Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech of July 15, 1979
Revisited.
Jimmy was onto something back then.
But America wasn't ready for it. We wanted a return to empty platitudes and a mythic vision of an America that never was. So we voted for Reagan. And all this stuff was lost. Even Carter gave up on it. Here we go:
"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."
(well, whatever, I feel your pain too, Jimmy).
"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."
(lets see, the important issues back then were war, the economy, dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and an unresponsive and isolated federal government located in Washington D.C.. Nothing much has changed).
"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."
(aka, Obama's lack of leadership, the Occupy movement, etc).
"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."
"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 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.
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?"
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."
(Good night Jimmy)
(So, what happened when America was at the "crossroads" back in 1979. Absofrickinglutely nothing. Carter's half assed attempt at an alternative energy policy was quickly abandoned--even by him. And Reagan took down the solar panels at the White House in a more than symbolic gesture. And Bush the first and Clinton, when America was riding the wave of pseudo recovery, took none of the pseudo surplus to plan for the future. And none of them saw the impending collapse. QED).
