While being told by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid that we "can't drill our way out" of our current gasoline price crisis, we are quickly coming to the point when everyone (who hasn't already), regardless of party affiliation or political leaning, will then ask the next logical question: "Then, what do we do?"  The sooner this question gets asked, the sooner we have the making of the political wave which could ensure that John McCain wins the election (along with a contingent of Republican legislators). 

As a problem that hits every American squarely in the wallet, and isn't going to go away when the next blip surfaces on the news cycle radar screen, this is a clear winner for Republicans if it is packaged correctly.  In fact, the potential for this to sway masses of Democrats to vote Republican in November is huge.  That may actually be a huge understatement, especially considering that the backbone of the Democratic Party isn't the effete, intellectual crowd which claims Obama as its own.  It also isn't the radical left-wing environmentalist types that have hijacked the agenda of the Party for the past two decades.  Digging deeper, and recognizing where the real bulk of the party lies, is the key.

This backbone of the party are the blue-collar families, heavily steeped in labor unions, that have provided the Democratic Party with a solid base from which to put forth their platform.  Without this base, the Party is simply a conglomeration of various "movements," which constitute planks of the platform which may not be all that important to this base.  Think about the teamsters and the auto worker unions.  Are the unions out there championing the plight of the polar bear, the protection of a woman's right to choose, the need for gun control, or the legalization of gay marriage?  There may be some union members (possibly even a large component) who support these causes, just as there are certainly members who hold positions more traditionally put forth by Republicans. The unions themselves however, and in large part, their members, are concerned primarily with improving or maintaining their economic well-being.  That is, after all, the purpose of labor unions: to protect the rights, and improve the pay and benefits, of their members. 

The current cost of energy (and particularly gasoline) presents a tremendous threat to the union members well-being in both the short and long terms.   Both the short- and long-term threats should be effectively exploited by  Republicans to reap benefits.  The Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrats will focus on the short term as the problem and blur the long term to avoid finding the obvious solution (drill for more oil) in favor of their stated preferred outcome: development of alternative energy sources. 

Neither party is claiming to be able to provide the instant gratification of dramatically reduced gas prices.  Both are proposing a method for becoming more energy independent.  But the cost of the Republicans' proposal is increased potential environmental degradation of areas known of by few Americans and seen by even fewer, while the cost of the Democrats' proposal is the livelihood, economic security, and way of life for millions of Americans: many of them union members.

Union members drive trucks to deliver our food and other products to market.  Few feel the price at the pump more than our truckers, paying more than $5.00 per gallon for diesel fuel.  To tell them that we as a nation will not do anything to assist them in lowering those prices is bad enough, but to add insult to injury, the Democrats are telling them that they will be actively working to make the investments they've made in their livelihood (their trucks) obsolete. 

Union members mine the coal and drill for the oil that powers our electrical grid, fuels our vehicles, and literally greases the wheels of industry.  These folks are being told that the work they are doing is expendable, and even maliciously destructive, by the very party that takes their support for granted. 

Union members build the automobiles for a consumer base that demands independent transportation for themselves.  These workers are being faced with reductions in automobile manufacturing output because of increased fuel costs in the short term.  In the long term, increased fuel costs and increased conservation efforts means a decrease in vehicle miles driven.  Cars (which will cost more) will last longer, meaning that fewer cars (and fewer car builders) will be needed.

Tell these union members that the increased fuel costs are resulting in police departments restricting the number of miles that officers drive in a shift, thereby limiting the areas that they can effectively patrol.  Ask them if they are willing to wait until some unknown alternative fuel technology is developed before they can again enjoy the same level of protection they have grown accustomed to.

In the service industries and their unions, the direct impacts of increased fuel costs are more hidden, but still there.  All of us feel, and will continue to feel, the pinch of the high gas prices, unless we take positive action now.  It is the promised results of the action proposed by the Republicans that holds the potential to show union members that the Democratic party has left them and their Middle-American values behind in favor of a new set of values offered by the left-wing factions of their party.

Let's not squander the opportunity to draw a distinct line between the two parties and give everyone a reason to really decide which side holds the greatest promise for future prosperity.