"The difference between is that Carter was a bumbling fool. Biden is destroying this country on purpose."

That's the most-responded-to comment at a WaPo column by Marc A. Thiessen called "It’s the 1970s all over again, and Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter." 

That commenter says: "The headline for this piece is all wrong. Biden is nothing like Carter. He is much much worse. He is trying to make this country into a socialist communist place." 

From the column: 

"How prescient was Jimmy Carter when he made his 'malaise' speech in 1979? The seeds he saw being planted have now..."

"... 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.'"

From "America’s state of malaise/We have become cynical as Biden starts to blend with Jimmy Carter" by Peter Van Buren (Spectator).

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."