What Kind of Weird Alternate Political Universe are We Entering?

In reading about and researching the new Obama economic plan I am forced to ask, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into? The centerpiece of the plan is to create 2.5 million new jobs (I did not see a timeframe within which this piece of magic is supposed to happen) by spending money on much needed infrastructure and urban improvement projects. The spending will top 700 billion dollars which when coupled with it's twin, the 700 billion dollar bailout from October, the cost for "fixing" the economy will be a minimal 1.4 trillion dollars. I am no economic expert, but that sounds like a lot of money to me.

The irony of this program is that it is also designed, as stated in Obama's own words of wonkdom, to be fiscally responsible. I will give everyone a moment for that to sink in. FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE!!! This must be some sort of joke and the punchline will be paid at the bottom line by the taxpayer. Obama paints the rosy picture of cutting govenment waste in order to fund some of his plans, but we have heard this song and dance before. The cold hard fact is that we will end up paying for this program of "responsibility" and at the end of the day I am not sure where the idea will take us.

There is some historical precedent for spending ourselves out of an economic crisis, it worked when FDR did it in the late 20's and early 30's. The US was on the verge of meltdown when FDR helped build the country from the ground up with infrastructure programs and targeted social welfare entitlements and then led the country to post war prosperity. The times now though are not apples to apples to the times then. At that time the U.S. was a burgeoning democracy and had many yet untapped rescources, natural and otherwise. American ingenuity was just beginning it's rise to the top. During the present time our ingenuity has been surpassed by the ingenuity of developing nations, much like we surpassed the developed nations of the eary 20th century. Our time as politcal, economic and military hegemon is drawing to a close and I could make the argument that it is already over. Attempting to spend the way out of this crisis with infrastructure projects and targeted social welfare entitlements will not work this time the world economy is too far beyond what we can do within our own borders.

The next hegemon in this world will be an energy hegemon. If some country does not act quickly to usurp the oncoming oil hegemony by spending resources to develop viable alternative energy sources every Western power will kneel to the new hegemony of oil. For the new President the agenda should be to create new jobs and spend new money in the area of developing alternative energy sources that could be viable on the world stage. We can become the energy hegemon and render oil nearly obsolete if the alternative source is pursued seriously enough and is made cost effective enough for large consumers like China and India. If we could remove the Chinese, Indian and American markets from the oil consumer list then over half of the world's population would be using a resource that only we knew how to make. Is this utopian? Sure. Is it improbable? Sure. Is it impossible? No. Obama has the chance to do for alternative energy what Kennedy did for space exploration, tap into the will of the American people and begin to get something done. Only a few Presidents have ever had the ability to move the country in an entirely new direction. Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan and now maybe Obama if he so chooses. Whatever you personally feel about the President Elect, it is no secret that I am not his biggest fan, the time to move this country is now. There is a new direction out there, the country is just waiting for someone to show the way.