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April15
08-28-2008, 09:00 PM
Jimmy Carter

Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence

delivered 15 July, 1979

C-SPAN Real Video Stream of Address

Audio mp3 of Address

click for pdf click for flash

Official President's Speaker Outline.doc



[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]

Good Evening:

This a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past three years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices of America.

I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you. It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I’ve heard.

First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a southern governor: “Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you’re just managing the government.”

“You don’t see the people enough anymore.”

“Some of your Cabinet members don’t seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples.”

“Don’t talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good.”

“Mr. President, we’re in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.”

“If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow.”

Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation. This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: “I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power.”

And this from a young Chicano: “Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives.”

“Some people have wasted energy, but others haven’t had anything to waste.”

And this from a religious leader: “No material shortage can touch the important things like God’s love for us or our love for one another.”

And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: “The big shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can’t sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first.”

This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: “Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.”

Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I’ll read just a few.

“We can’t go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment.”

“We’ve got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world’s energy, but the United States has twenty-four percent.”

And this is one of the most vivid statements: “Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.”

“There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.”

This was a good one: “Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”

And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing.”

And the last that I’ll read: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don’t issue us BB guns.”

These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our nation’s underlying problems.

I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That’s why I’ve worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.

It is a crisis of confidence.

It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.

We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.

Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation’s life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests.

You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I. What can we do?

First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.”

We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.

We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process, rebuild the unity and confidence of America.

We are at a turning point in our history. 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. It is a certain route to failure.

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 energy problem.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.

In little more than two decades we’ve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It’s a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.

The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.

What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.

Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977-- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.

Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace two and a half million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation will issue up to five billion dollars in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so average Americans can invest directly in America’s energy security.

Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank which will help us achieve the crucial goal of twenty percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.

These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans, to Americans. These will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.

Point four: I’m asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation’s utility companies cut their massive use of oil by fifty percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.

Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Point six: I’m proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.

I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I’m proposing tonight an extra ten billion dollars over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense, I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate ways of rebuilding our nation’s strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.

So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.

You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on earth. We have the world’s highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation’s problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act.

We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively, and we will; but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.

Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our nation’s deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.

I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s. I will listen; and I will act. We will act together.

These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America’s people, America’s values, and America’s confidence.

I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.

In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God’s help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Thank you and good night.

Kathianne
08-28-2008, 09:08 PM
Got to hand it to the Democrats, twenty years later they're still saying the same things...

Obama: I'll require that 10 years from now, cars get 150 mpg.

Millions of green cars.

It was nonsense then, it's nonsense now. The technology wasn't there for Carter's 'mandates', it's not feasible in numbers or technology with Obama's plan. Nevertheless, the minions get all tingly.

I know of no conservatives that aren't fully behind developing the technology for 150 mpg. We're certainly behind developing wind, nuclear, solar, non-food bio-fuels, nanotech that may benefit us in energy. In the meantime, reducing our dependence on foreign oil is only prudent. The Europeans have already started with coal and building nuclear plants, we're the only ones not moving along, while increasing global warming with hot air.

Kathianne
08-29-2008, 05:23 AM
Got to hand it to the Democrats, twenty years later they're still saying the same things...

Obama: I'll require that 10 years from now, cars get 150 mpg.

Millions of green cars.

It was nonsense then, it's nonsense now. The technology wasn't there for Carter's 'mandates', it's not feasible in numbers or technology with Obama's plan. Nevertheless, the minions get all tingly.

I know of no conservatives that aren't fully behind developing the technology for 150 mpg. We're certainly behind developing wind, nuclear, solar, non-food bio-fuels, nanotech that may benefit us in energy. In the meantime, reducing our dependence on foreign oil is only prudent. The Europeans have already started with coal and building nuclear plants, we're the only ones not moving along, while increasing global warming with hot air.

I really dislike responding to my own posts, in this case though a nice comment in rep is really what I'm responding to, since the repper, (lol) had a point. He brought up the fact that going to the moon wasn't feasible when Kennedy proposed doing so. That is true.

NASA was only a few years old. However, there are many differences here, regarding a body of knowledge before the pronouncement of a 'dream':

* asbestos had been used since the turn of the century in the railroads,
during the 40's it was integrated into planes, preventing fires and
overheating
* WWII had caused many technologies to be brought into existence, laying
the foundation for many more in peace times, such as the transistor.
* The sound barrier had been broken in '48, first step necessary to get out
of earth's gravitational pull.
* NASA was established in '58, in response to Sputnik in '57.
* 40 years later space travel is still rare and dangerous.

