The spouse and I actually had this discussion in the car over the weekend. I was arguing rather strenuously, as Jonathan Schwarz does here, that if we had implemented Carter’s energy policy rather than electing Reagan in 1980, the country would be in far better shape. The spouse didn’t disagree, exactly, but allowed as how Carter’s recommendations seemed awfully “crunchy granola” at the time. Hmph. As Schwarz says, “Thanks, America’s crazy right wing. We couldn’t have ignored our most important problems for three decades and thereby made them much worse without you.”
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Sigh. I remember when President Carter made that speech, althugh I don’t remember watching it on TV. I remember the ideas. I thought he was right at the time. He was.
Perhaps it would have been “crunchy granola” to swallow, but if we had made the effort then to choke it down, we would not be in the pickle we are in today. Oil could be $80 a barrel and it wouldn’t matter because people would only use oil for the things that absolutely require it. (Like what, she asks?) We would all be driving electric cars run on solar power and paying virtually nothing to electric companies, except for perhaps storage of energy and redistribution when weather calls for more power in certain places than others. Think of the possibilities! It would have been worth the effort.
On the one hand I would love to gloat about the possibility that poor old reviled and vilified Presidetn Jimmy Carter may turn out to be the Wise Old Man of the 20th Century after all. A fat lot of good it will have done him to have been so right. He will get to watch the country go through a terrible ordeal, belatedly and at so much greater cost, that would have been unnecessary had we listened to him.
President Carter made a couple of huge mistakes. First, he expected Americans to take the long view. That’s almost laughable
Second, he used the “S” word. [Sacrifice.] We can’t have that.
NIW
July 15th, 2008
Sigh!
Satchel
July 15th, 2008