Thursday, December 17, 2015

George Will Extols The Virtues Of Coal And The Evil Of The Paris Agreement

George Will is the mandatory conservative on TV talk shows.  He also writes for the Washington Post as one of its conservative commentators.  His op-eds are syndicated to numerous small town newspapers to provide conservative balance to the the "liberal media".  In this op-ed he tells his readers why they should not like the Paris Agreement.  Most of the article is about the history of coal in Britain and how it fueled the industrial revolution which made all of us richer.  Having established his credentials as a scholarly historian, he offers his critique of the Paris Agreement.  He avoids the mistake of global warming denial, and goes right to the motherload of conservative ideology.  The agreement won't work because  agreements between multiple parties are impossible to enforce.  Only agreements between individuals are workable.  Individualism is king.  He goes on to tell us that the agreement is a form of socialism which is the devil to the God of individualism.  It requires a command and control system, (similar to most corporate systems), to function.  Even if it worked to reduce global warming, it would be an affront to personal freedom and the freedom of Republicans to vote against everything supported by Democrats.

It must be great to be George Will.  He has a platform to use a few simple ideas to argue against everything that government might do for the public good.  Its kind of like painting by numbers.  He just needs to fill in the lines when he pontificates about government policies.

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