Carter = "malaise" "one term" "historic blowout electionSpeaking strictly as a historian - albeit not a political one, but one who's PhD is in 20th Century American history - I always thought (going back to the night he gave it) that that "Malaise" speach was just about the most powerful bit of plain, speaking truth that any President ever dished out. And really, just using that term shows you're a tool being fed propaganda, the official and formal title of the speech was "The Crisis of Confidence." He never used the word 'malaise' once in it.
The heart - the thesis if you will - of that address was the growing dependence on foreign energy (but hey, that was a non-issue wasn't it? we sure nipped that problem in the bud with the 'Pubs that followed eh what?) but there was a much deeper message too, the one that got the 'malaise' tag tossed on to it. And they did that, pick that silly word - a word not used in the speech - because the commercial powers which were just getting used to being able to control hated - HATED - what he really said which was:
the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation. He correctly labeled it a threat to the very foundations of the Republic, and I think he was not only right, but prescient. And like most people who have to be prophets, he's hated in his own land, and in his own time.
The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.And look at what happened (and it's largely a creation of the right) to the political discourse when Rush et. all. came on board. Lowest common demonotor does not even begin to cover the willfull ignorgance and pure hate that flooded the American political system in the time since Carter warned about it.
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.But we never took it that way - or the media did not sell it that way, and all of that has come to pass.
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."Self-interest"? Wasn't this followed by the 'Greed is Good' Reagan years? It's a certain road to Occupy for sure. We are on that road, and even some of the blinder members can see the failure laying ahead. People now accept a casual downward mobility for most and an intensified social stratification that would have been unimaginable in the Carter years.
Oh, and the speech - far from what you think in your revisionism - was awesomely well received, it was the firing of the Cabinet a few weeks later that started the tailspin, but don't let the facts get in the way of your political options.
And, don't believe me, read the speech and see for yourself how far off the mark he was.
http://www2.volstate.edu/geades/finaldocs/1970s&beyond/malaise.htm
