We’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead and I really did try – almost made it 24 hours after Jimmy Carter died. But there’s just too much nauseating hagiography out there…including, to much disgust, from some on the Right. So, something that I might have waited a week for comes out today.
First off, let’s remember how Carter rose to political prominence – by running a campaign in Georgia in 1970 which was overtly racist in messaging. Was Carter a racist? Probably not – or, at least, not a vicious sort of racist. But he played directly to white racism in Georgia (which was still strong) in order to get into office. That is the rankest sort of political cynicism. The Establishment likes to play this like he was just being clever…sorry, that was being evil. That was the indication of the sort of person Carter was: nakedly ambitious and willing to sh*t on his own views if it would get him ahead. That this campaign was after he claimed Born Again status puts a question mark on the sincerity of that…
In addition to being ambitious, Carter was always certain he was the smartest man in the room. Now, to be fair, everyone who seeks power is a little bit insane. You wouldn’t do that if you weren’t a little crazy. But given that, wise people still find ways to work with others. Carter didn’t. He just expected everyone to toe his line even if he did periodic 180 degree course alterations. Because of this, his relations with the Democrat-controlled Congress were just terrible. He was just certain he was right about everything and that any opposition was idiocy when not malevolence.
Because of this, he held anyone who did oppose him in contempt. And this wouldn’t have been so bad if he wasn’t so entirely wrong about everything. He got into the White House and obtained pretty much what he wanted (even Congressional opposition did usually fade away as it was still Democrat to Democrat) and everything went to heck in a handbasket. The two biggest things that took him down were inflation and the Hostage Crisis…and his program was big spending and appeasement of anti-American forces around the world. When we gave him a humiliating defeat because of this did he pause to reconsider? Nope. He felt that an idiot (Reagan) had beaten him because the American people were too stupid to understand how great Carter was.
He hated that loss. And he went around for the rest of his life trying to make it go away. The Habitat for Humanity stuff was marketing – “see, he helps the poor!” But the teeth of it was him going around the world – especially when Republicans held the White House – and directly undermining American policy and lending his support to some of the very worst people in the world. He was a big fan of the Castro regime, Chavez’ regime in Venezuela…and when the Communists in Nicaragua lost an election in 1990 Carter was very grudging in admitting it.
In essence, Carter was the final result of 1968 – that is when the anti-Americans started to take control of the Democrat party and Carter was all-in on that…essentially holding that the reason for the world’s problems is American policy. Unless run by a saint like Carter, of course. In the long term, Clinton, Obama and Biden have just pushed this line ever further…if you wonder why there is this bizarre desire in the Defense and Foreign Policy establishments to appease the Iranian regime, look back no further than Carter…who started it and in the time since then Democrat after Democrat has just hired and promoted people who hold to the anti-American view (with the GOPers never getting rid of such people…though we hope this changes come the 20th).
The indecency of the modern world has many sources and goes back a long way…but we must never forget Carter’s role in making it official American policy to foster indecency around the world. If you wonder why its considered acceptable for horrid tyrannies to get seats on UN human rights councils, look no further back than the Carter year where it became official US policy to bow and scrape before foreign savages to atone for our alleged sins. Carter, with his moralizing tone, ushered in the modern era of tribal massacre and systemic looting.
It is my hope that Trump tears this all our root and branch. A systemic housecleaning of all these children and grandchildren of Jimmy Carter who infest and infect our Establishments. True decency in the world comes with the entire legacy of Carter – including the preening self-aggrandizement – is tossed into the trash.
Blogs For Victory 
Musk and Trump will surely free Government of preening self-aggrandizement.
Speaking of preening self-aggrandizement. Get a mirror. Don’t forget “smug” and “pompous”.
going femme now?
but not you.
Carter was such a “meh” presence, all I really remember is that he was chased by a mean rabbit
Other than the botched Iranian hostage rescue attempt, the DOUBLT DIGIT INFLATION, DOUBLE DIGIT UNEMPLOYMENT, AND DOUBLE DIGIT INTEREST RATES (what became know as the misery index), and the shellacking he took from Reagan in 1980, the only other thing I remember about the Carter presidency was him telling us peons to turn down our thermostats to 65 and wear a sweater.
I can still remember how furious I was with Carter’s pusillanimous response to the seizure of our embassy. It was an act of war – and no amount of the Mullahs saying “hey, its just college kids” changes the fact that they, as the government, were 100% responsible for the security of our embassy grounds. It is just against all rules of civilized behavior to have diplomats taken…even the Nazis didn’t do that.
It still just amazes me – I remember practically shouting at the TV, “issue a f*cking ultimatum you gutless coward!”. That’s what he was supposed to do. It is what we, the people, would have supported. It probably would have ensured his re-election. But he couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. Because, you see, the dirty-necked thugs were right! We were the bad guys! Don’t you know that we assisted in the 1954 coup! Bad, bad USA! As if any of that mattered or in any way justified what was done.
