"... grown to sad, desperate fruition. What he said then might well describe where we are now: '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.
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…problem.'"
Here, feast upon Carter's "malaise" speech (about which I must say, lest you feel you need to say, the word "malaise" never appears):
I'm blogging this because earlier this morning — before I saw the Spectator article, when I was just scanning the economic news — I got to thinking about the old "malaise" speech. At the time, I said, "That means we get Reagan next."
"the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others"
That doesn't understand the first thing about deals. Wealth is created out of nothing by a difference in tastes. I swap my X for your Y because I want a Y more than an X, and you want an X more than a Y. Our difference in valuation is new wealth added to the country's wealth.
So I grab for myself and you grab for yourself, and if it's a voluntary deal, it's new wealth just from a trade.
The most efficient way to produce these wealth-providing difference in tastes is specialization. I value what I make at a lot less than you do, since I specialize, and so there are more ways we can come out ahead.
Forced trades, like Carter has in mind, don't produce wealth.
America alongside all this has become a deeply cynical place. We were once, to the annoyance of most of the world, an endlessly optimistic place. Now we take for granted that AOC and the media would be at the border for the Trump Kids in Kages spectacular but missing when an even worse situation unfolds on Biden’s watch. We roll our eyes when the media tells us what we’re hearing isn’t what we’re hearing but instead is “Let’s Go, Brandon.” Newspapers will print any Trump gossip but not one Hunter Biden email.
Weird how whenever Democrats are in charge these stories about how “ungovernable” (1) America is, how “narrow interests” (2) [you mean like abortion rights?] prevent harmonious one-party rule, or how “unexpected” (3) bad news is, especially economic news. Yet when everything was going swimmingly with women and minorities enjoying highest employment numbers and rising wages with inflation nowhere around, there was a blackout on this good news. Now we enter another dystopian Democrat malaise “suddenly.” Weird huh?
1. Obama’s first term. 2. Carter’s one term. 3. Obama’s first, second and now third terms.
It's one thing to deal with a crisis of confidence. We were able to regain our footing, with hard work, and the guidance of patriotic leaders. Now we are dealing with overt hostility from our political, academic, and cultural leaders. They have done to our culture what termites do to a wood framed house. American culture and civilization is now a "tear-down." The property is still worth a lot, but the structure must be taken down and rebuilt. Build Back Better (spit).
Jimmy Carter was the very embodiment of "a man in over his head." Weak, vacillating, self-righteous and incapable of leadership. Joe Biden is weak, grifting, addled and incapable of leadership. There are many paths to the Pit of Despair.
I am hoping that younger people will appreciate Joe Biden as I appreciated Jimmy Carter.
I voted for Carter in 1976 because he was a moderate Democrat with a nice smile. I never voted for Republicans because they were the really bad guys, especially that California nut job Ronnie Rayguns and that ridiculously clumsy Gerald Ford who obviously lied about being a starting center for the UMichigan FB team.
The red pill was offered to me in 1980, but I didn't take it. I sat out the election because Reagan was truly evil and Carter was obviously incompetent.
I finally swallowed the red pill in 1984 and made the best decision of my life. I hope others can have the same experience. Stop listening the the corporate media and cheer along with me, "Let's Go Brandon!"
Welcome back, your nightmare isn’t new Welcome back, where inflation gotcha feelin’ blue
Well the names have all changed but results have not And your wallet’s so light from the food you bought
Who'd have thought they'd fuck us (Who'd have thought they'd fuck us) Send teh Feebs ya start a ruckus (Send teh Feebs ya start a ruckus)
Yeah, Joe mumbles a lot 'cause his brain’s begun to rot, welcome back Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Isn't the "pursuit of narrow self interest" another way of saying the pursuit of happiness. In any event, the pursuit of narrow self interest and competitive advantage is the way capitalism works.
Don't see many Democrats talking about "our common purpose" these days. They leave that to Glenn Loury. Instead they talk about "our common enemy", i.e., the other half of the country.
If Joe Biden really wants to bring the country together, there is an easy way to do it: Pardon all 1/6 protestors who are not accused of actual violence, and give orders that those who _are_ accused of violence should be treated in the same way as the BLM protestors. And give a strong speech explaining why. It would infuriate his side, but so what? Is he a leader? We've been discussing something like this at Glenn Loury's Bloggingheads. Glenn says - very strongly! - that Pres. Obama failed his country by not telling his own side that they were doing race issues wrong. That he is in charge of justice in this country and he's going to do his best to fix it, and they need to start trusting that the country is on their side and that they need to be on the country's side, and we're all in this together from now on. But Pres. Obama was a political hack instead of being a leader, and Pres. Biden looks to be the same.
