Little common ground

This explains why liberals prefer Carter and despise Reagan. And it also explains why conservatives and libertarians prefer Reagan, and know that Carter was ineffectual. Let the history of price control on oil in the 70s be a lesson for Obama on healthcare and the economy. He ought to reverse course right now and embrace free markets. If the Capital Gains %15 tax is frozen, and the Bush tax cuts are made permanent, a full recovery would ensue.

The motive of the liberal elites and the environmentalist activists is to stymy human progress because this progress implies purported harm to the environment and without checks on population growth could eventually become unsustainable over a very long time frame. But even so, what gives the elite the right to make that decision..?

The motive of the conservative or libertarian leader is to provide limited government, help people by giving them opportunities, not handouts, and by releasing the shackles of government regulation and mandates, but do not control them. Let individuals and the free market take care of itself. It works, let it.

I see little common ground between these two ideals.

"The last time liberals decided an industry was so important that the government needed to step in and contain costs was when they set their sights on the oil industry. Liberals in both the U.S. and Canada -- presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and Canadian P.M. Pierre Trudeau -- imposed price controls on oil.

As night leads to day, price controls led to reduced oil production, which led to oil shortages, skyrocketing prices for gasoline, rationing schemes and long angry lines at gas stations.

You may recall this era as 'the Carter years.'

Then, the white knight Ronald Reagan became president and immediately deregulated oil prices. The magic of the free market -- aka the "profit motive" -- produced surges in oil exploration and development, causing prices to plummet. Prices collapsed and remained low for the next 20 years, helping to fuel the greatest economic expansion in our nation's history.

You may recall this era as 'the Reagan years." -- Ann Coulter