Bottom line, while Kennedy did inspire the country his pronouncement was based on what he knew feasible, if the 'date' was a bit dicey. However, the country was 'flush', (Europe and Japan were still in the rebuilding mode), we had to do something with all that money.

We've known how to use windmills, build nuclear power plants, get oil from shale, find oil deposits, (heck off the coast of CA there is one area where oil seeps to the surface at the rate of 100 barrels a day; US companies have found and developed most of the world's oil fields for other countries). Solar panels have been around since the 1800's. We know how to refine oil and build the plants to do so. US companies have been at the forefront of developing electric and hydrogen powered vehicles.

So why the problem? Partially Congress, partially a civilian base that chooses to remain fearful of anything nuclear and easily scared by the word which both politicians and environmental pundits play on. This alone accounts for the 'successful implementation' of a disastrous ethanol program that has harmed many around the world.

Want me to be 'inspired' by 'CHANGE'? Show me a base of Obama supporters that pressure their leadership to listen to reasonable proposals; that won't allow a Congress playing games with energy, illegal immigration problems. In other words, reach out for areas of agreement with so many of your fellow citizens. I know I've done so for years with my representatives, problem is they are part of the problem.

While our politicians on both sides have become more and more partisan, everyday we are not like that. Most of us have voted for more than one party, where the rhetoric isn't so biased, especially at the local level. We need as a country to come together on the issues that we basically agree with each other.

Social programs? Less agreement regarding the 'means', not the 'ends.' There are serious differences between the parties here, certainly a personal philosophy towards how to handle these issues should be enough fodder for partisanship. Problem today is that the partisanship itself is preventing the country from addressing the needs in common to us all: defense, infrastructure, energy, etc.

The problems facing us are not technologically impossible, but politically so. Perhaps it takes an assassination to bring the country together to work for the common good? Perhaps, but if 9/11 didn't do it, I don't know what will.

diuretic
08-29-2008, 06:35 AM
A man of vision. Talking to a nation that wasn't listening.

And sadly, probably still isn't listening.

April15
08-29-2008, 05:02 PM
A man of vision. Talking to a nation that wasn't listening.

And sadly, probably still isn't listening.You know it! Americans were looking for the EASY way. They found raygun and the wrong road was taken.

April15
08-29-2008, 05:07 PM
I really dislike responding to my own posts, in this case though a nice comment in rep is really what I'm responding to, since the repper, (lol) had a point. He brought up the fact that going to the moon wasn't feasible when Kennedy proposed doing so. That is true.

NASA was only a few years old. However, there are many differences here, regarding a body of knowledge before the pronouncement of a 'dream':

* asbestos had been used since the turn of the century in the railroads,
during the 40's it was integrated into planes, preventing fires and
overheating
* WWII had caused many technologies to be brought into existence, laying
the foundation for many more in peace times, such as the transistor.
* The sound barrier had been broken in '48, first step necessary to get out
of earth's gravitational pull.
* NASA was established in '58, in response to Sputnik in '57.
* 40 years later space travel is still rare and dangerous.

Bottom line, while Kennedy did inspire the country his pronouncement was based on what he knew feasible, if the 'date' was a bit dicey. However, the country was 'flush', (Europe and Japan were still in the rebuilding mode), we had to do something with all that money.

We've known how to use windmills, build nuclear power plants, get oil from shale, find oil deposits, (heck off the coast of CA there is one area where oil seeps to the surface at the rate of 100 barrels a day; US companies have found and developed most of the world's oil fields for other countries). Solar panels have been around since the 1800's. We know how to refine oil and build the plants to do so. US companies have been at the forefront of developing electric and hydrogen powered vehicles.

So why the problem? Partially Congress, partially a civilian base that chooses to remain fearful of anything nuclear and easily scared by the word which both politicians and environmental pundits play on. This alone accounts for the 'successful implementation' of a disastrous ethanol program that has harmed many around the world.

Want me to be 'inspired' by 'CHANGE'? Show me a base of Obama supporters that pressure their leadership to listen to reasonable proposals; that won't allow a Congress playing games with energy, illegal immigration problems. In other words, reach out for areas of agreement with so many of your fellow citizens. I know I've done so for years with my representatives, problem is they are part of the problem.

