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Read other letters about this article
1- Nothing stops us from drilling and developing alternative energy at the same time, so that's a false dichotomy.
2- While it's true that conservatives might be susceptible to sacrifice long-term financial for the short term, at the very least there's no question that conservatives are concerned about financial impact primarily. They really do want to reduce the price of gas.
Liberals, on the other hand, also have environmentalism and redistribution as part of their decision-making process. It's disingenuous to pretend both parties have economic interests as their highest priority. There's no reason to think liberals would be for drilling under any circumstances, just like many conservatives would never be for withdrawal from Iraq.
The people getting hurt by high gas prices won't let either party slide by, and good for them. It's elitist to act as if this is part of an American "do something, anything" mentality; people are really getting hammered by this.
Which is why drilling will be a reality soon, no matter how many liberals write articles pretending that short-term or long-term economy are their primary concerns. And of course the drilling won't bring any oil to market immediately; it'll be the impact on the speculators and OPEC of a demonstrative effort by their largest consumer to wean themselves off the teat that will put downward pressure on the price of oil.
