If this doesn’t get folks thinking about the moral implications of the typical American’s lifestyle, I’m not sure what would do it.

Think about it: The country finally elects the liberal dream candidate, and what does He do? He just continues with the torture, the black sites, the indefinite detentions and wars of Cheney/Bush. Why? To keep “our” oil safe, pumped and shipped for our consumption. Liberals drive as much or more as Republicans, and He knows it.

And no, the next-gen of groovey-green cars (an oxymoron) won’t change a thing. As long as we continue developing our cities in ways that militate against walking, biking and transit we will be forced to drive more & more, thus negating any gains in fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, Obama’s stimulus package is dictating more of the same; it is filled with highway expansions at the expense of existing, walkable neighborhoods, our air, our water, nature.

We’ve seen this movie before. Between 1973 (Arab Oil embargo in retaliation for our puppet’s war in the Middle East) and 1990 (Gulf War I) we doubled fuel efficiency. Guess what tracked increases in fuel efficiency? Vehicle Miles Traveled. We drove twice as much in that same period.

We doubled efficiency.

Then doubled driving.

Just spinning our wheels in a December ice storm…..

This is looking to be a repeat of the nightmare scenario of the Johnson administration. Great “hope” for a Great Society, crushed by an immoral war. This time we’ve got two going at once. And both are infinitely more immoral than the one that crushed Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Time for a better way.