Oh, I remember things that happened when Carter was president. But as for my memory of him personally, it was pretty much the rabbit. And yes, the sweater.
It took Bill Clinton to nudge me into political awareness. Till then, I was just your average clueless Lefty, drifting along in a haze of general ignorance and Identity Politics. Once the “She’s too ugly to rape” attitude of the Clinton supporters blasted the whole feminist theme right out of the water and forced me to start looking at politics more objectively, it was an inevitable progression toward the Right.
It was during this period that I started listening to a Denver talk show hosted by Mike Rosen. He was open to Liberals calling in to discuss their beliefs and opinions, but his main rule was that a caller had to answer questions. I remember actually pulling my car over to the curb so I could listen more carefully to an articulate Liberal who had just made a very compelling-sounding statement, because it echoed something I “knew” and I wanted to hear him explain why I knew it—because I had no idea. And I realized, after months of listening to the same routine, that the Libs never could explain anything.
A Lib would make a very compelling-sounding statement, Mike would ask him to explain it, and the Lib would then come back with a question about something else. Mike would say no, “my show my rules” and explain that the rules were that when a question was asked it had to be answered before the person could go on to the next statement. This would be ignored and the Lib would just try to talk over him, chattering on about a different topic, trying to work in some “gotchas” till Mr. Hold Button would step in. And then Mike would explain HIS position, clearly and succinctly, and then bring back the Lib to address the topic. And the Lib would immediately try the Deflect, Distract and Divert tactic again. This was like a post-graduate class in Leftist rhetoric, and I finally realized I wanted to be on the side that could, and would, answer the questions, and not on the side that had to scramble to avoid them. And so my journey to the Right began. (And to this day, no Lib has ever answered my question about his political philosophy. I get a lot of jibber-jabber about issues and personalities and platitudes, but never an actual defense of collectivism or governing from a Central Authority or any of the other elements of Leftist governance.)
So the Carter years were, for me, mostly lost in the haze of political ignorance. Even so I was aware of things like odd/even license plate numbers to buy limited gas and the failure of the hostage rescue effort—–I just didn’t make the connection between them and political philosophy.
Let’s not forget the OPEC oil crisis caused by the Iranian revolution which eventually led to odd / even gas rationing.
We recently talked here about our two-decade-plus history of exchanging ideas. I know my personal horizons and scope of knowledge have expanded thanks to the input from my fellow bloggers, both information and prompts to do my own research. (Possible question for future pondering: Is this preening and/or self-aggrandizement? Response: Who cares?)
Anyway, in the same spirit of sharing ideas, I suggest reading the following article, which I think touches on a lot of what we have discussed here over the years.
Why Public Schools Struggle to Teach: A Substitute’s Perspective
For the last several years I worked with three kids from a great middle-class family, all of whom did very well in school. The daughter graduated near the top of her class, with honors. Yet none of them ever read a book. Well, the daughter admitted that she did read one book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, but didn’t understand it till she saw the movie. None of them can read cursive. None can read an analog clock. Because they don’t read they don’t know what words should look like, so I finally realized that when they referred to a “window seal” it wasn’t just that I didn’t hear them correctly, it was because they had no idea that the term is “window sill”. After all, that thing at the bottom where the window closes acts to seal the window, right? In other words, they have native intelligence, unhampered by our “educational” system.
(To be fair to them, the “window seal” thing also popped up the other day in an ad for a national company, which was rather depressing. I think it is a short trip from semi-literacy to illiteracy, one aided by our “educational” system.)
That is very sad – and the nutshell of it is that the system just wants the kids in seats to justify budget. It is irrelevant if they learn…all that is wanted is day in, day out, kids in seats to justify budget. Small wonder the teacher’s unions tend to favor open borders and providing education for illegals…it doesn’t matter if the poor kid from Chiapas learns anything. It doesn’t matter if any kid learns anything. All that matters is budget.
And we’re losing civilization over it…the roving gangs of looters are almost all Americans who are complete barbarians, no comprehension that once you sack Rome, you can’t sack it again. Its over…the goose has been killed, enjoyed those (one time) eggs! The good news is that some private education systems are educating and even a few colleges are genuinely teaching…the youngsters coming out of those schools will rule the world…but I doubt they’ll rule a world where they allow the barbarians to have a vote.
I have been saying for a long time that I think we are heading toward a new aristocracy, as the students who are home schooled or go to good private schools will be the bosses because they are the ones who understand math, who are literate, who understand history, who have a work ethic
etc. And the stoners and the slackers and victims of public education will be the new serfs.
While the constantly enraged and hostile Left tries to smear the Right, including by implying that we are illiterate, the fact is that conservatives tend to be not just thoughtful but inclined to seek out solutions to problems. The following article is a great example of this:
NYC Subway Incident, Neely’s Death Didn’t Have to Happen. But Family, Laws Failed Him
We talk in general terms about the problems created by the failure to provide secure residential care for the mentally ill, forcing them onto the streets, into “homeless shelters” and situations that are dangerous to them and to others. But we don’t really understand the process.