Cohen: Reagan’s problem was his success

The Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen tells us this morning that Ronald Reagan is to blame for our gas prices today. In a completely intellectually void piece, Cohen claims that all Reagan had was a smile;

Those of you with keen memories may recall that the energy crisis is not new. In 1977, Jimmy Carter called it the “moral equivalent of war.” In the sort of speech a politician rarely delivers, he told a not-particularly-grateful nation that his energy program was going to hurt, but “a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy.” The core of his initiative was conservation. Carter had earlier asked us to lower our thermostats and wear sweaters. He wore one himself.

Reagan, who succeeded Carter in the White House, wore only a smile. For him, there was no energy crisis. Whereas Carter had insisted that only the government could manage the energy crisis, Reagan, in his first inaugural, demanded that government get out of the way. Speaking of general economic conditions at the time, he said, “Government is not the solution to our problem.” He went on to call for America to return to greatness, to “reawaken this industrial giant,” and all sorts of swell things would happen. It was wonderful stuff.

Except Cohen forgets that it was OPEC who had cut shipments during Carter’s years and they were afraid to do that during the Reagan years. Government didn’t “get out of the way”…we haven’t built a refinery since Carter’s years because of the Democrat Congress. And everytime a Republican, whether the President or in Congress, has made a move to improve our domestic production of energy, there’s always been a Democrat, as President or in Congress, to help us wean off of foreign oil – with promises of alternate energy sources that never seem to materialize.

Of course, Cohen uses this vacuous point to declare conservatism dead. I think Cohen should hold off counting those chickens just yet.

Category: Jimmy Carter, Media, Politics