Read the passage from a speech President Jimmy Carter gave in 1979 describing the national mood, followed by a response by Ronald Reagan. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote.

–Jimmy Carter,
1979

Much of this talk has come from leaders who claim that our problems are too difficult to handle. We are supposed to meekly accept their failures as the most which humanly can be done. They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where—because of our past excesses—it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either.

–Ronald Reagan,
1979

What contributed most directly to the national mood, as interpreted by Carter?

uncertainty caused by the end of the Cold War
stagflation, long gas lines, and distrust of government after Watergate
pride in the successes of the civil rights movement
the booming economy and a surge in civic participation