While our politicians on both sides have become more and more partisan, everyday we are not like that. Most of us have voted for more than one party, where the rhetoric isn't so biased, especially at the local level. We need as a country to come together on the issues that we basically agree with each other.

Social programs? Less agreement regarding the 'means', not the 'ends.' There are serious differences between the parties here, certainly a personal philosophy towards how to handle these issues should be enough fodder for partisanship. Problem today is that the partisanship itself is preventing the country from addressing the needs in common to us all: defense, infrastructure, energy, etc.

The problems facing us are not technologically impossible, but politically so. Perhaps it takes an assassination to bring the country together to work for the common good? Perhaps, but if 9/11 didn't do it, I don't know what will.

Partisanship! Why should I work with you? I want the credit.

You have said a lot of truths in your post. Somehow this nation has become all Opera singers saying, Me Me ME ME. What ever happened to helping just to be helping?

Psychoblues
12-18-2008, 10:35 PM
Although few here might agree, but this old independent knew the loss of the nation in the actual election of 1980. Jimmy Carter would have taken us a long way towards energy independence and a greener environment.

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues

5stringJeff
12-19-2008, 06:00 PM
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.

It is a crisis of confidence.

It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

Wow... what an inspiring leader!!! [/sarcasm]

Seriously, though, this is why Reagan got elected. He was an optimist, and Carter was a pessimist. And Americans like optimists. Same reason Obama got elected: optimism over McCain's pessimism.

namvet
12-19-2008, 09:38 PM
You know it! Americans were looking for the EASY way. They found raygun and the wrong road was taken.

no we found prime 21% apr was not gonna fly. bye jemey !!!!

namvet
12-19-2008, 09:39 PM
A man of vision. Talking to a nation that wasn't listening.

And sadly, probably still isn't listening.

eh what you say?????

namvet
12-19-2008, 09:41 PM
Jimmy Carter

Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence

delivered 15 July, 1979

C-SPAN Real Video Stream of Address

Audio mp3 of Address

click for pdf click for flash

Official President's Speaker Outline.doc



[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]

Good Evening:

This a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past three years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices of America.

I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you. It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I’ve heard.

First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a southern governor: “Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you’re just managing the government.”

“You don’t see the people enough anymore.”

“Some of your Cabinet members don’t seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples.”

“Don’t talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good.”

“Mr. President, we’re in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.”

“If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow.”

Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation. This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: “I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power.”

And this from a young Chicano: “Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives.”

“Some people have wasted energy, but others haven’t had anything to waste.”

And this from a religious leader: “No material shortage can touch the important things like God’s love for us or our love for one another.”

And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: “The big shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can’t sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first.”

This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: “Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.”

Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I’ll read just a few.

“We can’t go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment.”

“We’ve got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world’s energy, but the United States has twenty-four percent.”

And this is one of the most vivid statements: “Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.”

“There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.”

This was a good one: “Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”

And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing.”

And the last that I’ll read: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don’t issue us BB guns.”

These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our nation’s underlying problems.

I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That’s why I’ve worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.

It is a crisis of confidence.

It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.

We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.

Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation’s life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests.

You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I. What can we do?

First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.”

We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.

We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process, rebuild the unity and confidence of America.

We are at a turning point in our history. 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. It is a certain route to failure.

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 energy problem.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.

In little more than two decades we’ve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It’s a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.

The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.

What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.

Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977-- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.

Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace two and a half million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation will issue up to five billion dollars in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so average Americans can invest directly in America’s energy security.

Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank which will help us achieve the crucial goal of twenty percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.

These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans, to Americans. These will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.

Point four: I’m asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation’s utility companies cut their massive use of oil by fifty percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.

Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Point six: I’m proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.

I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I’m proposing tonight an extra ten billion dollars over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense, I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate ways of rebuilding our nation’s strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.

So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.

You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on earth. We have the world’s highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation’s problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act.

We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively, and we will; but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.

Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our nation’s deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.

I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s. I will listen; and I will act. We will act together.

These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America’s people, America’s values, and America’s confidence.

I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.

