The city of Somerset, Kentucky has combated high gas prices by setting up their own city-owned gas station, and selling their gas at lower prices. Of course, this has led to accusations of socialism.
That's pretty amazing, because for once, they're right. It is socialism. It's actually pretty rare these days that people even call political ideas by the correct putdowns.
I find that frustrating. Given the amount of anger the American right has at all things perceived as socialist, you would think that anything as Marxist as a communal gas supply would get a person run out of town for merely suggesting it. Yet, here they are putting that in practice in a bright-red state.
And it's not just the right. Whenever the price of gas gets high, you can count on the NDP asking for action, such as the government lowering its gas taxes. Never mind the effect on government coffers or the environment.
So what is it about gasoline that makes people abandon their usual beliefs? It's an illustration that much of our political bickering is not based on ideology, it's people fighting for their self interests. When large numbers of people have interests in common, it may look like they're fighting for the ideas that unite them. But with a widely-relied-upon product like oil, people's personal needs are great enough to make them drop any high-minded ideals.
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