Obama's Promises, Actions, and Problems of Tomorrow

I remember being skeptical of the skeptics when the Obama fervor was at its fever pitch. Discussions on the infectious Obamaism permeated most of my classes at one point or another, and at times, his long list of promises would be criticized by one or two of the students in class who hadn’t become completely overrun with feelings of “Hope” and “Change.” But they couldn’t be right, I thought. This was my freshman year at college which, already accented with so much other newness, seemed like the perfect environment for this inspirational rhetoric and ideology to really make some ground on big issues like climate change and healthcare. This shit was real. Real like Wheaties or Chuck Norris. Real enough to grab hold of that ever-elusive place called Washington and really shake things up. And while all of these things provided dramatic and effective fodder for speeches and rallies and broad, sweeping, unanimously approved promises on nothing in particular, they did not provide a sincere structure or plan for these dreams to become reality.

Learning about the extreme complexities of politics in the United States has made me much more attuned to the realistic capabilities a candidate might possess. Even more so, it has shown me that, where a candidate or elected official may even have power to change something, there are various other factors that come into play first, before effective policy can even be thought about. That said, I certainly should be more sympathetic with Obama’s steady shifting on issues that, had he remained stagnant and entrenched in a more liberal ideology, could potentially have been detrimental to his political career as president. However, I feel so strongly that radical change is needed as soon as possible that these are no longer valid excuses for any form of a less-than-go-getter attitude.

Having just returned from a lecture presented by Dave Rollo, a member of the City Council and Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force which recently put out a report on the eminence of quickly approaching energy shortages, I feel that the severity and scope with which peak oil will affect our social, economic, and cultural lives deems it a top priority for Obama as well as the entire country, continent, and world. As the report extensively shows, along with various other credible sources such as ASPO, the German military, and U.S. Military, peak oil is a reality that needs to be dealt with now, not a theory to be reflected on tomorrow. I cannot express enough just how far reaching and detrimental this phenomenon can potentially be if we do not start preparing ourselves immediately. Sustainable resource developments, although helpful to a degree, have nowhere near the extreme energy producing power that natural oil does. Even dirty energy producers (while inevitably doomed to the same finite fate) such as coal and natural gas have nowhere near the energy capacity that our current globe demands.