Stalinism Resurrected

The greatest accomplishment of the Nixon-Reagan-Bush era was arguably the destruction of the Soviet Union.

Personally I don’t buy it. The USSR was destroyed, not by Reagan’s speeches or his Star Wars threats, but by the internal contradictions of the system. You can’t remove incentive, destroy innovation and succeed in a post-industrial economy.

But what if Communism had a sugar daddy? What if it became Texas?

That’s precisely what is happening. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has essentially re-nationalized its oil and gas industry. Thanks to our insatiable appetites, and our own refusal to work on alternatives, this provides the regime with enormous financial leverage. Putin has been using this leverage to recreate the Soviet state.

• Intimidating the near abroad to recreate its network of satellites.
• Killing potential enemies.
• Systematically eliminating dissent.

None of this would be possible without western technology that has
unlocked Russian reserves, and our insatiable need for those reserves
— global warming be damned.

Unless and until we reverse course on energy, and get serious — dead
serious — about replacing hydrocarbon sources with off-the-grid
hydrogen, Putin will continue to re-Stalinize his part of the world. But once we do start replacing hydrocarbons with hydrogen, in a meaningful way, the value of those oil and gas reserves plunges to the floor, and Putin goes down just like Stalin did. Which is what every tyrant deserves.

Now that’s an argument for hydrogen even a Bushie can love.