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It is a unquestionable fact to the Right: Jimmy Carter’s was a disastrous presidency, and the country barely survived, thanks to the magnificent rule of Ronald Reagan. It’s so unquestioned that any “conservative” will react in honest shock on hearing any suggestion that Carter was a good, smart and decent President and that, barring a few political mistakes and some unfortunate timing, would certainly have been reelected in 1980. How different would the country have been if we’d been spared the indignity of eight years of Reagan and another 12 years of Bushes?

On one subject–energy policy–Carter was well ahead of his time. A second Carter term would almost certainly have taken an entirely different path toward sustainability and self-reliance. Cynthia Tucker, in a Baltimore Sun editorial, puts it all very well:

“Beginning at this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never,” he said. “From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now.” Mr. Carter also called for research into alternative fuels, massive investment in public transit and a broad campaign for conservation. He acknowledged that the new programs would require billions; but “unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans.” Of course, you know the rest of the story. The next year, Ronald Reagan was elected and threw out Mr. Carter’s plans. The Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries relented, and gasoline became, once again, plentiful and cheap. So Americans pretended Mr. Carter was the problem – not our profligate consumption patterns. Today, we’re importing twice as much oil as we were when Mr. Carter gave that speech. …. What if the nation had stuck to the path Mr. Carter laid out? What if we had invested billions back then in public transit and alternative fuels? What if we’d made a national campaign of conservation, similar to the successful no-smoking campaign? What if we’d insisted that Detroit continue pushing up fuel efficiency?

What a great question. And what if we had remembered the long gas lines and rationed fuel? What if we had insisted that Detroit build small, efficient and reliable vehicles? And what if we’d known better than to choose a President and Vice President right out of the oil business?