Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" Speech

[malaise]

known as his "Malaise" Speech.
How profound was that speech? Was he too optimistic about political and civil liberties?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html
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I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

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.

[KT2000]

1. I recall listening to

the speech and cheering. I had never heard a politician speak so bluntly. Immediately following the speech, the newspeople were aghast and trashed the speech and spoke only about Carter's failings. It was downhill for him from there.

Was he too optomistic? I don't think so. A leader should call upon the people to rise to a common purpose, as Kennedy did.
After Kennedy was killed, the message to America was to stop trying for higher ideals. The age of possibilites was over and the war machine took over. That is what the people wanted. As Roslyn Carter put it so aptly, "Reagan makes us comfortable with our prejudices." Carter was appealing to a country that had already quit trying.

And so it goes today - a nation that is addicted to the stagnation of living in fear.

[malaise]

2. I meant optimistic about

political and civil rights enduring. I used the speech in graduate school and agreed with him re the crisis of confidence and of course energy conservation.

Of course it was all down hill from there. He fugged with The Seven sisters those fugging oil barons.

It was a great speech and demonstrated leadership at its best.