DRILLHEREDRILLNOWDRILLHEREDRILLNOWDRILLHEREDRILLNOWDRILLHEREDRILLNOWDRILLHEREDRILLNOW

Catching up on Republican speeches and the political buzz, it's pretty clear that the Republicans are running a one-issue campaign. That issue, of course, is the only thing that scored points for them in the runup to the conventions: domestic oil drilling.

In fact, "DRILLHEREDRILLNOW" is pretty much all I've heard coming out of the Republicans. They've even taking to saying that the mere threat of DRILLHEREDRILLNOW was enough to send oil prices tumbling by $37 last month. (Economist's take: Ha.)

This philosophy fits very nicely with the Palin pick. As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin's only job was to encourage oil production. Alaska is our very own mini-Saudi Arabia; it doesn't have to have income or sales taxes because oil money flows right to government coffers. And like our very own Saudi Prince, Sarah Palin's job was to collect the money flowing out of the ground and distribute it to her friends in the form of government projects and payouts.

Victor Flatt, writing in the Houston Chronicle, agrees:

[I]f Palin winds up as vice president, her Alaskan energy experience might help send our nation's energy policy in exactly the wrong direction. In terms of energy, Alaska is not like Texas or any other state; in fact, its closest parallel may be Saudi Arabia. Alaska's very survival depends on oil and gas, with exploitation of fossil fuels currently accounting for more than 80 percent of the state's revenues. Energy underwrites the annual payments that every Alaskan receives...

While there have been periodic attempts to diversify the state's economy away from energy, the truth is that Alaska today is more dependent than ever on the money generated by the energy industry.

The parallel to Saudi Arabia is striking. Alaska has reinvented itself from a poor and isolated subsistence economy into a petro-giant with shiny new buildings and revenue streams generated from natural resource extraction and exploitation (even though much of these revenue windfalls are collected elsewhere and do not benefit the state).

Like Saudi Arabia, Alaska has failed to fully develop its human capital, depending instead on the "easy money" generated by fossil-fuel deposits and other exploitable resources.

To me, this basically indicates what the GOP has become in general - the representative of "old-economy" sectors like oil, mining, agriculture, and logging. Because the government sells them land at a discount, all of these companies basically rely on the government for their daily bread - as do defense contractors, the other industry sector that is staunchly Republican.

Kind of odd for the "party of small government," but there it is.

Meanwhile, Democratic voters come more and more from the "new economy" - white-collar people, knowledge workers, and professionals. Educated people. The "elites," in fact (if oil barons don't count as elite). The "party of big government" now wants people to get an education and get a real job, work hard and save money for the kids.

So the constant blare of "DRILLHEREDRILLNOW" blasting from the Republican bullhorns is really saying: "You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be like those 'elites.' You can continue to be an ignorant suburban hippo, driving around that big SUV, and the government will bail you out with cheap oil and cheap credit and a nice job at a government-sponsored company."

Of course, there's one problem with this message. It's complete and utter nonsense. But hey, maybe voters won't realize that til after election day, and maybe in four years they'll forget. DRILLHEREDRILLNOW!!!