On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave the riskiest speech of his presidency. In what became known as the "malaise speech" -- though the word "malaise" never appeared in it -- the president riveted the nation. He delivered the speech amid rumors that he had gone crazy, his reputation plummeting in the face of an energy crisis and a breakdown in the country's civic fabric. Ten days earlier, truckers and residents had rioted in usually quiet Levittown, Pennsylvania, setting bonfires to protest inflationary costs and limited supplies of fuel, made worse by recent machinations of OPEC.
Abroad at the time of the riot, Carter cut short his vacation and returned to the States. His staff scheduled a televised speech, but the president canceled it. Instead, he held a "domestic summit" at Camp David, where civic and political leaders gathered to discuss the state of America's soul. Carter believed something more than the energy crisis was troubling the nation.
Two days after the summit ended, he delivered the "malaise speech." The diagnosis he laid out was harsh: "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." He decried how "two-thirds of our people do not even vote," how there was a "growing disrespect for government," and how "fragmentation and self-interest" prevented Americans from tackling the energy crisis. It was an indictment of America's civic spirit. Carter used the speech to articulate a realist style of leadership, charged with the warnings about limits and humility. He shared responsibility by confessing his faults. He recognized the wounds left over from Watergate, Vietnam, and the assassinations of the 1960s. At one point, though he didn't have to, he said, "This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning."
Read Full Article »