I believe it IS fair to blame Bush (or more accurately the Bush administration). . .but not as uniquely to blame.
Capitalism/free market is a double-edged sword. IF we wish to be completely free market, we must be willing to suffer the natural downsides to that ideology. Market forces are amoral, guided by the dynamics of the system and not by any social agreement about "right and wrong."
Americans are quite ignorant about such and always want their cake and eat it too. . .We cheer for Capitalism until it poops on us. . .
If we put ideology aside, it is clear that some balance between free market and socialism (the moral component that pure free market lacks) will best serve a society when addressing large issues such as our ability to continue transportation as we have chosen to create it (American views are different than European views where gas prices have been higher for some time).
The most perplexing irony, of course, is that oil/gas prices are manipulated by those who benefit from it. The political power of the US created the monster that oil has become just as we created Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
I recommend people read some books by Chris Hedges who argues that humans are trapped by Utopian thinking that keeps us from gaining any real value from the "past." Humans are not progressing forward in any linear way. Each person starts over from scratch and we just keep plowing the same moral (immoral) ground. . .
