Jimmy Carter’s mistake was telling America it was wrong
It’s hard to think of a political oration that has backfired as famously as Jimmy Carter’s ‘crisis of confidence’ speech, delivered from the White House on 15 July, 1979. The fact that it is still today called the ‘malaise’ speech, despite the fact he never used the word, speaks to the scale of its failure. Amid an energy and inflationary crisis, Carter, who died yesterday, wanted to redefine the political moment by addressing America’s tendency ‘to worship self-indulgence and consumption’. He aimed to inspire Americans to rediscover their self-sufficiency and lose their dependence on foreign oil. His poll numbers did in fact improve in the days after the speech, but the message was
