Jimmy Carter was right

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/brent-budowsky/34954/jimmy-carter-was-right

For 40 years, America’s energy policy has been a bipartisan disaster. Since the early 1970s America’s dependence on foreign oil has threatened our economy, security and national honor as we corrupted our foreign policy to satisfy our thirst for oil.

Nixon failed. Ford failed. Reagan failed. George H.W. Bush failed. Clinton failed. George W. Bush failed. Compared to the magnitude of the problem, Obama so far has failed. Democrats failed. Republicans failed. The House failed. The Senate failed.

The one national leader who understood was a prophet without honor in a nation addicted to oil: President Jimmy Carter.

When Carter said the energy crisis is the moral equivalent of war, he was absolutely right. Carter could have been a more perfect commander in the politics of passing an energy program. Yet the far larger fault lies with the generals, captains and foot soldiers in a war that demanded our support, a war we have never fought, a war we continue to lose today.

More at the link --

[arbusto_baboso]

1. History will be a lot kinder to Carter than America has been.

Too bad we didn't listen to him sooner.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. +1

[hifiguy]

5. +2

In retrospect Carter's biggest problem was that he talked to the people as if they were adults.

But letting the evil, corrupt and brutal Shah into the country was a monumentally stupid and unnecessary mistake. It led to the embassy takeover, which led to the election of Raygun and the horrors that have followed.

[arbusto_baboso]

7. Yes, the Shah was his fatal error.

Funny, though, the whole hostage crisis might have gotten him re-elected if the resuce attempt had succeeded.

[slay]

11. +3

Carter was too good for the American people - and us to ignorant to listen at the time.

[JuniperLea]

3. And he is the most demonized now...

Because you know wherever truth is spoken, the GOP demonization is in its fullest force.

If we'd all listened to Jimmy then, and followed his advice, how much different would things be now?

[still_one]

4. While Carter did try to implement an energy policy, as nixon did, it was rejected by Congress and

never got very far

Carter was also wrong about nuclear energy, as the current events are demonstrating

[LAGC]

14. No, Carter wasn't wrong about nuclear energy.

The more modern designs in place in most American reactors make a scenario like the one playing out in Japan very unlikely.

Nuclear is a necessary intermediate step in powering our society until alternative/renewable energy sources become more efficient and come down in price.

We need better, cheaper energy storage (battery) mediums as well to handle renewables.

[dkofos]

6. Yes he was. Too bad not enough of us listened to him.

[malaise]

8. 100% correct

I would love to see an interview with Carter and Rachel Maddow

[Safetykitten]

9. He was a failure. This is why.

He was correct, but did not inspire, he was rational, but did not offer the bigger dream that people want.

So we as Democrats are stuck with one or the other. Inspiration with no action, or in Carter's case no inspiration and no action.

The republicans know this.

[Uncle Joe]

10. George Armstrong Custer was inspiring as was Ronald Reagen or at least that was the corporate media

promotion of Reagan; "The Great Communicator" could any of that been related to Reagan's implicit/explicit message of corporate supremacy?

I believe so, I also believe the corporate media has/had great propaganda power in swaying the people as to cultural/political reality.

The corporate media opposed Carter and did their best to tear him down on a daily basis because they believed in two myopic things, American Empire and Corporate Supremacy.

[leveymg]

12. Jimmy got my first vote, and I'd vote for him again. Harder to say that about any of the others,

since.

He was a good man who should have listened to his own good instincts and nationalized the oil industry, like he wanted to.

[MaeScott]

13. K andR. nt

[LeftinOH]

15. His "Crisis of Confidence" speech from 1979 was a lecture too many people didn't want to hear:

(but we should have taken it more seriously)

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. . . ."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaise_speech#.22Malaise.22_speech