Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren
“The word malaise, a general feeling of uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify, should be starting to creep into discussions. It’s a word that is — granted, almost everything is these days — politically loaded, after its use by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 to describe the country he could not figure out how to lead. Carter’s specific use of the term focused on the energy crisis …. Carter saw that something much deeper than the lack of cheap gas was wrong. Not just an oil shortage to manage, but a recession of hope, a crisis of confidence that someone would have to lead America out of. He perceived that we were tired, worn down, unable to come together in common purpose to fix something. He was right then; how about right now?” (03/06/23)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/carter-vindicated-in-part/