How to stop cap and trade the pragmatic, politically-effective way.

Rather than getting yourself in a tizzy regarding the President's inane and outdated proposal, show that the libertarians can do it better. Rather than act in a reactionary fashion by promoting an outdated and socially harmful form of populism that betrays the efficiency and innovation the free-market is known for, encourage debate on the subject. In a word:

1. The Republican Party, starting yesterday, needs to adopt a policy that offers massive tax incentives to those corporations that are capable of making the effort to invest (for the duration of the present crisis) in an efficient program of modernization; that is, we need to show them - and the people - that we, too, demand progress on this issue, and that we are every bit as dedicated to solving the energy crisis.

We have to be serious on this, though. We cannot allow a repeat of Reagan removing the solar panels from the White House roof - it's neither in the interests of the country or the country's business interests to pass up this singular moment in history to reground the American economy in a firm foundation. If we continue to slack off, we will lose their trust as right as rain, and for good reason. We must take the lead, not follow the pack.

2. Starting immediately, we must break strongly and forcefully with the inane conservative notion that the world never changes. Our present economic system is decaying so that a new one might grow. This is natural and inevitable - to use a phraseology my socially-conservative counterparts might hold dear, this is a time of separating the wheat from the proverbial chaff. We can take the lead on inaugurating the 21st-century economy, if we prioritize and accept that the political paradigm that was established in 1980 is no longer valid.

3. We need to compete on both a pragmatic and ideological level: where the Democrats are concerned in the main with a pie-in-the-sky notion of collective climate change, we must demonstrate to the individual that we wish to save him from economic catastrophe in the form of massively increasing gas prices and lines that will circle the block. By emphasizing and nurturing the individual nature of this crisis, and the individual damage it can and will inflict on countless lives, we can take the lead in winning his trust once more.

Do I expect it to happen? No. We are all wearing collective blinders; an entire generation of Republicans have grown up -- but haven't really grown up -- to react against anything that smacks of the 1960s, including the energy issue. But we must meet this challenge; and we will, even if the Republican Party cannot and does not will to. Because we are men, and because we are Americans.