Anyhow, I watch CNN time-to-time and I have been seeing a lot of ads with "average folks" (meaning actors), talking about how important it is to have domestic energy production of natural gas, oil and coal stepped up, to help the US economy, save jobs, blah blah blah. They claim that this coming round of elections is important (which it is), and that energy security is a very important thing to consider when voting - they call themselves in the ad, "energy voters"; e.g. "I'm so and so, and I'm an energy voter!"
Obviously, these ads are created by the energy producers of America who want to ingrain into people's minds that energy production should be an election issue, and that it should be at the forefront of people's minds when casting their votes, ideally in favour of pro-domestic energy candidates (I read that to mean Republicans, primarily).
So, my question is simple:
Do such voters exist really? Or are they primarily a sham, imaginary "bloc" of people made by big oil and gas et al. to try and convince people to not even bother thinking about the negative environmental impact that increased domestic production would likely have?
I for one laugh when I see these ads. I'd think less than 5% of the US voting public have domestic energy production at the forefront of their minds when voting, and that the so-called "energy voter" class of voters is next to non-existant, save for those in constituencies who have large portions of the population who say work in coal mining, or oil (and they tend to vote Republican all the time anyway). Who is big oil et al. trying to fool?
These ads are pretty pathetic, IMO, and to think that even some American voters would be swayed by such ads is frankly a bit disconcerting - but mind you, most things in US politics are pretty disconcerting already.