I think we Kamala next, as I don't think they can prop up Joe or hide him for 3 more years.
And then the Althouse Rule will apply: Any comparison between Kamala and the R candidate can only favor her, and explain why whatever she did was actually better.
I hasten to add I don't see a woman on the R side who can beat Trump or DeSantis, but that campaign is at least 2 years away...
Listening to Scott Adams, I've come to appreciate the skill of persuasion in a President.
Biden is the least persuasive President in at least a century.
It explains why he hides in a faux White House today, and why he campaigned from his basement. He is so unpersuasive, any attempts for him to be persuasive backfire. It explains the failure of getting his legislation passed in Congress. It explains his failure in Afghanistan.
Nobody gives a shit about what he says. He's the perfect example of a lame duck.
"How prescient was Jimmy Carter when he made his 'malaise' speech in 1979?"
Not very. He did not foresee Reagan's restoration of American purpose and strength, and he did not foresee that Dems in the 21st century would deliberately take the path he wanted to avoid.
Carter made many mistakes and is an irritatingly vain human being. But he was not anti-American. What is a country to do when a fair portion of its elite wants malaise? More illegal immigration, less energy, higher prices, more governmental edicts, more violence, fewer common values, more division, less growth, less power, less trust?
The Two Paths is a stock biblical image. Understandable coming from a Sunday school teacher like Carter. Having read the whole speech now, for the first time, I can add that it reads like a sermon.
You know, as much as I think Carter was an inept and incompetent president, and as much as he has sometimes gone along with left-wingers (sitting next to Michael Moore at a convention, for example), I never got the impression that Carter despised his country. He seems to be a patriotic American. He served in the military. He attempted to rescue the hostages in Iran, even though he botched it. He wasn't entirely naive about the Soviet Union, or the nature of communism. Reagan even continued some of his policies (Afghanistan, for instance). And if I recall, Volcker was originally a Carter appointee. While Reagan was President, I don't believe Carter ever tried to undermine him.
As an ex-President, he has worked with Habitat for Humanity, which is as noble a charity as any. He was a thorn in the side of Bill Clinton, as when he made overtures to North Korea. I think he helped in a few hostage situations. He even spoke at the opening of the Billy Graham library. How many Dems would do that today?
This isn't to exonerate him from his failures as a President, or his enabling of the left to dominate the party. But I still find him far more respectable than the current crop of Democrats.
He also deregulated the trucking, airline, and railroad industries. And, he changed federal regulations to allow home beer and wine making for personal consumption. These things are HUGE points in his favor!
All those experts, graft-tanks, and oh-so-smart members of academia have brought us to this point, as they pocket the money from the grants of tax-payer money,and pay-offs from various political organization (see all the Google scholar designations at various Universities). We no longer have thinkers and doers. Instead, we now have those who accept large cash payments to spout the party line in exchange for large sums of money.
What is the word now between the Fortune 100 set? Are you profitable enough to survive a Democrat Admin? IF ( (Government Bennies)- Market Destruction) >= 0.0) then "Happiness Ensues.";
I was never a fan of Carter, but nor of the milquetoast Ford. They both seemed nice but not really competant. Despite his watergate stuff, Nixon was not a terrible president. Price controls were dumb as shit, but whatever. Puleed the military out of Vietnam when it was obvious we didn’t have the will to win. Sorry ass end to a war.
New rule. If you decide to start or engage in a war, go in to win, not to occupy. Just get it done and get your guys and gals out.
"Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom ..." "Under the spreading Chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me." IngSoc will set you free. Freedom is slavery.
One for all and all for The One: Big Brother loves you.
"He also deregulated the trucking, airline, and railroad industries." Yes, and like Nixon in China, you'd not have expected that.
Although the winds favoring deregulation were blowing hard in the 1970s, as economists couldn't stop reminding anyone who'd listen that regulators almost always get captured by the regulators.
And no one exemplified this more than the ICC and the CAB and the other alphabets who regulated transportation industries. Regulators not only set prices for goods transported interstate by rail or truck but decided which companies were allowed to offer a service in particular markets.
Thus, if there were already two airlines, or two trucking companies, operating between a city pair and a third party wanted to compete the answer from regulators was invariably, "no!" No because, that would mean more empty seats and trucks returning without a load. In the regulatory view, competition ruined efficiency and therefore was not in the public interest. And therefore was, whenever possible, thwarted.
What's surprising isn't that this sort of regulation ultimately failed, but that it reigned for as long as it did.
