Its very easy to criticize if you don’t have to be responsible for what happens. Its easy to criticize for what should have happened if you dont know the facts. It’s easy to say “we should do more” if you dont have to deal with the unintended consequences. It’s easy to call for taking risks and “having a spine” if you are not facing a real potential of nuclear war that could destroy the world.
The game of politics is simple. Criticize from the outside to help you get elected then when you are on the inside forget what you said. When you are on the outside the facts don’t really matter. What does matter is getting elected. The Republicans are now on the outside and the midterms are coming up so they criticize everything even if they would do the same thing. That is the reality of politics.Both Democrats and Republicans do this. For instance, Donald Trump said Obama care was a disaster and that he would replace it with something much better and cheaper day one. Forgotten day two. Mexico will pay for the wall. Forgotten. Iran nuclear deal was the worst deal ever so he terminated it to get a better deal. Never replaced and Iran now much closer to getting a nuclear weapon. etc etc.
Big talking points now are oil independence. Sounds good and on the surface makes sense. Ban Russian oil imports! Meanwhile the US government does not import oil, the private sector does. And no Russian oil has been purchased for several weeks now – before any calls for banning the oil occurred. Many oil leases in the US have not been utilized yet. We dont need any more. The US is a net exporter of oil. etc etc.Besides one way to cut the need for oil is to build more renewables. Drilling is not the only solution. Then there is Iran. Complete that nuclear deal and a major oil exporter enters the market. There is more than one way to skin a cat.