Jimmy Carter's "Malaise" Speech

Ronald Reagan termed it the "Malaise" speech, but it was more than that. Read it for yourself and see how it fits today's America.

Primary Sources: The "Crisis of Confidence" Speech

Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on July 15, 1979.

Good evening. This is a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for president of the United States.
I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.
During the past three years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.
Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?
It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.
I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.
It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.
This from a southern governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you're just managing the government."
"You don't see the people enough any more."
"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."
"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."
"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."
"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."
Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.
This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power."
And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives."
"Some people have wasted energy, but others haven't had anything to waste."
And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another."
And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: "The big-shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can't sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first."
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."
Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I'll read just a few.
"We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment."
"We've got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent."
And this is one of the most vivid statements: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife."
"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."
This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment."
And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: "The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."
And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."
These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my long-standing concerns about our nation's underlying problems.
I know, of course, being president, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law -- and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. 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.
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 crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation's resources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.
These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.
Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.
One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America."
We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.
Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.
What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.
I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation I will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America's energy security.
Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.
These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.
Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.
Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.
Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.
I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.
Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.
So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.
I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act. We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.
Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our Nation's deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.
I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s. I will listen and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.
Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.
I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy secure nation.
In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Thank you and good night.


New book available:
"What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?": Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech that Should Have Changed the Country
By Kevin Mattson
Hardcover, 272 pages
Bloomsbury USA
List Price: $25

Is Obama Really That Clever?

Of all the words he could have used, why did he say "stupidly"?

He could have said "foolishly" or "carelessly" or "rashly" or "poorly" or "wrongly" or "unfortunately".......

Obama is smart, and his team works extremely well. From the beginning of his campaign they were well prepared, had found the pulse of the public, and had devised a campaign which required minor tweaking only a few times.

Was his calibration really off or did he deliberately "stupidly" deliberately?

Why would he do that? Think of it. What did it gain?

Did Obama throw a stick into the bushes to delay the retriever? The media folks performed as anyone would expect. They are still floundering in the bushes, taking up time and attention. It may go on for days or weeks.

My opinion: The timing for health care adjustments needed tweaking. After the press jumped on the comment Friday, the interviews with national figures about health care were down during the weekend.

Let's see what happens from now until the August recess.

Minimum Wage Still 40 Years Behind

The Minimum Wage will increase Friday, July 24.

The federal minimum wage began in 1938 at 25 cents per hour. By 1956 it was increased to $1.00.

In 1968 the wage went to $1.60, the highest buying power in history. From 1974 forward the wage had annual increases for seven straight years.

There was no increase from 1982 - 1989.

But in 1990 and 1991 Congress brought the wage up to $4.25.

Five years later, two increases brought the wage up to $5.15.

For 10 years from 1997, there was no increase in the minimum wage until the waning 18 months of the Bush administration. The Republican Party held the majority in Congress during that time.

Pressured by the Democratic Party, Congress enacted a three-step increase. The third step will be completed on July 24, 2009, when the minimum wage becomes $7.25 per hour.

To match the buying power of the $1.60 wage in 1968, the current wage would need to be $9.83, still $2.50 an hour less than the new July 24th minimum wage.

It's puzzling that anyone would be opposed to livable wages for the working people of our country.

That's my opinion. Pass it on.

Signs from the Sign Man 07/14/09 - 07/20/09

MOONSHOT - 40 YEARS AGO

What happened to the time? The young man had never travelled farther than Statesboro. Then the Army took him halfway around the world for a tropical vacation in Vietnam. After having experienced fire and rain, he thought nothing of driving down to Florida to witness the launch of the astronauts who would set foot on the moon.

I-95 was unfinished, and we drove back from the Cape over 12 miles of the dirt highway to escape traffic. The security and crowds resulted in our sleeping in the un-air-conditioned car, so we would have a seat when the action started the next morning.

We were 12 miles away from the launch site. The photos were made with the Asahi Pentax bought in Vietnam and a 200mm lens bought in Japan. Since my negative scanner is still away being repaired, I shot the prints glued in an old album with curls and reflections, so the quality is not great. It would be another 11 months before I began photography study at RIT.

The TV pictures were shot with a slow shutter on tripod; Zenith 19" black and white TV.

