Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech"

[kristopher]

Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech"

Speaker: President Jimmy Carter
Date: July 15, 1979
Location: Televised speech from the White House, Washington, D.C.
Audio: The University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs (Download Audio MP3 file)

EDITOR'S NOTE: U.S. President Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on July 15, 1979. Arguably one his most important speeches, it came at a time of record high energy prices, severe energy shortages, and a recession. Long gas-pump lines and short tempers started in California and spread eastward, focusing Americans' outrage over a seemingly endless economic decline. Much of that anger was directed at the White House: Carter's approval rating had dropped to 25%, lower than Richard Nixon's during the Watergate scandal. Carter saw the energy crisis as a " crisis of the spirit in our country," and he asked Americans to join him in adapting to a new age of limits. Carter also admonished the American people, claiming that "human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns." Though he never used the word, this became known as Carter's "malaise" speech. The public and the political pundits reacted very harshly to the speech, criticizing Carter for not offering enough solutions to the problems he identified. A little more than a year later, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter by offering Americans a vision that was as optimistic as Carter's was pessimistic. Today, many energy and environmental scholars observe that the problems Carter identified, particularly our dependence on oil and the connection among consumption, energy use, and environmental change, remain paramount issues.

Excerpt:
"...The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our Nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this..."


Full text of speech at: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Jimmy_Carter%27s_%22malaise_speech%22#

[dtotire]

1. Carter told the public what they needed to hear

He warned about the growing dependence on foreign oil, and transferring our wealth to foreigners. He began programs that would make us more energy independent, like synthetic fuel, solar and wind power.

Reagan, however, told the public what they WANTED to hear. We could cut taxes, and cut these programs. Then-Senator John Glenn was quoted as saying the cuts were penny-wise and dollar-stupid.

That's why we're in the mess we are today.

[ElectricGrid]

3. very hard to blame this problem on one moment over 30yrs. We have had

many chances to prevent this situation.

[Nederland]

2. Interesting

It is interesting to note that from that speech just how big a fan of coal Jimmy Carter was.

[kristopher]

4. Not so strange considering the known variables

We were heavily dependent on oil in our electrical generating mix; so coal was the logical substitute. While global warming was beginning to be recognized as a problem even then (Carter's science advisor was briefed on the emerging evidence) it wasn't a commanding policy issue at the time.

Carter's support was distributed across the board to all energy sources; Reagan eliminated everything but the long term losers of fossil and nuclear.

[pscot]

5. Where never is heard, a discouraging word

Carter never used the word "malaise". That was the tag the media hung on it. The meme was that it was unpatriotic and defeatist for the President to be talking seriously about the country's problems. Then Ronnie Raygun showed up, and suddenly it was morning is America. Nothing to worry about, folks. This is the best of all possible worlds. Let's all hop in the car and go to Disneyland. Yeaaa.