It is remarkable how history tends to repeat itself. My wife and I were watching two speeches on youtube and discussing the general malaise that faces our nation. (She gets co-author credit for this post). The first was Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech given in 1979, shortly before he was destroyed in the Presidential election by Ronald Reagan. In it, President Carter gives a compelling, moralistic speech that, apart from sounding occasionally preachy, fully explains the problems Americans were facing in 1979. We are facing almost all of the same problems now. President Carter's solutions are similar if not identical to those espoused now by my liberal friends. They are full of heart, but will ultimately prove ineffective.
The second speech Liz and I found remarkable, especially given the backdrop of today's news, was Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech given in 1964 in support of Barry Goldwater's election bid against Lyndon Johnson. The thing you take away from Reagan's speech is this; the world has not changed that much in 50 years. Reagan was a serious man, and his message is serious. We have the power to choose between two fundamentally different philosophies. We can rely on ourselves and our neighbors to weather this storm and become better as a nation, or we can cede that reliance to a central government who will make the tough decisions for us.
Both speeches are really excellent and are worth watching, even if you've already seen them. It is worth the time to carefully review the dichotomy of views and see the incredible similarities between then and now.
We face what seems to be an unprecedented set of challenges. We can take some comfort in knowing that the challenges really are not "unprecedented," nor are they any worse than other significant crises we've faced in our history. It is how we will deal with those challenges, however, that will define us and our history for generations to come.
President Obama, unlike Presidents Carter and Reagan, is not up to the task. In many ways, he is just like Jimmy Carter, but Carter had more resolve. Carter in his speech looks like a beaten man. He looks exasperated by the politics of inaction. He is disappointed in the "greed" of the American people. He is seemingly in touch with ordinary Americans who have directly voiced to him their extreme discontent with his leadership. He is not so out of touch as to believe that he has done a good job. President Carter, like President Obama, had given up. He had squarely placed the responsibility for America's problems on Americans themselves which, while intellectually excusable, is not the message a true leader sends to his wards.
I have to say that, like today, the "crisis of confidence" was not created by Jimmy Carter and his policies. America's problems had been building for generations. Likewise, President Obama is not to blame for every woe facing our nation. But he didn't do anything about our woes either, nor did he really try. His presidency will have fueled the fire of self-doubt, division, and malaise that burns us now and will continue to burn us in the future. Consider how much worse President Obama's two terms have been when compared to President Carter's four years.
President Obama oversaw a government that, like Nixon's, used the IRS to target ordinary Americans because of their political views. Lois Lerner has taken the 5th, Obama and Holder have stonewalled the investigation, but the damage was done. Whatever faith Americans had left in the IRS and their absolute right to free political speech, they no longer believe that. Between that and the NSA monitoring every communication in the world, Americans have felt a chill on their speech emanating from our government. That chill is designed to maintain the status quo, and it is effective.
Likewise, while the President was asleep, at a fund raiser, or playing golf, an American ambassador and his dedicated protectors were ambushed and killed because of an insensitive video mocking muslims - or was it a terrorist attack to commemorate 9/11? We will never know because his administration has prevented the truth from coming out. Fine, but we all know that on that night, Obama was either in command and let everyone die, or he was not in command because he was otherwise occupied with something he felt was more important than an attack at the Libyan embassy. Our ambassador was sodomized before he was killed. Obama won't even tell us where he was at the time.
Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and has carved off big sections of it for Russia. President Obama told the Russians that he would "have more leeway" after the election. That obviously meant that he would be able to cast a blind eye to any Russian territorial ambitions. I promise you that this menace will have our full attention at some point in the not so distant future.
Obama ordered a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq. That was unwise, and it led to the emergence of ISIS. We will now have to send troops back to Iraq, without a beachhead, without a base, to fight a menace that could've been held in check.
For the first time in our history, we now have Ebola on our shores. While Obama and his administration continue to downplay the risk, there is a risk and any failure to recognize or mitigate that risk will result in total catastrophe. This is what is commonly referred to as a low probability/high impact event. It is unlikely that we will have a serious Ebola outbreak in this country but, if we do, it will be catastrophic to our infrastructure and our way of life. History will be told in terms of "before Ebola" and "after Ebola." Handling such a risk requires incredible skill and dedication which, as polls show, the vast majority of Americans believe President Obama lacks.
Perhaps Jimmy Carter was right in 1979 and Americans faced a crisis of confidence fueled largely by their own insecurities. I don't think that was the case, but I'm willing to entertain the argument. What we face now is a President who is facing his own crisis of confidence. He knows he is not up to the job. He knows that he lacks the skill and the intellect to guide America through these crises. He knows he talked a big game but, in the end, he just couldn't deliver. It is a shame, because crises that were at one point manageable will now become a fixture of our fate, and only grace can save us from ourselves.
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