Idle Internet Is No Better Than Unused Internet

Most People are computer challenged. I'm one of them. When my job made it necessary to use computers, I was lucky to have a good friend to teach me. Don't worry that you know little about computers. Anyone can learn the basics; it's like flipping a light switch or talking on the phone or punching in a number.
One of the great values in the computer world is the use of internet. Today you can buy a new Dell laptop for $400; refurbished ones are just over $200. There are some chancy deals for less than $200. So, if you want a computer just for internet only, that's the price range. The cheapest thing is to buy an old computer from a relative or friend is upgrading to a new model.
If you live in Atlanta you can get packages of high-speed internet, cable TV, and free long-distance telephone all for $30 to $40. In Treutlen County you can figure paying about $80 for phone combined with high speed (second level) internet. I've checked out high speed service through satellite or cellular, and concluded it to be too iffy.
Today's students are short changed if they aren't using internet. Caution is a must because (like the world itself) everything is available. Keyboard skills should be taught early. Teachers should be guiding students as they begin to use internet. Books are wonderful, but on-line information is being constantly edited and, hopefully, improved.
For example, we learned in school that John A. Treutlen was born in Austria. Today we can learn from on-line encyclopedias that he was born in Germany. The real facts had been there all the time, but the stories brought out in school history were smoothed out or covered up.
The Treutlen County Board of Commissioners, a few years ago, turned down an opportunity to get broadband internet service. It would have allowed students take laptop computers and use them at home for study and research. The funding was to be in a three-county grant, which Montgomery and Wheeler accepted. The Obama administration plans to improve high speed internet nationwide.
It's easy to get information from the internet. Usually you will find a Q-strip near the top of the screen on which you type in a couple of letters or words. To localize the answers I've found it helpful to add "Soperton" or "Treutlen" to the question. For example, I typed in "Soperton Chambliss" and found an article about the Senator also a list of his local contributors. The first thing most people search or "Google" is their own name. "Soperton John Doe" brought up a Range Fuels article quoting (John) Lee and (DOE) for Department of Energy.
"Soperton Wisconsin history" reveals That "Chief Simon Kahquados is dead at his home on the Rat river near Soperton, succumbing to disease in his poor hovel after months of suffering and want. - December 17, 1930.
Jimmy Kight, a regular coffee drinker at the local DQ, brings up unusual facts learned at the old school. Yesterday, he brought up "ampersand". First thing this morning I Googled it, selected the Wikipedia reference, printed two pages before the paper ran out, took them to the DQ, and everybody was glad I didn't get the other four pages.
We are fast learning the meaning of "information age". Internet has its dangerous, like all of life, but as long as it operates freely it will offer advantages to everybody, rich or poor.
"Education must be a lifelong pursuit. The person who doesn't read is not better off than the person who can't." — Sean Covey (The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens)

Signs from the Sign Man 07/09/09 - 07/13/09

Technology Update

My scanner anxiety has been relieved. You know I've been struggling with it for a month. Finally the Nikon software experts have told me to send in the hardware for examination. I feel sure nothing is wrong with the scanner, but today I put it in the mail. Out of sight, out of mind. I can't scan any film if I wanted to. Forget the 1974 and 1979 pictures.

Epson is wonderful. I set up my printer easily enough on the new iMac. Downloaded the recommended version. Had a couple of problems. Went to Epson service, followed their suggestions, fixed it in five minutes. Wonder why Nikon can't do that. Think of my experience if you are ever considering anything with that name. The on-line service is lousy.

I'm getting used to Photoshop Elements 6. Differently arranged from old Photoshop 7, but seems to have everything. It's more user friendly, more great features. For example, there is the old tool for contrast/brightness, but another that adjusts the highlights, shadows, and middle contrast independently of each other.

Everything on my old computer has been saved to a stand-alone hard drive.

I'm enjoying using my Canon Powershot. It's the best camera I've ever used. Lens seems even sharper than Mr. Windsor's Nikon F with Nikormat lens. Extra sharp considering the Canon has an extreme-zoom lens. In 35 mm equivalent, it's like 24 mm to 500 mm. The perfect camera for the sportsman, which I'm not. The lens cannot be screwed off, keeping out the dirt. About a third of the cost of a Nikon.

Signs from the Sign Man 06/30/09 - 07/09/09