In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God’s help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Thank you and good night.

what a crock a shit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Psychoblues
12-21-2008, 02:55 AM
Do you have anything specific to add or do you think your simpleass observation is enough to satisfy inquiring minds as to your disagreements within the conversation, numbnuts?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?



what a crock a shit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're a pitiful one for sure, numbnuts, but even I expect just a bit of intelligence from you!!!!!!!!!!!! Are my expectations poorly founded?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues

namvet
12-21-2008, 09:31 AM
Psyco want answers today :laugh2:

http://www.demotivateus.com/posters/explanation-demotivational-poster.jpg

:beer::salute::salute::laugh2::slap:

Silver
12-22-2008, 06:58 PM
No surprise this nonsense comes from Carter...
Typical liberal boneheaded ideas....


build conservation into your homes

mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing

strengthen our public transportation systems

take no unnecessary trips

to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can

to park your car one extra day per week

to obey the speed limit

and to set your thermostats to save fuel

Then he goes on and tells us this.....

We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias.
We have more coal than any nation on earth. We have the world’s highest level of technology.
We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

Well no shit Jimmy.....all YOU needed to do when you were President was get the country to drill for oil then....DEVELOP those natural resources, the shale oil, the coal....

But what does your party of morons propose ? fuckin' windmills....

namvet
12-22-2008, 07:02 PM
I remember his fireside chats on TV. do all these things and ill raise the prime rate...............:cheers2:

namvet
12-22-2008, 07:15 PM
yo09Rx9whWs

:coffee:

stephanie
12-22-2008, 07:27 PM
Jimma is one President I would like to forget..but he never let us live it down he got TROUNCED out of office..

he continued to make our live miserable and was and still is a total embarrassment to our country..

namvet
12-22-2008, 07:29 PM
dem terrorists just luv the sheet outta him..............hahaha:lol:

April15
12-22-2008, 08:06 PM
I remember his fireside chats on TV. do all these things and ill raise the prime rate...............:cheers2:Since your memory is so great do you remember Fords WIN buttons and Nixons price caps to reign in inflation? I sure do!

namvet
12-22-2008, 08:08 PM
Since your memory is so great do you remember Fords WIN buttons and Nixons price caps to reign in inflation? I sure do!

NOBODY topped Carter

April15
12-22-2008, 08:09 PM
Jimma is one President I would like to forget..but he never let us live it down he got TROUNCED out of office..

he continued to make our live miserable and was and still is a total embarrassment to our country..Jimmy Carter is one of the best presidents out of office this nation has ever had. How can he embarrass you or the nation? He has taken no bribes he started no unnessessary wars he did not imprison innocent people or even approve torture!

namvet
12-22-2008, 08:11 PM
Jimmy Carter is one of the best presidents out of office this nation has ever had. How can he embarrass you or the nation? He has taken no bribes he started no unnessessary wars he did not imprison innocent people or even approve torture!

that's the point. he did nothin'. well he did take over as sec of state in this admin.

Psychoblues
12-22-2008, 11:10 PM
Jimmy lost in 1980 because RR was a better candidate and promised many things to the middle class that never materialized. The Panama Canal thing, even though RR said that he would have done the exact same, didn't help, the runaway inflation and high interest rates were helping Republicans, the underhanded dealings with the Iranians by RR et al on the hostage crisis also helped at that time. There are a number of reasons why Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 but being a bad president or a bad person were not part of the equation. Only the idiots think that way and who cares about the idiots?!???!??!??!?!?!?!?!

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues

Silver
12-23-2008, 01:18 AM
Jimmy lost in 1980 because RR was a better candidate and promised many things to the middle class that never materialized. The Panama Canal thing, even though RR said that he would have done the exact same, didn't help, the runaway inflation and high interest rates were helping Republicans, the underhanded dealings with the Iranians by RR et al on the hostage crisis also helped at that time. There are a number of reasons why Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 but being a bad president or a bad person were not part of the equation. Only the idiots think that way and who cares about the idiots?!???!??!??!?!?!?!?!

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues

Are you still a child? Too young to remember the Carter years....?

The highest interests rates ever in the country?
Inflation out of control?

Its was the first and only time in my life I actually feared for the future of the US.....

Carter was useless as President....

namvet
12-23-2008, 08:57 AM
good presidents last for more than 4 years. Carter helped run his own ass out of office..........

Des
12-23-2008, 09:51 AM
One of my favorite speeches...rejected, of course, by many conservatives who like to preach personal responsibility. Of course it's always the presidents fault, individuals have nothing to do with anything.

Kathianne
12-23-2008, 09:53 AM
Message to those that just are flaming now over several threads, stop or you will be thread banned.

