The Light Bulb Controversy- Republicans  and Modern Conservatives Can’ t See The Light!

By Karl Neathammer

As a classical conservative, I am amused by the light bulb controversy!

The light bulb ban has become a rallying cry on the right, promulgated by the likes of cheap talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilley, who have capitalized on this minor issue and have turned this uncomplicated issue into a paranoid conspiracy theory, predicated on the alleged  “alarming advance of “statism.”

And true to form, those vying for the nomination on the Republican side of for consideration as a candidate for President of the United States have made this a major issue: as a potential Republican candidate for this country’s highest office Michele Bachmann has promised: “President Bachmann will allow you to buy any light bulb you want in the United States of America.” Bachmann submitted a bill called the Light Bulb Freedom Act, arguably her crowning legislative achievement.

Her bill was useless, lacking in foundation and merit, and a complete waste of the taxpayers time.

She will not get my vote!

All Republicans, and modern conservatives who buy into this absurdity, despite the facts to the contrary, are apparently willfully ignorant of the facts about the alleged light bulb ban, and choose to remain ignorant, and I have no time for my fellow conservatives who buy into this juvenile bovine excrement from the extreme right.

Congress passed a bipartisan bill in 2007 requiring a phase-in of more efficient lighting. Under the law, which was drafted with industry input, a 100-watt incandescent bulb would have to use only 72 watts of energy starting in 2012. Consumers, who would save a considerable amount in energy costs, wouldn’t be required to switch to the even more energy-efficient and cost- saving fluorescent bulbs.

It is not mandatory! We can keep using the traditional incandescent variety provided these new type of light bulbs meet the new standards.

Really simple…when you know the facts!

The law passed the House with 95 Republican votes and was signed by President George W. Bush. There were no riots in the streets. Yet, by the time Republicans took over the House in January 2011, this previously uncontroversial legislation had become the basis of an ideological war. Between 2007 and 2011, energy waste and pollution seem to have become inviolable conservative principles.

A Party That Has Become Unhinged

The Republican congressman who was co-author of the 2007 bill, Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, renounced his own work. Republican Representative Joe Barton, who had previously claimed the spotlight to apologize to British Petroleum for all the fuss about its little oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, introduced a bill repealing most of Upton’s energy-efficiency provisions.

Believe it or not, a radical reversal on light bulbs won’t shake the foundations of the republic, but it has now become perceptible to me, that this type of political schizophrenia is indicative of a party that is unhinged from both philosophy and substantive politics.

Republicans like Mark Amodei, and modern conservatives who have infiltrated the conservative movement, are defined not by what they are for but almost exclusively by what they are against. Like a patient who requires a liver transplant, modern conservatives and republicans increasingly reject the tissue of their own proposals and their own reasonable history.

No Solutions Now… And I see No Solutions from Republicans In the Future!

The problem here isn’t hypocrisy, which abounds at all points on the political spectrum. It’s that Republicans have abandoned market-based solutions in favor of no solutions at all. They’ve traded in their traditional small-government philosophy for anti-government rage, (thanks to the Tea Party, which I despise!) generally doing their level best to look like inbred yahoos whenever cameras are near.

In reality, the largely wealthy, educated and professionally successful members of the House and Senate Republican caucuses have become castrated.    The members of the Republican political elite are so afraid of their noisy anti-government, anti- intellectual wing that they fear expressing support for even the most limited government — you know, the kind that can fix a highway or keep a bridge from falling down (forget about building Hoover Dam or creating a national park).

In their current frame of mind, House Republicans and their brethren in the Senate may ultimately be legislating against themselves. Whose interests are served when they try to roll back food safety regulations, increasing the likelihood that salmonella will sicken citizens and that the inevitable fallout will harm U.S. food companies? If Republicans are so determined to be against something, maybe they ought to consider dropping the war on light bulbs, and pick a fight with E. coli.