes, we can -- is an emotional position that doesn't respond to reason and economic facts, and it has no regard for Constitutional limits. You could say it's a socialist influence, but it's a unique American socialist influence which isn't ideologically pure. It's more of a pragmatic, technocratic management, utilizing whatever methods are necessary to maintain liberal government control -- not to be mistaken with the original liberalism of the Founders. American progressivism in 2010 is modern liberalism pushed to its extreme, the point where principles no longer matter. The progressive players obviously believe they will benefit, even if it means dependence on government. The leaders of the progressive groups fighting the war most likely will benefit, if they win, but the foot-soldiers will all lose -- like union members, environmentalists at the group level, minorities who follow civil rights leaders and can't demand speaking fees, extortion fees from companies or contributions to line their pockets, young people who aren't hired by government-run universities as professors and are left on the streets with a sign and slogans but no jobs.

Like I said, though, they make up only 20% of the voting population, so unless voter turnout is real low, or America goes crazy again, they don't have much of a chance.