Perhaps because evil has become, at least in this specific rhetoric, something America chose, that is, an acknowledged although dreaded attribute of Arn.erican actions, it only rarely occurs in the speeches of the three presidents who follow Johnson. For the most part, these presidents actively and consciously employ a political language designed to lessen political tensions. For example, in his first inaugural address, Richard Nixon reiterates Johnson's attempt to produce a m.oderate political language even as he distances himself from Johnson's war. Drawing from Qp.aker belief in simplicity, quietude, and responsive listening, Nixon suggests that answers to America's problems might be found if Americans looked within themselves for "the simple things, the basic things" such as "goodness, decency, love and kindness:' To listen responsively, moreover, requires that Americans stop shouting. Nixon notes, '�erica has sufered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading:' As "we;' the American people, learn to speak quietly, government1 also identified as "we;' wil listen: "We will strive to listen in new ways-to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak without words, th.e voices of the heart-to the injured voices, the anxious voices, the voices that have despaired of being heard:'37 In the environm.ent responsive listening creates, evil has no place.
Gerald Ford also expresses exhaustion with evil, a sense that words like "evil" should not inhabit political discussion. "Evil" is too extreme and dangerous a term for politics. But even as Ford wants the term eliminated, it undergoes an additional mutation in his rhetoric: evil is how others refer to America. In his State of the Union address on January 19, 1976, Ford complains that Americans have for too long "downgraded" themselves as a nation. "The American people have heard too much about how terrible our mistakes1 how evil our deeds, and how misguided our purposes. The American people know better. The truth is we are the world's greatest democracy:'38 In his oficial speeches as president, Jimmy Carter doesn't use "evil" at all, not in connection with the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or the economic hardships brought about by the recession and energy crisis. In his famous "Crisis of Confidence" speech given in July 1979, Carter emphasizes the "paralysis, stagnation, and drift" facing the country.39 Like presidents before him, he positions the United States at a crossroads between two paths of freedom. One path leads to fragmentation, self-assertion, chaos, and immobility. The other is the path to true freedom, one that entails common purpose and the restoration of American values. Evil appears on neither path, but struggle and even sacrifice accompany both.
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