WFMU RADIO: Give The Drummer Some 07/15/14

Listener comments!

Appropriating my own words from five years ago on the 30th anniversary:

Happy anniversary to Jimmy Carter and his maligned "crisis of confidence" speech, which some political observers identify as the day Carter lost his bid for reelection. Despite the ignominy attached to Carter's address, it turns out to have been one of the rare moments a sitting president has told the country such a shocking measure of truth about itself. The resulting right-wing shitstorm, which ultimately eviscerated Carter's presidency, spooked progressive politics under the rock it's only now just beginning to creep out from under.

In the three decades since that fateful night Carter sat before the cameras, ostensibly to deliver a speech on energy policy, Carter's flat-lined presidency has been looking better and better. (Of course, even Warren Harding's tenure begins to look rosy when viewed through the prism of the Bush abomination.) Sure it turned out to be a PR disaster, but Carter's address to the nation on July 15, 1979, was a stunning display of soul-searching candor never to be seen again in American presidential politics.

🥁

5:42pm Artie:

Carter's a good man. I'd gladly see him back in the Executive Suite.

5:43pm Doug Schulkind:

Mr. Carter is looking better and better and better. Hi Artie!

5:56pm ndbob:

evening Doug and everyone!

5:57pm Doug Schulkind:

Hi and howdy, ndbob!

5:57pm davex:

Hi Doug and all! Looking forward to the history lesson...

5:58pm hyde:

me, i'm gonna crack open a cold can of Billy Beer and listen to this show

5:58pm ndbob:

i will try to listen to this again.. I remember watching it that night.. I do have to say that Carter was the most disappointing President I ever voted for. He doesn't look better tome - maybe hearing this again will change my mind

5:58pm Doug Schulkind:

Davex!

5:59pm Doug Schulkind:

The suds are on me, hyde. No really, I am a mess.

6:03pm Holly in NC:

Hi everyone!
I very much wish I could've voted for President Carter.
Sigh.

Just got through a HUGE thunderstorm, how's everyone else doing?

6:04pm Gary:

T-storms here

6:04pm ndbob:

Doing well - most sunny and way below normal temps here

6:05pm Doug Schulkind:

My first election was 1980. I remember being intrigued (foolishly by the 3rd-party candidacy of John Anderson), but I voted for Carter as the anti-Reagan.

6:06pm Doug Schulkind:

We had our T-storms yesterday. They were warning hail and tornado watches, but it never materialized.

6:06pm ndbob:

I do remember pondering whether or not to vote for Carter or Anderson in 1980 - and I chose Anderson - don't really regret that - I'm glad that my first election was voting for MCGovern in 1912

6:08pm Doug Schulkind:

For everyone who dug last week's delving into Flash Strap's Volume 2 of Bibliothèque Exotique, I have good news. Volume 3 has been posted!! flashstrap.blogspot.com...

6:09pm Gary:

Yay!

6:09pm northguineahills:

Nice, Charles Gayle! We got some many lightning bolts w/in a quick succession w/in 500m of my apt earlier. It was nice.

6:10pm Doug Schulkind:

Hi Gary and NGH!

6:10pm ndbob:

woops 1972:)

6:10pm Holly in NC:

Speaking of hail, I assume y'all have seen yesterday's video of Siberian beachgoers being absolutely pounded by same : www.youtube.com...

6:12pm ndbob:

wow Holly - check the rest later

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6:12pm Artie:

I was too young to vote, but I do remember taking up for Anderson in our class debates. And Gun Control. Oh my, how far we haven't come in all these years...

6:14pm northguineahills:

@Holly: yeah, I saw that crazy. I would have just gone under water and hold my breath for awhile. Hail stones can't go more then a few feet under water. (of course coming up for air would be dodgy).

6:15pm Gary:

Watching it now with sound off. Wow

6:16pm Doug Schulkind:

I remember me and a bunch of college chums going to see John Anderson at a campaign rally in Cleveland. Up till then, I was on board with an insurgent candidacy, but he seemed like just as slick a motherfucker as the rest of them.

6:21pm Doug Schulkind:

On film, Carter looks tentative and halting. His movements almost scripted. Listening without pictures, I found the speech all the more captivating.

6:25pm Doug Schulkind:

The anti-materialism underpinning of this speech is practically a raving communist diatribe compared to the George Bush "Just Go Shopping" message post-9/11.

6:26pm Holly in NC:

Doug, thank you so much for reminding us of the last man who led the U.S. with a solid intellect & an unswerving moral compass.

6:27pm ndbob:

www.washingtonpost.com...

6:28pm Doug Schulkind:

Carter admits to "mixed success" at pushing through his agenda. When was the last time an American president admitted such a thing?

6:29pm Doug Schulkind:

Despite the negative reviews, Carter actually enjoyed a small popularity bounce following the speech. But then the right-wing attack machine poisoned the atmosphere, convincing many that Carter was BLAMING the American people for the energy crisis.

6:31pm Doug Schulkind:

"Consuming THINGS does not satisfy the search for meaning."

🥁

6:32pm Artie:

This strikes me as more of a pastor's sermon than a politician's speech. Certainly due at least in part to his accent and vocal cadences, and my own experiences in the Baptist Church.

