by Joseph Weber
President Carter gave his thermostat speech in 1977 while wearing a sweater and sitting by the White House Library fireplace.
New York democratic-socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdi's suggestion that city residents turn up their thermostats to 78 degrees during the heatwave this July 4 holiday weekend to help conserve energy has drawn sharp criticism from essentially every corner of the conservative movement – with some members even going so far as to compare the mayor's comment to Democrat President Jimmy Carter's 1977 "sweater speech."
“New York: it’s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool," Mamdani wrote Wednesday on the social platform X. "Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can.”
He also wrote: "A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let’s ease demand – and get through the heat – together."
The backlash was quick and came from everybody from former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to at least six former (and perhaps future) Republican presidential candidates, to GOP Reps. Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are, respectively, either leaving Congress in the next several months or left in the past several months.
Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, suggested Thursday on X that Mamdani's idea reflects “the reality of big government socialism’s inability to solve problems.”
He also wrote: “Telling New Yorkers to set their air conditioning at 78 degrees is an open admission of the failure of the left to provide enough inexpensive electricity that people can be comfortable even in hot weather."
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Mamdani's request is "proof that communism is (unfortunately) alive and well.”
Said Greene: “This is the worst campaign ad for the Democrats. Set your air to 78 degrees? Bless your hearts New York City!! American energy should be so strong and plentiful that you never have to set it above 70 if you don’t feel like it."
Even Dave Portney, a media personality who founded Barstool Sports in 2003 and endorsed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2024, got into the act, posting on social media, "78 degrees??? Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy."
While they focused on attacking Mamdani, Josh Holmes, chief of staff for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell when he was Senate Republican leader, and others recalled the Carter speech, which the president delivered while wearing a sweater and sitting by the White House Library fireplace.
Carter, a Democrat, asked Americans in the televised speech to conserve energy by lowering their thermostats to 65°F during the day and 55°F at night in winter. Later that summer, he urged them to set their cooling systems to 78°F.
"Jimmy Carter’s turn down your thermostat and put on a sweater," Holmes said about Mandani's idea. "American dream."
A couple of years ago, The Washington Post recalled the moment with a story headlined: "Jimmy Carter wore a sweater – and ignited years of Republican backlash."
The conservative- and libertarian-minded Bill of Rights Institute once called Carter's decision, about two weeks into his presidency, to first tackle energy, as part of a large attempt to fix an overall struggling U.S. economy, a "costly mistake."
In 1980, then-Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan decisively defeated Carter, holding him to one term, in large part over Carter's economic policies, asking voters, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
Joseph Weber
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/mamdanis-thermostat-moment-draws-conservative-backlash-flashbacks-carters-sweater-speech
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