So, former Pres. Carter let the deregulation genie out of the bottle, but, truly, it had been a long time coming, and by the late '70s these winds of change were blowing very hard indeed.
At this point, the option of a Carter administration reprise is out of the question. By any objective standard Joe Biden is the most grievously flawed and incompetent Chief Executive in our national history. Even James Buchanan looks good when compared to Biden.
I thought that was a Cole Porter song, but it's "the old ennui."
--
I hate it when presidents make you feel sorry for them. I don't mean when you feel bad for the responsibility they have or the things their enemies say about them, I mean when you have to pity them for their cluelessness and incompetence. The last Bush was like that. But Biden is worse because he's always made his career by appealing to the public's sympathies. He's frighteningly good at it, and that makes looking at him that much harder. Or maybe he's frighteningly bad at it. If your goal is to get people to pity you, you win if you successfully attract their sympathy, but also if you're horribly bad at it.
The problem with "We get Reagan next" is that Biden is falling apart so early on -- and who knows what comes next. People hated Truman, but they got that out of their systems and voted to reelect him anyway and then went back to hating him. Carter fell apart in the last year of his presidency -- so did the first Bush and in a way Trump -- and there was less time to recover.
Andrew: the Jimmy Carter Center actively supports domestic and foreign terrorists. Carter has been weirdly drawn to Maoism and North Korea. He pretends he isn’t being political, which is yet another lie. But he selects his targets and sides with fascists regularly — rather, did before he got too frail. But he’s stocked the Carter Center with similar “well-credentialed” snakes. Even the liberals in Atlanta hate him.
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40 comments:
"the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others"
That doesn't understand the first thing about deals. Wealth is created out of nothing by a difference in tastes. I swap my X for your Y because I want a Y more than an X, and you want an X more than a Y. Our difference in valuation is new wealth added to the country's wealth.
So I grab for myself and you grab for yourself, and if it's a voluntary deal, it's new wealth just from a trade.
The most efficient way to produce these wealth-providing difference in tastes is specialization. I value what I make at a lot less than you do, since I specialize, and so there are more ways we can come out ahead.
Forced trades, like Carter has in mind, don't produce wealth.
America alongside all this has become a deeply cynical place. We were once, to the annoyance of most of the world, an endlessly optimistic place. Now we take for granted that AOC and the media would be at the border for the Trump Kids in Kages spectacular but missing when an even worse situation unfolds on Biden’s watch. We roll our eyes when the media tells us what we’re hearing isn’t what we’re hearing but instead is “Let’s Go, Brandon.” Newspapers will print any Trump gossip but not one Hunter Biden email.
lots of good truth in that article. Thanks.
Weird how whenever Democrats are in charge these stories about how “ungovernable” (1) America is, how “narrow interests” (2) [you mean like abortion rights?] prevent harmonious one-party rule, or how “unexpected” (3) bad news is, especially economic news. Yet when everything was going swimmingly with women and minorities enjoying highest employment numbers and rising wages with inflation nowhere around, there was a blackout on this good news. Now we enter another dystopian Democrat malaise “suddenly.” Weird huh?
1. Obama’s first term.
2. Carter’s one term.
3. Obama’s first, second and now third terms.
It's one thing to deal with a crisis of confidence. We were able to regain our footing, with hard work, and the guidance of patriotic leaders.
Now we are dealing with overt hostility from our political, academic, and cultural leaders.
They have done to our culture what termites do to a wood framed house.
American culture and civilization is now a "tear-down." The property is still worth a lot, but the structure must be taken down and rebuilt.
Build Back Better (spit).
Jimmy Carter was the very embodiment of "a man in over his head." Weak, vacillating, self-righteous and incapable of leadership. Joe Biden is weak, grifting, addled and incapable of leadership. There are many paths to the Pit of Despair.
Took them damn seeds one helluva long time to germinate.
/sarc
"That means we get Reagan next."
From your mouth to God's ear.
I am hoping that younger people will appreciate Joe Biden as I appreciated Jimmy Carter.
I voted for Carter in 1976 because he was a moderate Democrat with a nice smile. I never voted for Republicans because they were the really bad guys, especially that California nut job Ronnie Rayguns and that ridiculously clumsy Gerald Ford who obviously lied about being a starting center for the UMichigan FB team.
The red pill was offered to me in 1980, but I didn't take it. I sat out the election because Reagan was truly evil and Carter was obviously incompetent.
I finally swallowed the red pill in 1984 and made the best decision of my life. I hope others can have the same experience. Stop listening the the corporate media and cheer along with me, "Let's Go Brandon!"
