Erik’s pointed to a couple reasons to appreciate Carter’s impact, but what amazes me is how much he has done around the world to make life better for people you and I normally would never even think about. Just the other day, there was this wonderful story on PRI about how the Carter Center is trying to educate Liberians and help form a justice system.
And it is like that almost everywhere on the planet- places you and I never think of, if there is suffering going on, there is a good chance that Jimmy Carter’s outfit has been there working to try to end their misery. We just talked about Carter and the effort to end the scourge of Guinea worm infestation.
It is amazing to me how much Republicans love to hate Carter- it just makes no sense to me. Even if you consider his administration to be a total failure, what the man has done the last thirty years makes him one of the greatest Americans dead or alive.
Smurfhole
Only evil Communists give a shit about the poor. Ergo, he’s a Commie, and an evil one at that.
shortstop
The third baseman likes to say that Carter is a model for how an ex-president should conduct his life–especially now that our presidents are getting younger and have a good chunk of their lives left post-presidency. Other than Clinton and his foundation, what have the other guys done? Played golf, made me look at their smirky mugs during World Series, and given overpriced speeches to business groups and winger clubs? What a waste.
beltane
Jimmy Carter is the one Christian who makes me regret that I can no longer be a Christians. He does not let the fact that he is the Cassandra of our day interfere with his good work.
licensed to kill time
__
I read that at first as Libertarians, and thought “good luck!”
El Cruzado
@shortstop: In his defense (and it’s not like I liked the guy) Reagan didn’t have a long time between leaving the presidency and not being functional anymore.
Midnight Marauder
Makes perfect sense to me. He was right about a wide variety of issues that remain the antithesis of everything Republicans believe in.
Of course they have to hate him. Forever.
enplaned
The Republicans have embraced anti-rationality.
It’s John McCain making fun of Obama’s entirely sensible suggestion to keep your tires inflated — writ large.
There’s a fury against anything logical, rational, humane and educated. All these things cause a furious reaction on the part of those who control the Republicans.
It’s not left against right, it’s rational against irrational, secular/moderate against fundamentalist. It’s got absolutely nothing to do with conservative in its original sense. It’s the furious kicking Id screaming “no one and nothing will tell me what to do”.
Frank Chow
Um he helps “the other” which is no-no #1 for the hate wing.
Xecky Gilchrist
@El Cruzado: Reagan didn’t have a long time between leaving the presidency and not being functional anymore.
Indeed, about two years.
But they didn’t happen in that order.
JMC_in_the_ATL
I have such enormous respect for the man. He is one of the few public Christians that I admire, and the reason the folks like Glenn Beck attempt to demonize the social gospel.
Davis X. Machina
Dom Helder Camara: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a Communist.”
Turgidson
@Smurfhole:
I was gonna say “only god hating queers help poor people, particularly those who have the audacity to live in other countries.”
Between your comment and mine, we have all the possible reasons for the continuing Carter hatred covered.
kansi
Quietly going about the business of bettering the lives of the less fortunate. The ultimate in un-tard-iness.
Jody
The right hates him so much because they know if people stopped to see just what he was about, they’d LIKE him.
Napoleon
But Jimmy has a potty mouth.
DPirate
Not just a great man, but a good man. Jimmy Carter is Good. What hates Good? Can’t think what more there is to say about that…
Tim
Helping the brown people improve their lives is something that the wingnuts have determined to be one of the main 75 cardinal sins.
Porco Rosso
Some folks are just allergic to responsibility.
David Hunt
He was a Democrat. Nothing more is required. Ever since Nixon was in office, each Democratic President has to be the Worst President in History. So Clinton was worse than Carter, and Obama is worse than either of them. I know the Economy was better under Clinton, but that doesn’t matter to the GOP and the hate. Ideology is all that matters.
Carter was bad and must have been a Soshulist, so we was evil. Clinton was a Soshulist Commie who tried to/did [insert favorite Clinton conspiracy theory] and was even eviler. Obama is worse than both of them put together and is a Soshulist, Communist, Facist, Muslim, Atheist. Plus he’s a sleeper agent for Osama and going to put the white man in slavery to the Angry Black Masses, etc. etc. etc. so he’s the evilest president ever…until we get Democrat in the Whitehouse.
It’s axiomatic that most recent Democratic President is the Worst President Ever. The amount of hate and obstruction that they throw at him demands that.
