Global Warming, the Big 'Who Cares?'

Americans are not going to pay for pie-in-the sky schemes designed to alter the climate. Most don't believe the theory of anthropogenic global warming, and they don't much care. Nor will they waste time, money or energy trying to undo immigration trends of the past two decades.

Likewise, anyone who still believes Americans will fall for "free" health care from the government is sadly mistaken.

It's a new era, and President Obama's state of the union address reflected that. He downplayed some of the old bold pie-in-the-sky political promises, dwelling more on sounds of economic discipline and concerns about employment. The party is over, it's time to get serious, and savvy politicians know it.

Hangovers hurt, and America is trying to get through a bad one. Throughout the 1990s and part of the past decade, Americans enjoyed a party in the form of seemingly endless faux prosperity. The economy was artificially propped up by superficially low interest rates (thank the Federal Reserve), easy credit (thank Congress, President George W. Bush, Freddie Mac, Fannie May and other complicit banks), and access to seemingly unlimited cheap goods from China. Artificial inflation of the value of homes was mistaken as economic growth. Money was mistaken as wealth. Loans, on a household scale and a national scale, were mistaken as income.

Predictably, it all came crashing down.

During the era of economic pretense, Americans had the luxury to fret about theorized environmental catastrophes. We could afford anything, including legislation that would change the weather and save polar bears adrift on melting icebergs. In our economic drunkenness, we believed the United States could afford to give away health care with no concern about the relatively fixed supply of doctors, nurses and hospitals.

On the left, politicians campaigned on promises of free government health care and a government cure for the hurricanes, floods and tornadoes — not to mention the looming Armageddon — caused by global warming.

On the right, the haze of the faux financial boom led politicians and pundits to make a crisis of natural immigration trends.

Immigrants had poured into this country when we had a shortage of workers, caused by an aging generation in need of services and production but devoid of younger generations large enough in numbers to provide them.

Those were the issues of the past decade, and today we can all consider them all but finished. Politicians and pundits who parade them today will have the appeal of runway models wearing last year's designs.

Each year The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducts a scientific poll about the public's priorities. This year's poll asked Americans to prioritize 21 categories of concerns, ranging from the "economy," to "energy," to "global warming." The top concern, by far, was the economy, with 83 percent of those polled ranking it as "top priority." Second, with 81 percent support, was "jobs." Of course, "jobs" and the "economy" should not have been separate categories. The only jobs of lasting value, to an individual or the economy as a whole, are those that result as a byproduct of the demands of a free economy.

Ranking below the economy and jobs was "terrorism," followed by "social security," followed by "education." The concern "health insurance" ranked 12th, with "health care" ranking eighth.

Concerns about the "environment" ranked 16th. "Global warming" came in dead least, at number 21. Good luck with that cap and trade bill, Congress.

The 28 percent ranking of global warning is a drop concern a drop from 38 percent just three years ago. Support for the concern has dropped reliably since 2007, and it will likely continue to decline as alarmist theories continue to unravel.

Likewise, the window of opportunity to socialize health care has probably come and gone. So has the opportunity to capitalize politically on the limited xenophobia inspired by Latin American immigration.

Americans are no longer enjoying the buzz of faux economic prosperity. Today, they're suffering withdrawal and coping with cold, hard reality. More than ever, they are confronting real concerns about money, employment, our county's dearth in education, and the threat of faraway religious fanatics with a murderous hatred of the United States. Americans have sobered up, which may be the best economic indicator of all.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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