Jimmy Carter’s presidency was just plain awful
Re: “If only Obama were as good as Carter,” Sept. 21
While facts — in John Adams’ words — are “stubborn things,” Gene Healy’s recent Carter administration re-examination is a reminder that historical amnesia can be just as potent.
Perhaps some have forgotten Carter’s appalling economic record — including -0.3 percent gross domestic product growth, 7.1 percent unemployment, 20 percent interest and 13.5 percent inflation. Maybe they’ve forgotten the energy crisis, the ill-fated SALT II treaty, and Carter’s “response” to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which included the ineffective 1980 Olympics boycott and destructive grain embargo. Perhaps they’ve also forgotten the 1979 Iranian revolution and blunders that led to the hostage crisis and a radical regime that threatens world stability to this day.
In 14 presidential surveys, President Carter’s mean ranking is a dismal No. 27. Most Americans have not forgotten his weak and uninspiring leadership. As Abraham Lincoln said, “History is not history unless it is the truth.” We must remember that neither time — nor historic revisionism — can ever change that.
Mark E. Quartullo
Bowie
Docs partly to blame for abuse of handicapped tags
Re: “Tale of towing from handicapped space generates unexpected response,” Sept. 20
As the father of a son with muscular dystrophy who’s been in a wheelchair the last 10 years, I never sought or accepted a handicapped tag. After all, my son didn’t drive. I did. Now with another son — a U.S. Marine who was severely wounded in Afghanistan on May 19 — I have spent four months shuttling between military hospitals in Bethesda and Richmond. Even there, the disgraceful use of handicapped plates and/or hang tags by able-bodied people is rampant.
Yes, I know we cannot always tell there’s a disability just by looking, but it’s obviously not when an individual runs or jogs after exiting the vehicle. Doctors write the “prescription” that allows abusers to obtain such conveniences with little or no regard for those who really need them, and the police almost always fail to ticket them.
With a disabled and now an injured son, I have made many complaints in many states to no avail. To stop the abuse, fine doctors who do not follow up on the prescriptions they write. Too many seniors get handicapped tags, which serves them poorly. They should be walking.
Bob Faro
Nazareth, Pa.
Selling liquor stores will reduce long-term revenue
Re: “Virginia should sell its liquor stores,” local editorial, Aug. 12
Conservatives once believed, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” but many have gone down the magical-thinking rabbit hole with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who wants to privatize state liquor stores. The one-time cash windfall won’t net as much long-term revenue as yearly liquor store profits.
Your editorial points out that control and license states have no statistically meaningful differences in binge drinking or drunken-driving fatalities, before concluding that control states have a “conflict of interest” in regulating intoxicants while peddling them. But as the lack of statistically meaningful difference attests, no such conflict of interest exists.
Virginia is predisposed against the kind of strict regulation a license state has to maintain to effectively regulate alcohol sales. Were lax regulation of private liquor stores to lead to a public backlash, Virginia voters might embrace tighter overall business regulation. In Virginia’s unique circumstance, remaining a control state makes more sense.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria
