In the 1992 presidential campaign, independent candidate Ross Perot proposed a 50-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax and was hit for it by his pandering foes George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But he was right. Gasoline should be expensive — it’s a heavily polluting fuel made from a finite resource much of which is controlled by nasty people. Hillary Clinton and John McCain of “Straight Talk Express” have sorely undermined their credibility by touting the idea that cheap gasoline is good for us.

Meanwhile, more and more common-sensical citizens flock to mass-transit systems.