| Porsche-O-Phile |
02-21-2009 12:55 PM |
Agree with you on Carter. People LOVE to villify the guy, but he was 100% nuts-on when he said what he did. Problem is, it's not what people wanted to hear. People back in 1976 wanted to hear rah-rah-rah USA USA USA and promises of $0.50 gas again - not that we were in an unsustainable situation that required dramatic changes to our lifestyles if we wanted to REALLY solve the problem. Reagan won by promising to treat the symptoms (and to his credit, he did). But the disease remained - COMPLETE dependence on foreign oil for our entire transportation infrastructure and much of our energy infrastructure, lots of debt spending, lots of money going to people that hate our guts. Stupid, short-sighted policies for the last 30 years.
If we'd taken Carter seriously and really paid attention to the underlying message of his speech, we'd be energy independent right now, 9-11 probably never would have happened, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq (twice, at a cost of untold billions), etc. But 'mericans want only want to hear how the world is our oyster and how we're entitled to do whatever we damn well please without consequence. It makes a great sell in presidential politics.
Not saying Carter was a saint - he had plenty of problems (bungling the hostage rescue most notably) but I honestly think he was a victim of schitty times, a lousy economy, low national morale and short-sighted fools looking for a scapegoat (and yes, for "hope and change"). Sound familiar? It'll happen again with Obama unless the (R) are stupid enough to run Palin in 2012. Watch and see. Obama will be the 21st century's version of Carter. Smart guy, but too educated to effectively translate vision and policy into a message the average pissed off schlub on the streets can understand. He'll be viewed as an elitist jackass in four years. Watch.
|
