And yet, his Malaise speech was mostly spot on - he said that consumerism was causing all kinds of trouble for us which is even more true now than it was then.

And yet, his Malaise speech was mostly spot on - he said that consumerism was causing all kinds of trouble for us which is even more true now than it was then. He basically told us we needed to suck it up. Carter would've had a pretty good memory of living through the Great Depression and I think a lot of folks who did live through it felt that the nation had gone soft - I think some of that came through in that speech. Interesting that the speech was initially well received: "The reception to Carter's speech was overwhelmingly positive: Approving phone calls poured into the White House — more calls than when President Richard Nixon had announced the invasion of Cambodia — along with many letters of support." [1] [1] https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106508243 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106508...