Malaise?

This morning’s Opinion Section of the New York Times included an article by Mark Penn entitled “American Voters Haven’t Been Afraid Like This in a Long Time.”

Penn’s article referenced a speech President Jimmy Carter made to the nation on July 15, 1079; exactly three years after accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party to run for president. While not going into any detail about that speech, Penn provided the following link to a site containing the speech in its entirety:

1979 Carter Speech (link)

The link leads to an article on the website of the “Bill of Rights Institute.” Don’t know much about these guys, but at first glance look legitimate. The article begins with the following:

“The president was scheduled to deliver a speech on July 4 but canceled at the last minute. Carter retreated to Camp David, where he met with Americans from various backgrounds and spoke with them about the problems facing the country. At the time of the speech, the United States was struggling economically as a result of stagflation, which was having a huge impact on energy and fuel prices. Politically, the United States was in the midst of a resurgence of the Cold War as well as navigating rising tensions in the Middle East. Even though Carter never used that word, the speech was later dubbed the ‘malaise speech’”. (emphasis added)

I found it worthwhile to read Carter’s speech in its entirety. The theme running throughout struck me as an inditement of a culture built on narcissistic consumerism.

Here is some of what he had to say:

“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.”

My take from his speech was he gave the people an honest, sincere, and serious appraisal of the state of the union at the time. His solution to our problems could perhaps be summarized by: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Kennedy was fortunate in that he had defeated Nixon. We all were. However, you know what followed. By the time Carter got to the White House, the nation had undergone the Kennedy assassination, the Viet Nam conflict, and “The Nixon Experience” including unfortunately, in my opinion, the pardon.

From my perspective, as you might guess, lack of respect for churches - as opposed to government and schools, is not an issue now. Never has been. Today I would replace it with science, and the truth itself, as having the greatest decline in respect. I would also argue the outright worship of an authoritarian organization known as the military, where loyalty and unquestioning obedience to orders are the standard, should be of grave concern.

The latter comment on the military may not be directly related to Carter’s 1979 speech, but it is relevant to the overall state of the nation today. In general, Carter didn’t use his sincere religious belief as a political tool, and he has been honored as a man of peace. I suspect he never adopted the “Prosperity Gospel.” I doubt the concept of “praise God, - get stuff” would appeal to him. But it feeds everything Carter warned about. And it makes consumer culture “righteous.”

By the time the mainstream media coverage got done spinning the malaise narrative, the nation was prepped to metastasize into the Reagan Revolution. Ronald Reagan, who apparently really understood and proudly proclaimed our divine greatness, would lead us. Make America Great Again. More God! More flags! More wars against the “other” (foreign and domestic)! And therefore, More Guns! Made for Hollywood or made in Hollywood? (Maybe Kyrsten Sinema knows, but she’s not telling).

And every subsequent president appears to have learned that lesson.

And where has that gotten us?

The jury may still be out as far as Biden goes. Maybe.

Fred