Well, all right, we'll never have done with demagogues and demagoguery short of the Second Coming. What we can do meantime is sniff it out, point to it, warn of its consequences. The consequences of demagoguing the enterprise of drilling oil wells is potentially vast. Nobody, until recently, saw anything wrong with drilling wells, especially if the wells were in godforsaken places like, ahem, my native Texas. Or in Texas' offshore waters. You wanted oil? You drilled. It was as simple as that. You drilled, you found the oil, brought it to the surface, refined it, sold it.
During the "energy crisis" of the '70s, when reduced imports of oil caused prices to soar, anti-oil company demagoguery flowered. The formerly serious and sensible cold war hawk, Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson of Washington, memorably waggled his finger at an array of oil company presidents on whom he threatened to "slap subpoenas" if they didn't cooperate with the public interest represented -- oh, so clearly! -- by the senator from Washington. Successor demagogues have this year staged the same sideshow in variant forms. As if oil companies existed to bleed the customers rather than satisfy their needs!
Forget logic. Forget realism. Demagoguery of the Pelosi-Democratic party sort is about acquiring political advantage through smearing an industry that potential Democratic voters can be persuaded to dislike and punish.
Denounce, denounce, denounce. Attack, smear and calumniate. Sure finds a lot of oil, doesn't it? As for drill, drill, drill, the Democratic Party seems to have handed off that particular mission to your dentist.