Smurfhole
@Turgidson:
Doesn’t work, though, he’s Christian. But real Christians are all Commies too, like that Liberation Theology Marxist fella that Davis X. Machina quoted.
Thank the Lord the Pope stood by and let Oscar Romero and all those nuns and Jesuits get gunned down in El Salvador. Otherwise, who knows how much Communism would be infecting the Church?
Davis X. Machina
Probably the only manufacturing sector with a clear prospect of rising demand for the foreseeable future is the production of pre-mixed, ready-to-apply whitening for sepulchers.
trollhattan
@Xecky Gilchrist:
What he said.
Carter=hostages+sweaters and solar panels and moral equivalent of war=malaise…bla, bla, bla also, too, don’t forget Billy Carter and thus: tra-la, it’s “morning in America” and one of the most corrupt administrations in history. For teh winz.
ViVa BrisVegas
Let’s not forget another reason Carter is hated by the right, he was the last President to achieve anything constructive in the Middle East.
Tom Hilton
Amen. I really didn’t like him as President (not a fan of the huge military buildup, among other things), but since then he has consistently and repeatedly proven his fundamental decency.
The Chief
The problem the Republicans have with Carter is that he actually takes being a Christian seriously, by helping the poor and downtrodden and such. You know, stuff that Christ himself probably would have done.
He’s making the rest of them look bad!
suzanne
Normally, as I said in an earlier thread, I tend to come down on the “stupid” side of the “Are Republicans stupid or evil?” debate.
But when I remember how much they hate a man who works tirelessly to make this world unquestionably better, I admit I question my position.
Chuck Butcher
@David Hunt:
As each has become more “Right” than the preceding…
Obama’s record isn’t done yet.
kdaug
@beltane: Christ, I hear that.
Cermet
@El Cruzado: You mean Ray-gun was well into his second term when he lost his marbles and was rapidly becoming a modern day repub-a-thug.
Turgidson
@Smurfhole:
He’s not Christian the way that (the most vocal) Republicans define the term, though. He doesn’t hate nearly enough “other” people to qualify.
kdaug
@El Cruzado:
Fixed.
donnah
Carter was President when I was a young adult and I thought he had some great ideas. People hate him because he told us what we had to do during the big energy crisis, namely conserve and ration resources, and they resented him for it. He was the voice of reason when no one wanted to be reasonable.
georgia pig
It makes complete sense, it’s practically a foundational principle of wingnut cosmology. If they don’t demonize Carter, they have a hard time deifying Reagan. Think about the circumstances of Carter’s presidency. He comes into office following Nixon (Ford was a placeholder), a period of scandal and abuse of presidential power, which at least temporarily delegitimized Republican daddy-worship of an imperial presidency. Carter manages to achieve quite a lot in a few years, including the stuff mentioned by Mr. Kain, along with a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt that still stands today. For wingnuts, this cannot stand. Carter is a pretender to the throne, an effeminate weakling, because only Republican daddy figures can be effective presidents. Hence, make Carter the object of derision to pave the way for the glorious restoration, which Reagan brings about with massive budget deficits. Let’s gloss over the fact that Reagan actually ends up raising taxes.
They did the same thing to Clinton, and are trying to do the same with Obama. The Republicans are authoritarians, and they really want a tribal leader or king who will grant favors to “the right people.” The Villager media generally acts as an unwitting accomplice, because it kind of buys into the same vision, except media folks want to be courtiers, privy to inside info and good gossip. They don’t get that from good government types like Carter, Clinton and Obama. Republicans and the Villagers hate “good government” because good government doesn’t promote cronyism and insiderism. They hate Carter, they hate Clinton and they hate Obama for essentially the same reasons.
Davis X. Machina
A lot of the present Big Swinging Dick Caucus, the ones that aren’t refighting Vietnam because they’re a little too young, made their conservative bones fighting the hand-over of the Panama Canal — the one we stole fair and square — to the Panamanians. Although you don’t hear much about it any more save for the odd Chinese-conspiracy bank-shot, it was A Big Deal at the time, and a key part of the Reagan ’76 and ’80 campaign packages.
