I think it’s high time someone had the courage to state the obvious:  one of our political parties has been captured lock, stock and voting booth by religious zealots. 

These true believers have warped the party’s platform into a theological document filled with dogma that runs counter to the wishes of vast numbers of Americans.

This fanaticism has cowed many elected officials from this party into supporting legislation and policies they know in their heart are wrong for the country. 

This intolerance extends to government bureaucracies that have been stocked with credulous believers who do their best to advance the cause of this rigid belief system at the expense of non–believers.  

I am, of course, referring to the capture of the Democrat party by pantheists, Druids and environmentalists. 

Let’s explore a single issue and you will see what I mean. In June 2008, America’s Sleeping Pill — National Public Radio — reported gas prices in the were at an all time high of over $4/gallon and drivers were crossing the border to Mexico to make a better life for their family by buying cheaper gas. 

But if you listened last week to the debate between the three Democrat candidates for governor of Virginia, it’s like last summer never happened.  

Brian Moran takes the “progressive” liberal position and is opposed to all drilling off the coast, because it supposedly endangers tourism. Of course without a way to get to Virginia, at a cost they can afford, there won’t be any tourists. We’ll be reduced to selling snow globes to each other. 

Terry McAuliffe is opposed to any drilling for oil and tepidly supports drilling for natural gas, except that there is no way to distinguish between oil and gas drilling until you strike pay dirt.

Finally, R. Creigh Deeds talks the usual Democrat blather about “energy independence” but his support is contingent on oil producers jumping through the same “environmental” and regulatory hoops that have prevented drilling since the 1980s. 

The Washington Post calls these “strikingly different positions,” but if all three mean no more oil, what’s the difference? 

Democrats publicly oppose drilling for two reasons: one, the oil won’t solve all our import problems or two, it will take ten years to come on line. Yet when enviros promote “green” automobiles that won’t be ready for a generation, why that’s just around the corner! 

Instead, Democrat environmental dogma keeps us dependent on Middle Eastern despots or props up Latin American strongmen. 

If you vote Democrat you have no right to complain when gas prices again start the inevitable climb upward. Your vote has gone to the party whose environmental theology has no room for heretics who believe we can drill for oil and protect the environment.

Instead they await the Immaculate Combustion that produces power without carbon, oil or human intervention. 

 Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic, entertaining and funny keynote speaker for corporate, non–profit and governmental organizations.