An important milestone in American history that needs to be recognized

July 15 marks the thirty-first anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence" speech in which the former President discussed the numerous challenges facing America in the financially difficult times of the late 1970s. While the economic recession of 1979 pales in comparison to the Great Recession of 2008, the warnings of America’s dependence on foreign oil and the federal government “an island” isolated from its people were never heeded and now millions of unemployed Americans are suffering the price.

Although President Carter had originally intended to give another speech about the energy crisis, the crisis of confidence speech by Jimmy Carter declared that the energy crisis of 1973 and subsequent oil crisis in 1979 were symptoms of a far greater crisis facing America.

The “crisis of confidence" speech which was to become better known as the “malaise speech” was the fifth speech is a series of speeches President Carter gave to the nation discussing the energy crisis and the economic recession America was battling in 1979. Compared to the speeches given by today’s politicians, the “crisis of confidence" speech given by Jimmy Carter on July 15, 1979 was the result of a truthful and candor conversation with the American public on the moral decay in America and the harmful association Americans were putting with consumer consumption and freedom. In his Oval Office speech, President Carter warned that Americans were beginning to worship self-indulgence and consumption and had strayed from the path of righteousness that hard work offers. The speech by President Carter was a bold warning that more Americans had begun to identify freedom and liberty through a quantitative perspective rather than a qualitative perspective.

Demonstrating the sort of complexity and humility that Carter tried to inject into the political debate at the time, Jimmy Carter described the major political institutions in Washington D.C., as a paralyzed and corrupt system and “a system of government that seems incapable of action”. President Carter candidly discussed the crisis of confidence that most Americans had in the political institutions in Washington D.C. and how the federal government had become “an island” isolated from the people. The recent decision of Congress to deny extending unemployment benefits to millions of unemployed workers and members of congress enjoying six figure incomes best illustrates this today.

Contrary to the failure of leadership President Obama displayed when he delivered his Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster, the leadership of Jimmy Carter was demonstrated when he presented the American public with a six point plan for action to try to reduce the amount of oil the United States has to import from increasingly unstable regions of the world. Unlike President Obama, who could have seized on the Gulf oil disaster to discuss innovative ideas like recycling plastic back into petroleum, or the need to reduce our oil consumption with more mass transit, some of the points in President Carter’s overall strategy included creating a new energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, would cut through the red tape in government and help businesses create alternate energy markets. In addition to the new energy mobilization board proposal, the former President also wanted to set import quotas on oil, invest in alternative energy and set a goal of having 20 percent of American energy coming from solar power by the year 2000. By 2009, America only received about 0.7 percent of its electricity from solar energy.

While the speech was given over thirty years ago, the same problems facing the American people in 1979 such as high unemployment, over dependence on imported oil, and a political establishment isolated from its people, are again causing more Americans to have a crisis of confidence in their government and the economy. Unfortunately for the American people, thanks to decisions made by both political parties over the last thirty years and the increased amount of money influencing the political process, the future now looks more bleak than it did in the summer of 1979.