Welcome back, your nightmare isn’t new
Welcome back, where inflation gotcha feelin’ blue
Well the names have all changed but results have not
And your wallet’s so light from the food you bought
Who'd have thought they'd fuck us
(Who'd have thought they'd fuck us)
Send teh Feebs ya start a ruckus
(Send teh Feebs ya start a ruckus)
Yeah, Joe mumbles a lot 'cause his brain’s begun to rot, welcome back
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
The globalists are terrible people and they are corrupt leaders who lead society into these situations.
Reagan and Trump showed how to raise the standard of living for the average citizen.
The Government/Aristocracy only knows how to feed itself by sucking the blood out of productive people.
I said, "That means we get Reagan next."
So that means Trump was Ford? Or Nixon?
Malaise is in the body and soul of the beholder
namaste
I eagerly await Joementia's sweater speech as the price of nat gas skyrockets
Isn't the "pursuit of narrow self interest" another way of saying the pursuit of happiness. In any event, the pursuit of narrow self interest and competitive advantage is the way capitalism works.
Those were the days when politicians looked like they believed what they were saying.
And didn't look like they were reading someone else's words for the first time as they rolled across the teleprompter.
Don't see many Democrats talking about "our common purpose" these days. They leave that to Glenn Loury.
Instead they talk about "our common enemy", i.e., the other half of the country.
when you are wielding hammer easy to prescient destruction
If Joe Biden really wants to bring the country together, there is an easy way to do it: Pardon all 1/6 protestors who are not accused of actual violence, and give orders that those who _are_ accused of violence should be treated in the same way as the BLM protestors. And give a strong speech explaining why.
It would infuriate his side, but so what? Is he a leader?
We've been discussing something like this at Glenn Loury's Bloggingheads. Glenn says - very strongly! - that Pres. Obama failed his country by not telling his own side that they were doing race issues wrong. That he is in charge of justice in this country and he's going to do his best to fix it, and they need to start trusting that the country is on their side and that they need to be on the country's side, and we're all in this together from now on.
But Pres. Obama was a political hack instead of being a leader, and Pres. Biden looks to be the same.
>> "That means we get Reagan next."
I think we Kamala next, as I don't think they can prop up Joe or hide him for 3 more years.
And then the Althouse Rule will apply: Any comparison between Kamala and the R candidate can only favor her, and explain why whatever she did was actually better.
I hasten to add I don't see a woman on the R side who can beat Trump or DeSantis, but that campaign is at least 2 years away...
The Left is always trying to dupe the moderates and independents with this "why can't we all get along" crap.
I will NEVER agree with the Left. Never.
I don't agree with the Green New Deal. I will never agree with the idea that minors should be allowed to change genders. I could go on.
Listening to Scott Adams, I've come to appreciate the skill of persuasion in a President.
Biden is the least persuasive President in at least a century.
It explains why he hides in a faux White House today, and why he campaigned from his basement. He is so unpersuasive, any attempts for him to be persuasive backfire. It explains the failure of getting his legislation passed in Congress. It explains his failure in Afghanistan.
Nobody gives a shit about what he says. He's the perfect example of a lame duck.
"How prescient was Jimmy Carter when he made his 'malaise' speech in 1979?"
Not very. He did not foresee Reagan's restoration of American purpose and strength, and he did not foresee that Dems in the 21st century would deliberately take the path he wanted to avoid.
Carter made many mistakes and is an irritatingly vain human being. But he was not anti-American. What is a country to do when a fair portion of its elite wants malaise? More illegal immigration, less energy, higher prices, more governmental edicts, more violence, fewer common values, more division, less growth, less power, less trust?
"That means we get Reagan next."
This assumes we have a "Reagan" available, to run against Biden.
The Two Paths is a stock biblical image. Understandable coming from a Sunday school teacher like Carter. Having read the whole speech now, for the first time, I can add that it reads like a sermon.
That means we get Reagan next.
There's this.
I was young when Carter ran and won. I remember our nextdoor bully neighbors and their bratty bully kids were so happy. They love Carter.
My working class father was horrified. He knew hard times were going to hurt. and he was right.
I learned early that leftists suck.
This go round we got Reagan first and he was impeached twice by what we have now. Happy?
You know, as much as I think Carter was an inept and incompetent president, and as much as he has sometimes gone along with left-wingers (sitting next to Michael Moore at a convention, for example), I never got the impression that Carter despised his country. He seems to be a patriotic American. He served in the military. He attempted to rescue the hostages in Iran, even though he botched it. He wasn't entirely naive about the Soviet Union, or the nature of communism. Reagan even continued some of his policies (Afghanistan, for instance). And if I recall, Volcker was originally a Carter appointee. While Reagan was President, I don't believe Carter ever tried to undermine him.
