I saw this essay yesterday at Tech Central Station and had to do a doubletake: a space elevator as a party platform plank? James D. Miller appears to be serious: “Republicans should commit the government to building a space elevator by 2020.” Miller goes through the benefits a space elevator promises (namely, sharply reduced space access costs) and why the government, rather than the private sector, should build it (the government is already planning to spend “tens of billions of dollars on space exploration anyway”), before why Republicans in particular should support the space elevator:
I admit it: part of the reason I want Republicans to make space elevators part of their 2006 campaign is that I am a Republican and fear that otherwise we will lose considerable power in the midterm elections. A space elevator proposal would be visionary, pro-defense, pro-environment and easy to understand, so it could attract significant support for Republicans.
I know that sometimes my sarcasm detector fails, but it really looks like he’s serious here: the space elevator is needed to save the Republican Party. Plus, he thinks the Democrats would never support the concept: “The left-wing environmentalists view the threat of global warming primarily as a means of combating capitalism, and they would be horrified by any proposal that could reduce the harm of global warming without curbing commerce.” Uh-huh. Despite that, somehow I don’t think the space elevator is going be a part of Karl Rove et al.’s 2006 strategy.
The space elevator thing is ridiculous. The Republican Party is ridiculous. The Democratic Party is ridiculous. The war in Iraq is ridiculous. The Space Shuttle is ridiculous. The president is ridiculous. ISS is ridiculous.
Sometimes, there’s not much more to say about things like this. You just throw up your arms, let out a scream, and walk away to cool off.
Plus, he thinks the Democrats would never support the concept: “
I know he’s wrong. No hard numbers but we certainly have support from folks on the Left.
Excellent. Politicise a technology that doesn’t even work yet. He might get his support from the Right but he’d cause the idea to be stillborn.
Perhaps you are detecting an ominous trend here. Could it be perhaps (heaven forbid) that AMERICA is ridiculous? Could we perhaps extrapolate that the HUMAN RACE is ridiculous? Naaa … that would be … unthinkable.
People really need to start thinking about … themselves.
Naw, it’s just Elifritz that’s ridiculous. It’s called “projection.”
Let’s not add to the giggle factor ourselves. If frontier follies worked for Jefferson on down, it could work for the Republicans (not that they need another issue if the Democrats capitalize on none). It’s certainly a better story than hydrogen as a way to achieve independence from foreign oil.