6:32pm TDK60:

Political and civil liberties will endure, he said. Relatively, from '79 to '14, no, they're being dismantled.

6:32pm ndbob:

This speech is much better then I remember - but Carter was still an ineffectual leader

6:32pm Gary:

One retains curiosity about the world prior to its complete takeover by Marketing.

6:32pm Doug Schulkind:

This attack on cynicism seems so hideously quaint.

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6:34pm Artie:

If the right wing had any philosophical consistency at all, they would have praised this message of personal responsibility.

6:34pm Doug Schulkind:

This speech was written by Hendrik Hertzberg (long an essayist for the New Yorker magazine) and Gordon Stewart.

6:34pm ndbob:

@Artie very much so

6:35pm ndbob:

@Artie and ditto for that comment too

6:36pm Doug Schulkind:

In 1979, it was the Republicans who were the law and order, respect the government types and the leftists were the radicals. Today, that has flipped.

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6:36pm listener james from westwood:

Howdy all!! A definite archive listen for me; I was only vaguely aware of it in my 10-year-old, Star Wars-addled state, but I'm proofreading right now, and spoken word jams the apparatus. Will hit the archive at the gym tomorrow am.
His Law Day speech in '76 or so, given early in his run/approach to his run, was also a good one. Hunter Thompson managed to catch it and record it and soon he was being begged for transcripts, as few thought this would be the words of a front-runner.

6:37pm Gary:

Whoa, seriously? Hertzberg = total hero of mine

6:37pm Doug Schulkind:

Howdy Listener James! See (hear) you tomorrow!!

6:39pm Doug Schulkind:

Seriously, Gary. Here is a piece Hertzberg wrote for the New Yorker back in 2009 on the 30th anniversary of the speech: www.newyorker.com...

6:41pm Doug Schulkind:

It is also shocking to hear just how far we haven't come regarding alternative energy and conservation.

6:41pm Holly in NC:

"yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run.." [ducks for cover]

6:43pm Doug Schulkind:

Only one metaphor was harmed in the making of this speech.

6:43pm ndbob:

so coal, oil shale....

6:46pm Holly in NC:

OK, that coal shit really wrong. Was he that ignorant about coal consequences, or was he pandering to southern interests?

6:46pm TDK60:

Well, people were campaigning for alternative energy back then--solar, wind, etc. Now, we have some of that (not enough) but we also have fracking, tar sands, nukes still.

6:47pm ndbob:

right - but the focus here is on coal

6:48pm glenn:

oh boy. oil gives us freedom. it's true, unfortunately.

6:48pm Jeff "lusting after other women in my heart" g.:

Never again did a leading politician venture to tell us what we needed to hear. Only what they thought their pollsters thought we wanted to hear.

🥁

6:48pm Artie:

Coal was seen as the only viable, available and domestic energy resource. And the issues around it certainly weren't as well understood as they are now. It was always lauded as a bridge to green energy, much as natural gas is today.

6:49pm ndbob:

True Artie

6:49pm Doug Schulkind:

Hard to fault the obsession with American coal 35 years ago. The oil crisis brought the hardship into every home. (Well, not the mansions.) Carter has requited himself well over the intervening years in the arena of ecological sanity.

6:50pm Holly in NC:

@Jeff lusting g.. YES.

@Artie, thank you for context.

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6:50pm Artie:

Of course, once you've bought some time you need to actually use that time to actually develop and deploy clean energy tech.

6:50pm glenn:

not to mention his work for habitat for humanity.

6:52pm Holly in NC:

Habitat is .... beyond wonderful.

6:52pm davex:

Quite an impressive speech. Hard to believe the way it has been reported and remembered.

6:52pm Doug Schulkind:

Sorry for the extreme hokiness of this song...

6:53pm Holly in NC:

Nothing wrong with hoke!

6:53pm ndbob:

6:53pm Doug Schulkind:

But not sorry.

🥁

6:53pm Artie:

And let's not forget the Carter Center's work for international democracy, fair polling and women's rights. He's a quiet titan, with an enormously impressive life's work.

6:54pm Gary:

What, no "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'"?

6:54pm glenn:

the dirge of billy carter is on the "b" side.

6:55pm ndbob:

@gary I have to admit that was going through my mind

6:55pm Doug Schulkind:

Carter's international poll-monitoring organization has gone across the globe to ensure free and fair elections. It has even gone to the fucking state of Florida.

6:56pm ndbob:

Excellent show Doug!

6:56pm Doug Schulkind:

The unabashed Dylanesqueness of this track is so... unabashed.

6:57pm Holly in NC:

Surprised they weren't howitzered out of FLA.

6:58pm Gary:

Yay! Thank you for that, Doug

7:00pm ndbob:

have fun on Friday Doug!

7:00pm Holly in NC:

Love you, Doug!

7:02pm Doug Schulkind:

Thanks for indulging my desire for sharing amazing audio, wherever it resides, good people!

Charles Gayle	Black Oil	Spirits Before (Silkheart 1988)
Woody Shaw	OPEC	For Sure! (Columbia 1980)

President Jimmy Carter	National address to the nation	The so-called "Crisis of Confidence" speech (July 15 1979)
Dan Bern	The Ballad of Jimmy Carter

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	July 15, 2014 "There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice." President Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979
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