Green To the Max, No Matter What It Costs!

Here is a link to an article in today's Wall Street Journal regarding the Democrat's "Green Convention" in Denver.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121434145793701111.html?mod=blog

Back in the day the Democratic Party was the party of working, middle class Americans. These families, and the Democratic Party, had what today are considered conservative values. Now the Democratic Party is so consumed with paying tribute to radical fringe groups that they are no longer relevant to middle America.

This article is a great vignette of a good idea taken to extremes. Not only does everything at the convention have to be environmentally correct, but politically correct too. One example: only products produced by American unionized labor can be used. It is apparent more and more that the far left wing of the Democratic Party is pushing harder than ever to do two things: promote a government takeover off all significant segments of the economy (recent nationalization proposals include: healthcare, mortgages, oil companies, refineries, student loans, etc.), and mandate behavior based on liberal beliefs through rationing and legislative fiat. For the convention, they have even mandated what colors the food has to be on the plate. If Obama wins in November, and the GOP loses a filibuster quorum in the Senate (both very possible scenarios), then it is almost certain that the government will have to begin rationing electricity within a number of years.

New York City has banned transfats from all restaurants. So I no longer have the right to choose to eat something cooked with transfat, even once a year? I’m all for requiring disclosure so that consumers can make an informed decision. But a total ban? The Democratic convention has banned all fried foods, regardless of color or type of oil. How long until my Emeril Lagasse deep fryer is outlawed and I have to deep fry my occasional guilty pleasure in secret under the threat of a fine or even arrest?

Locally produced food is a good idea, to the extent it is practical. But it is hard to see how an ever growing global population can be fed solely by local food. The world’s population has outgrown that. There is a certain productivity in industrialized agriculture that cannot be avoided. OK, maybe off-season fruit from Chile delivered by jetliner is something to debate. But I’d still like to have my Spanish Rioja, Italian Parmesano Reggio, bread made from Kansas grown wheat, and black peppercorns from Indonesia.

What the radical liberals never consider is the cost of their obsessions. Flex-fuel transportation fueled by beer waste. Products from low productivity union shops. A crew of 900 sorting all the garbage by hand. A very expensive event to be sure.

As an aside, the Denver Democratic organization responsible for raising money for the convention has come up short. I guess it’s harder to obtain money for all this radical stuff when you have to ask nicely instead of seizing it from society’s producers by threat of force.