You know, this sounds like a lot of signatures, but compared to our whole population or even an average week’s American Idol viewership, this isn’t much more than a drop in the bucket. From American Solutions’ Dave Ryan:
We are pleased to announce that at a press conference on Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol, we presented the House and Senate Republican leadership 1.3 million petition signatures on your behalf.
Accepting the petitions, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and other congressional leaders spoke about the need to produce more American energy as part of a larger American energy plan.
Among the petition signers in attendance were Fred Hughes, a Vietnam veteran and small business owner; Tara Bowman, who owns a cattle company with her husband Daryl; Barbara Windsor, who runs a trucking company that has been in her family for 75 years; and Laura Ramirez Drain, a teacher and proud new American citizen. As representatives of over 1.3 million Democrats, Republicans, and independents, we sincerely appreciate their time and effort.
The campaign for a 21st century secure energy plan is about more than the price of filling our gas tanks. It’s about protecting America by cutting off the flow of our dollars to the foreign dictators that control so much of our oil suppy. It’s about coming together to flex our national muscles to make life better for us, our children, and our grandchildren.
Understanding the importance and enormity of this challenge, our effort at American Solutions has only just begun. As the momentum builds, we will present millions more petition signatures to the Democratic and Republican Conventions later this summer to urge both parties to take action.
As Senator John Cornyn said at the event, you are doing “what every citizen of America has a right to do, and that is to petition their government. To petition for change.”
With your help, we can continue to shape this debate, win the argument, and affect real change.
While I’m glad Newt has undergone this effort (and developed one hell of an e-mail list in the process) the problem with many such efforts is keeping the ball rolling. Obviously a number of factors could affect how effectively this process continues; in particular a downward turn in gas prices. On the other hand, an increase in the gas tax like one I alluded to in passing last night would embitter more people toward the federal government regardless of whether those extra lanes are built on the freeway or not. (You don’t have to go very far to make people who think like me mad, but some are more tolerant.)
Much will also depend on who wins the November elections. While Newt and American Solutions have painted this as a “red, white, and blue” issue that’s gathered support from voters of all stripes, my gut feeling is that at least a plurality of signers were Republican, with lesser numbers being independents and still fewer Democrats. The two main parties have staked out their sides on the issue, with Republicans being on the side of more domestic oil and gas exploration done by oil companies operating in a more free market with limited government interference; meanwhile Democrats are dead-set against drilling, believing that economic growth is achievable by conservation and reliance on the government choosing winners among renewable sources that have sprung up in the last few decades (just try operating your car with switchgrass, Frank Kratovil.)
But it’s going to take that 1.3 million some effort to become 13 million, and still more to become the 130 million who would be required to bring about a complete political sea change (after all, between the two major-party Presidential candidates in 2004 they split about 115 million votes.) In the last several election cycles the biggest winner has been apathy, and unfortunately there’s not a lot of promise that 2008 will be different.
I do owe you a video though, so to close I’ll link to the video of a proud American Solutions moment. The embed wasn’t working out for some odd reason. Maybe next time.
