Michele Tafoya: Crisis? What Crisis?

"What is the Biggest Problem in America?

Is there a single one?

Numerous polls suggest there are many issues troubling people these days, but some issues rank higher than others.

As usual, the economy ranks high on most voters’ list of concerns. It is the one area that affects us all.

But the economy won’t mean a thing to anyone if America commits suicide. If we continue to focus on our immutable differences, ignore signs of social and cultural decline, and cave into Leftist and socialist ideology, we could find ourselves in a dark and scary place.

Ronald Reagan saw America as a “Shining city on a hill.” It baffles me as to why so many in this country seem to want this place tarnished and ransacked. Last week’s episodes examined what brought us to this stormy time. And we got the inside scoop about the making of “Reagan... 

Source:Michele Tafoya from Minnesota. She should've stuck with sports.

From Michele Tafoya

Perhaps someone can explain to me (and good luck with this) how someone who is a clear Donald Trump and MAGA supporter, (whether Michele Tafoya has ever admitted that or not) now sounds like Jimmy Carter. If MAGA agrees with each other on anything other than that Donald Trump is not just better than Jesus Christ, but God himself, they agree that they hate President Carter. And yet you hear or read (depending on how you are getting this) 1 of their supporters say: 

"Numerous polls suggest there are many issues troubling people these days, but some issues rank higher than others.

As usual, the economy ranks high on most voters’ list of concerns. It is the one area that affects us all.

But the economy won’t mean a thing to anyone if America commits suicide. If we continue to focus on our immutable differences, ignore signs of social and cultural decline, and cave into...

So in July of 1979, America looked was essentially trying to deal with an economic nightmare. Not just that economy was headed in recession, (which is bad enough for most politicians) but even if you were making a good living back in summer of 79, the basic necessities were too expensive for most Americans, because of double figure inflation and interest rates. Even if you could afford enough energy for your home, cars, business, etc... there wasn't enough to go around. You had to like get on a waiting list or something, just to fill up your car. And President Carter knew all of this and decided to give a speech about it. It was called the "malaise speech" by network news and others. But it as his "crisis of confidence speech. And this is some of what he was talking about: 

"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... 

From American Rhetoric

If you were an average American back in 1979 and you watched and listened to President Carter's speech that night... you probably wanted to hear the President talk about what we could do to bring down inflation, interest rates, produce and get more affordable energy. But instead what you got from the President of the United States, was: 

"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." 

That's what President Carter's response to Americans concerns about the cost of living and not just the cost of energy, but the fact that there wasn't enough energy to go around for everyone, even if you could afford it. His response to Americans who had these concerns was to blame them for their own problems and that he was powerless or unwilling to do anything about them. So when Michele Tafoya says: 

"As usual, the economy ranks high on most voters’ list of concerns. It is the one area that affects us all.

But the economy won’t mean a thing to anyone if America commits suicide. If we continue to focus on our immutable differences, ignore signs of social and cultural decline... 

I think of President Jimmy Carter from July 15th, of 1979, even though I was 3 years old at that point and obviously have no memory of that speech. 

And then my second response here is, imagine if Kamala Harris was President of the United States right now and the economy was in the exact same condition as it is now and a President Harris had the same job approval and economic numbers that President Trump has now: would MAGA be talking about the "the state of American culture" and our "our crisis in American culture"? Of course not. They would be talking about how bad the economy is and probably calling for President's Harris's impeachment right now. 

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