"We must face the facts that the energy shortage is permanent. There is no way we can solve it quickly. But if we all cooperate, and make modest sacrifices, if we learn to live thriftily and remember the importance of helping our neighbors, then we can find ways to adjust, and to make our society more efficient and our own lives more enjoyable and productive."
Jimmy Carter, February 2, 1977 Americans hated the speech, and hated him for giving it. They didn't want to hear it.
Like it or not, most Americans don’t want to be told to conserve. Or to cooperate, if it means adjusting to thrift.
Americans want freedom most of all. Bigger, faster, better every year.
I wear a mask in public. When I am at Home Depot or my local supermarket I wear the N95 mask because I am trying to protect myself and others. It is a sign of consideration. Love your neighbor.
Joe Biden was photographed on Memorial Day wearing a mask, while Donald Trump is photographed mask-less. Trump was at Arlington Cemetery. Biden was at a veterans cemetery in Delaware. They were doing political communication. Trump is communicating fearless, back to normal, and not putting up with weenie, politically correct, virtue signaling by Democrats. Biden is modeling good behavior.
People brought up in the Christian tradition might think that Biden wins this matchup. Biden is doing the love-your-neighbor Golden Rule activity. He is less likely to spread the disease. It also reflects the moral value of obedience to legitimate authority, since government and medical experts urge the practice. Presumably it reflects smart politics, too, because if more people acted similarly there would be lower chance of a second wave and the economy could open up faster.
Win, win for Biden. Right?
No.
"Love your neighbor" is a Christian aspiration, but the prevailing moral value in America is self reliance, ambition, and optimism. Biden is a downer. Trump is signaling optimism.
I recall Jimmy Carter back in 1977, making the point that if we cooperated and took small actions on behalf of others, America would get through the crisis. It sealed it for lots of people. Carter was good, sure, but also weak. The public didn’t see him as conscientious. They saw him accepting less, just like driving 55. (It did not help that he gave the speech in a beige sweater and a green shirt. He looked like Mr. Rogers, a nice guy neighbor who would lend you a wrench, but not a Commander in Chief.)
This overall look and message prepared the stage for Ronald Reagan with a decisive message of optimism and American greatness.
Joe Biden also communicates he is willing to suffer an inconvenience. He needs to do this because, for better or worse, it is the Democratic message. Cooperate, or as Hillary Clinton put it, "Stronger together." Fortunately, Biden is dressed like a Commander in Chief, in a crisp dark suit, and he stands erect. That helps, but it is not enough.
Americans, briefly, explored the novelty of mask wearing, but on the margins they are showing with their behavior that they are sick of it. The stock market has been looking past the virus for two months now. Investors think this virus problem is over.
People are getting out and about. The virus numbers may spike, but they don't care. A rivulet has turned into a flood. Americans are acting like Americans.
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| This weekend in Missouri |
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
and, the final words of the novel:
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther--and one fine morning. And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Trump is communicating it is morning in America, almost, but just ahead, and America will be great again. It is the message people want to hear.
4 comments:
The general election scenario that Democrats are dreading
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/26/2020-election-democrats-281470
One big difference between the manufactured energy "crisis" and now is that we all knew that OPEC was pulling our chain. They were the bad guys. You're right -Carter looked like he was accommodating and to their tricks. weak. "suck it up and conserve". Reagan was seen as someone who wouldn't take any guff, even though he only played a tough cowboy. The Iranians apparently thought so too - they announced release of the US hostages 20 minutes after Reagan's inaugural address.
I'd be interested on Peter's take on "the economy" for everyday people vs "the market". as described in Trigoboff's link.
Currently those of us observing quarantine are a majority. I can only estimate but probably well over a hundred million are taking precautions, while a minority claim to know better.
We can only experience one reality which is revealed to us as each moment passes, so time will tell which reality will prevail. President Carter was right, and though it's taken 40 years for his truth to come to pass, our reality is revealing itself to us in the present moment as well.
The American tendency towards instant gratification is the product of decades of marketing and advertising, reinforced by the politics of entitlement, that have encouraged people to live above and beyond their means. Not the least of this is the continual promotion of the admiration and envy of wealth and privilege, and the idea that everyone deserves to live in luxury, regardless of their achievements.
Many people finance their lifestyles with expensive credit, which has led us to a financial crises in tandem with the public health crisis. When a significant number of families are spending every cent of their income to service debt and have no savings to cushion the loss of employment we find ourselves in a situation an opportunistic politician can exploit, literally sending people into harm's way, feeding into the denial that one may embrace faced with the decision between protecting their health and bankruptcy.
It is here where government succeeds or fails in its primary function, to protect the citizens that have entrusted it with their lives and livelihoods. History will inform the survivors, when all our present speculation proves true or mistaken. As we cross the threshold of 100,000 deaths, how will we prevent the next 100,000?
In President Jimmy Carter we had a man who didn't lie, didn't appoint his
alcoholic screw-up brother as chief of staff or Secretary of Defense, a man who had the courage to tell the American public the truth about the corner into which we had painted ourselves and a man who has never uttered lies and threats in respect to valid criticisms. He has managed to be true to the first woman he wed. He did not trade her in like a used car after a decade or so. He was burdened by the fact that he was an"outsider", not one of the pack of weasels who inhabit 'congress and accept bribes. He was painfully honest and the nation is like a spoiled brat that is not amenable to accepting basic truths about their unspeakable and ignorant behavior. Since leaving office he has been conspicuously present as a leading light in attempting, in a small way, to provide shelter to families in the lower scale of our society. In retrospect, I suspect his legacy will only rise in relation to a self-serving nincompoop ham actor like Ronald Reagan, a man who treacherousy forgot his origins (his family was forced to accept help during the depression) and consorted only with the ultra wealthy, and served them well. The man totally lacked depth of character and could best be described as a "charming boob". Let's all hope that the Bernie Sanders malcontents will realize that we cannot afford another 4 years with a madman at the helm and vote for a candidate, who like all others, has his flaws, but is basically a decent human being..
Bob Warren
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