April15
12-23-2008, 05:54 PM
Jimmy lost in 1980 because RR was a better candidate and promised many things to the middle class that never materialized. The Panama Canal thing, even though RR said that he would have done the exact same, didn't help, the runaway inflation and high interest rates were helping Republicans, the underhanded dealings with the Iranians by RR et al on the hostage crisis also helped at that time. There are a number of reasons why Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 but being a bad president or a bad person were not part of the equation. Only the idiots think that way and who cares about the idiots?!???!??!??!?!?!?!?!

:beer::cheers2::beer:
PsychobluesRonnie pandered to the close-your-eyes-it's-not-so-bad mentality of the can do spirit of America in the past. Unfortunately we are now faced with the same choices that America chose not to address. The choice today is the same as then!

Psychoblues
12-28-2008, 05:46 AM
Not Ronnie, but his machine shuttered many "eyes", A'15.



Ronnie pandered to the close-your-eyes-it's-not-so-bad mentality of the can do spirit of America in the past. Unfortunately we are now faced with the same choices that America chose not to address. The choice today is the same as then!


No doubt about that. Jimmy will go down in history far superior to the idiot in chief of the last 8 years.

I left the Republican Party for many reasons other than that but that was an important one.

:beer::cheers2::beer:

Psychoblues

JimmyAteWorld
01-12-2009, 11:27 AM
I think it's pretty damn funny that somebody uses this as an argument for the greatness and foresight of Jimmy Carter. If anything it proves how out of touch he was. He implemented things based on what was not feasible then, and 30 years later they still aren't feasible. Obviously, some people have not learned their lesson, and I don't just mean the idiots on this board. The bill presented by Joe Lieberman, John Warner, and Barbara Boxer several months ago hinged on technologies that didn't even exist.

As far as the aforementioned mission to the moon, I would agree that it is not a good comparison. If Woodrow Wilson had declared he wanted us to land on the moon before 1920, that would be a comparison.

This isn't that difficult. I don't think anybody is against cleaner air and cleaner water, we just don't want to live like a third world country and have the burden of paying for it thrown back on the consumer, which is what happened under Carter. Yes, it was his doing, not anything that was left behind by Ford and Nixon.

Jimmy Carter was a bad president. I'm not denying he had the best intentions, but he was a bad president. Oh, and before I forget, whoever said Reagan said he would have done the same thing with the Panama Canal is wrong. I don't know if it's a lie or if you were just misinformed, but Reagan said quite the opposite. Something along the lines of, "We built it, we paid for it, we own it." As for pandering to the "can do spirit of America" and the like... You mean like, "Yes we can"?

Classact
01-12-2009, 02:49 PM
I thought Carter sucked as a president and so did both political parties at the time, niether party could hardly wait for the door to smack him in the ass on his way out.

I became interested in alternative energy during his administration, I was in the Army in Korea first part and finished his administration at Bragg. We never even had blanks to fire for training, the XVIIIth Abn. Corps Commander, the Gunslinger's wife divorced him when he insisted the thermostat be turned down to levels way below her tollerance.

Had he insisted congress pass laws to prohibit import of ME oil and then pass laws to exploit domestic energy while promoting his conservation and alternative energy policies I would have followed his agenda and supported it. But the left is and was in the pocket of environmentalist and trial lawyers that make too much money on the environment so that was out of the question. He had no answers and saddly Obama has no answers of how he is going to end carbon energy without domestic energy exploitation and use of nuclear power. If the dems do a cap-in-trade they will be voted out as soon as energy prices soar... the price tag is $200 billion a year, that's $4200 extra energy bill for every family, so to give the low income a tax break he would have to send each family $5200.00 to just give a thousand dollar break. From where is all this money going to come from?

DannyR
01-15-2009, 10:56 PM
Carter had lots of good ideas. He just didn't know how to implement them.

Conservation and energy independence are worth the investment. It might not appear so based on the low gas prices we saw during the Reagan years. But those gas prices aren't the total cost. How much money do we spend on national defense, a large portion of which is dedicated to keeping the oil flowing?

Would we have ever bothered with Iraq or Kuwait if not for the fact that the region is necessary to us for oil? How many trillions of dollars has that cost us that might otherwise have been saved if by the Gulf War we were an energy independent nation.

I'm building a home that will be completely off grid. Cost a bit more at first, but I'll be laughing each time prices for oil go up again or electrical rates rise.