As an ex-President, he has worked with Habitat for Humanity, which is as noble a charity as any. He was a thorn in the side of Bill Clinton, as when he made overtures to North Korea. I think he helped in a few hostage situations. He even spoke at the opening of the Billy Graham library. How many Dems would do that today?
This isn't to exonerate him from his failures as a President, or his enabling of the left to dominate the party. But I still find him far more respectable than the current crop of Democrats.
Here's what different today: Biden isn't up to the task of delivering that speech.
He also deregulated the trucking, airline, and railroad industries. And, he changed federal regulations to allow home beer and wine making for personal consumption. These things are HUGE points in his favor!
All those experts, graft-tanks, and oh-so-smart members of academia have brought us to this point, as they pocket the money from the grants of tax-payer money,and pay-offs from various political organization (see all the Google scholar designations at various Universities). We no longer have thinkers and doers. Instead, we now have those who accept large cash payments to spout the party line in exchange for large sums of money.
What is the word now between the Fortune 100 set? Are you profitable enough to survive a Democrat Admin? IF ( (Government Bennies)- Market Destruction) >= 0.0) then "Happiness Ensues.";
When statists lecture you about "true" freedom, get a tight grip on your wallet and your gun and get as far away from them as possible.
I was never a fan of Carter, but nor of the milquetoast Ford. They both seemed nice but not really competant. Despite his watergate stuff, Nixon was not a terrible president. Price controls were dumb as shit, but whatever. Puleed the military out of Vietnam when it was obvious we didn’t have the will to win. Sorry ass end to a war.
New rule. If you decide to start or engage in a war, go in to win, not to occupy. Just get it done and get your guys and gals out.
"the path of common purpose "
Sorry, I would rather live in England's "nation of shopkeepers" than Mussolini's Italy with a national purpose.
"Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom ..." "Under the spreading Chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me." IngSoc will set you free. Freedom is slavery.
One for all and all for The One: Big Brother loves you.
"He also deregulated the trucking, airline, and railroad industries." Yes, and like Nixon in China, you'd not have expected that.
Although the winds favoring deregulation were blowing hard in the 1970s, as economists couldn't stop reminding anyone who'd listen that regulators almost always get captured by the regulators.
And no one exemplified this more than the ICC and the CAB and the other alphabets who regulated transportation industries. Regulators not only set prices for goods transported interstate by rail or truck but decided which companies were allowed to offer a service in particular markets.
Thus, if there were already two airlines, or two trucking companies, operating between a city pair and a third party wanted to compete the answer from regulators was invariably, "no!" No because, that would mean more empty seats and trucks returning without a load. In the regulatory view, competition ruined efficiency and therefore was not in the public interest. And therefore was, whenever possible, thwarted.
What's surprising isn't that this sort of regulation ultimately failed, but that it reigned for as long as it did.
So, former Pres. Carter let the deregulation genie out of the bottle, but, truly, it had been a long time coming, and by the late '70s these winds of change were blowing very hard indeed.
At this point, the option of a Carter administration reprise is out of the question. By any objective standard Joe Biden is the most grievously flawed and incompetent Chief Executive in our national history. Even James Buchanan looks good when compared to Biden.
I got to thinking about the old "malaise"
I thought that was a Cole Porter song, but it's "the old ennui."
--
I hate it when presidents make you feel sorry for them. I don't mean when you feel bad for the responsibility they have or the things their enemies say about them, I mean when you have to pity them for their cluelessness and incompetence. The last Bush was like that. But Biden is worse because he's always made his career by appealing to the public's sympathies. He's frighteningly good at it, and that makes looking at him that much harder. Or maybe he's frighteningly bad at it. If your goal is to get people to pity you, you win if you successfully attract their sympathy, but also if you're horribly bad at it.
The problem with "We get Reagan next" is that Biden is falling apart so early on -- and who knows what comes next. People hated Truman, but they got that out of their systems and voted to reelect him anyway and then went back to hating him. Carter fell apart in the last year of his presidency -- so did the first Bush and in a way Trump -- and there was less time to recover.
Andrew: the Jimmy Carter Center actively supports domestic and foreign terrorists. Carter has been weirdly drawn to Maoism and North Korea. He pretends he isn’t being political, which is yet another lie. But he selects his targets and sides with fascists regularly — rather, did before he got too frail. But he’s stocked the Carter Center with similar “well-credentialed” snakes. Even the liberals in Atlanta hate him.
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