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Have you forgotten what real leadership and real straight talk look and sound like? No wonder.
Well here's a refreshing refresher course. Back in 1977 the much maligned, President Jimmy Carter, showed genuine leadership and political courage, two traits almost entirely missing from today's "leaders." Following the Arab oil boycott of 1973, Carter took a cold, hard look at world oil supplies and declared them a national security threat just waiting to happen. He laid out a vision of what must be done, and done quickly to avoid just such a threat to America's robust, but excessive, lifestyle. Carter, as was his wonkish wont, laid out both his vision and his solutions in painstaking detail in a prime-time television address.
It was filled with hard truths and bitter pills, neither of which pampered Americans had (and still have) no use for and conservatives scorn as "defeatism" and "surrender." On a ship of fools it's always "full speed ahead -- and stop with the iceberg business! Yahooooooo."
When I came across this speech yesterday I intended to only quote from it. That was until I began reading it. I simply could not stop. It could have been written yesterday.
Carter was prophetic in nearly every detail. And, like most prophets, his warnings were ignored -- ignored by the American people because it called on them to trim their consumption. And it was ignored by members of Congress because it required them to do something that, while the rigth thing to do, would have been unpopular. Genuine profiles in cowardice.
If you're one of those "damn the facts, full speed ahead" conservatives who still thinks Carter was wrong then and anyone making similar noises is wrong today, read this and tell me why it's so. But, before you start ragging on me about how all this could have been averted if only we'd drilled more in Alaska and offshore, click the link at the end of Carter's speech and read the pdf file linked on that page. I know conservatives like to live in fact-free, care-free, ignorance-is-bliss environment, but that reports contains facts you cannot ignore and still be right.
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