(Guest post by Anonymous)
In today’s political climate, liberals are known for being for social issues whereas conservatives are known for business issues. But is that really true? Let’s consider the strange case of the Permian Basin. For those not familiar with it, the Permian Basin is a sedimentary basin largely contained in the western part of the U.S. state of Texas and the southeastern part of the state of New Mexico. It reaches from just south of Lubbock, Texas, to just south of Midland and Odessa, extending westward into the southeastern part of the adjacent state of New Mexico. It is so named because it has one of the world’s thickest deposits of rocks from the Permian geologic period. It is also a large oil and natural gas producing area.
For the most part, Republicans have far outweighed Democrats in the area. In some areas, Democrats are like an endangered species. Almost everything that happens in the Permian Basin is tied to oil and natural gas production. Therefore, the economic booms and busts in the area are directly tied to the price of oil. When the price of oil goes up, the area experiences a boom and conversely when the price of oil is low, it experiences a bust.
The economic booms when they happen bring great wealth to the area. So much it generally leads to people pissing away the money on frivolous things. Then when the inevitable bust happens, people go bankrupt, and lose their business, their jobs and their houses. The rate of unemployment shoots sky-high and most communities experience a loss of population.
Even though communities in the Basin have tried mightily to diversify economic factors, the single most likely indicator continues to be oil. Likewise, in the general economy of the nation as a whole, oil is a major factor is economic well-being. When the price of oil is low, the overall economy does well. When it is high, we usually experience a recession. This is the exact opposite of what happens in the Permian Basin.
So looking back at history, when have we had high oil prices? Since 1970, there was the recession of 1973-1975 after the end of the Vietnam War. This sharply increased the cost of oil and there was a boom in the Permian Basin. High oil prices continued during the Carter Presidency and led to the major recession of 1980 – 1982. Good times were had in the Permian Basin. Midland, Texas at that time had the highest concentration of millionaires than any other city in the nation.
Then the oil prices plunged creating the great oil bust of the 80’s and 90’s. During that time, we had 12 straight years of Reagan/Bush. Then two short years of Clinton with a majority democratic Congress, followed by 6 years of a majority republican Congress.
In 2000, George W. Bush became president and except for a brief rise in oil prices after 9/11, oil remained remarkably steady until 2007. The nation was rocked at that time with financial scandals and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oil prices skyrocketed and the Permian Basin once again had a boom. In New Mexico, from all the increased drilling for oil and natural gas, the state experienced a $200 million dollar windfall in tax receipts in 2007. The governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, instead of using it to shore up the budget, basically pissed it away by giving everyone in New Mexico a $50 dollar tax refund. This was done during his campaign for the 2008 presidential race.
Oil prices dropped once again so by the time President Bush left office, the Permian Basin was once again experiencing an economic bust. Recently, during Obama’s administration, the oil price has once again climbed and is forecasted to climb to heights never before seen. Yes, once again, the Permian Basin is experiencing an economic boom. This is quite likely to be one of the biggest booms ever.
Oil companies are hiring people with absolutely no experience and starting them at $14.50 an hour. As there continues to be a shortage of people in the oilfield, that starting wage is likely to increase to over $20 an hour. This trickles down to every part of the economic sectors in the Permian Basin. Even if your company has no part directly or indirectly to the oilfield, the competition for workers will still affect the businesses.
Now let’s connect some dots. Oil prices tend to rise during Democratic times of rule. They also rise due to wars and the aftermath. The conflicts in the Middle East have definitely had an impact on oil prices. Most if not all of the conflicts in the Middle East can be traced back to the late 70’s when Carter, a democrat, was in office.
The Permian Basin is overwhelmingly conservative. If they were primarily concerned with money and accumulation of money, then the smart thing to do would always vote for Democrats. What a concept! So for at least the Republicans in the Permian Basin, it would seem that they are not just money hungry greedy businessmen, but their conservative values actually run a lot deeper. Their main concern in this area is the role of government. Almost all favor limited government. Almost all favor individual responsibility. Very few take into consideration local economic factors.
Of course, the liberal media would like everyone to believe that Republicans are in the thrall of oil men. If that was really the case, then the price of oil would remain high and go higher when Republicans control the government and likewise the price of oil would go low when Democrats control the government. Obviously, this is just another liberal media talking point that is a blatant lie when closely examined.
