Tuesday, November 03, 2009

How about ‘Blow Up This Global Test’?   [Chris Horner]

As candidate, Barack Obama wanted to deliver his soaring apologia for our nation at the Brandenburg Gate — the site of President Reagan’s famous plea to “tear down this wall” — but was rebuffed for reasons obvious to all . . . except, well, him. Now, he waves off an invitation to return to the former site of the Berlin Wall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of communism’s defeat on November 9 (no one thinks he would actually celebrate it, as Rich Lowry’s analysis of our dear leader details).

Today we see another twist on the tear-down-this-wall moment. Obama faces the “global test” that Sen. John Kerry warned us was coming during his time as candidate.

Caught up in the moment, in a rare joint meeting of Congress using the hook of the fall of the Berlin Wall, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the U.S. Congress today to tear down the metaphorical ‘wall’ that makes it possible for some to ignore the effects global warming will have on future generations. A failure to address the problem, she added, would be ‘shortsighted.’” That comes via the reportage of E&E News today, under the blustery headline “Merkel warns Congress against inaction.”

“Inaction” means both the U.S. refusing to a Kyoto II treaty later this year in December, and Congress not passing domestic cap-and-trade legislation — harming our economy and, incongruously, turning our ship of state further in the direction of the regime whose defeat Merkel was supposedly celebrating. Yet again we see how easy it is for central planners to convince themselves that the failure of central planning simply means that we need more and better planners.

It was bad enough that Western Europe went so recklessly soft under the defense umbrella that brave Americans — and American taxpayers — provided them for decades. This also led to social democracy flirting more openly with socialism — and, worse, festering radical environmentalism that has now metastasized into a full-blown anti-capitalist agenda, in the name of saving the planet.

Green is the new red, as I argued in detail in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism). Chancellor Merkel was stranded on the wrong side of that Wall when President Reagan called on another state to change its policies. Reagan’s call was liberating and led to statues in European squares. Coming here to set forth a “global test” and demand our lawmakers do what a democratic voter base rejects is simply offensive.

11/03 07:00 PMShare