They hate Carter for that, too.
vtr
I think it has something to do with the fact that Republicans are completely incapable of understanding what it was that Nixon did wrong.Then Carter beat his appointed replacement, Jerry Ford, the last decent, honest Republican.
farmette
He is an incredible person and a great American. I remember listening to President Carter’s so called “Malaise Speech” in 1979. At the time, I thought it quite profound and so relevant to the day. I recommend reading the text of that speech or watching it on YouTube. The republicans have always loved to bash him ( starting with Ronnie freeing the hostages on inauguration day). The democratic leadership often doesn’t feel too kind towards him either (recent walk-on roll only at 2008 convention).
SpotWeld
It’s also the fact that Carter does a lot of things that are important, beneficial, but pretty dull.
Let’s face, trucking routes, Liberians, wearing sweaters.. dull dull dull. It’s like that dentist who handed out toothbrushes at Halloween.
He’s doing nothing wrong, in fact he’s doing a lot of good.
But because it doesn’t “sizzle” there the media doesn’t pick it up, so there’s ample opportunities for critics to fill in that vacuum with tons exciting rumor, hatred, and spin.
O’bama, is pretty dull too on the face of it. And you’re seeing a similar situation devlop. Boring Judicial nominee.. spin spin spin..
Davis X. Machina
Carter’ll wind up bracketed with another one-termer that really ticked people off in his own day, but whose stock continues to climb now, largely but not completely on the strength of what he did after he left office — John Quincy Adams.
PurpleGirl
I think the republicans hate Carter because he should have been a republican — Southerner, a farm owner and operator, a veteran, etc. etc. and instead he was a Democrat. And somewhat liberal. I always respected him and respect him more for how he has lived his life post-presidency. He really does try to put his religious beliefs into action. (That’s another reason for the republicans to hate him — he shows up how hollow and fake their “faith” is.)
Anne Laurie
@El Cruzado:
Fixed that for you.
Mike in NC
Oddly enough, he never used the word “malaise” in that speech, but the name was coined by our so-called liberal media. Carter wasn’t a DC-insider and the Villagers hated him for that, and the fact that he tried to tell the electorate that there’s no such thing as a Free Lunch. They crapped on him every chance they could.
Pretty much every Republican running for office for the past 30 years has called his opponent Jimmy Carter. They just can’t help themselves. George H. W. Bush spent the last month of his campaign against Bill Clinton invoking Carter’s name as if he was the scary monster hiding under a child’s bed.
kdaug
@PurpleGirl: An honestly good man. Can’t have that. How does that serve the “interests”?
redactor
@trollhattan:
Carter is where the VRWC started honing its perpetual war against Democrats. Lancegate was the prototype nonscandal that begat Whitewater. I think he’s also probably the prototype for the Village mentality that “it’s not his place; it’s our place.” Carter didn’t play to Sally Quinn’s crowd, which cost him dearly in the media. Again, what started small with Carter ended up much bigger with Clinton.
And Marty Peretz hated him, which is reason enough to rehabilitate his reputation.
mai naem
One more reason they hate him is that he served in the Armed Forces. Ronald Reagan was dreaming about serving in the Army while Jimmy Carter was serving honorably. On a f#$king Nuclear Submarine, no less.
Citizen Alan
That is because you are not evil.
Republicans have always hated Carter for the reasons discussed above. But the constant visceral hatred of the man has only intensified as the Republicans have exiled everyone who was capable of anything resembling true character. The GOP is a Satanic death cult today, but it likes to pretend that Satan is actually Jesus, for PR purposes, I suppose. So of course it’s cultists would hate someone who actually seems to try and live in a Christ-like manner.
Cat Lady
@redactor:
Several years ago I was having dinner with a friend and her Israeli husband, and out of the blue he piped up with “Jimmy Carter is the worst thing that ever happened to this country”. I literally burst a gut laughing, and was all lolwut? It was absurd. But, they hate him in Israel.
serge
Jimmy Carter is a great man. Nothing better can be said of a man.
History will judge.
Granfalloon
@serge:
I’m afraid history won’t judge. Or if it does, history will be judged by judgmental twits with poor judgment.
Granfalloon
Honestly, I think a lot to it is that he is set up as the anti-Reagan. If you start with the hypothesis that Reagan=perfection in human form, then the antithesis must be satan on earth. To argue otherwise would be to admit Reagan wasn’t that great.
Arclite
I totally agree. I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for what Carter has done these past decades.
trollhattan
I can’t depart without linking to “Ask President Carter.”
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4131/saturday-night-live-ask-president-carter
Nobody quite knew how to pigeonhole him after LBJ, Nixon and Ford, but the honest folks at least knew he was scary smart.
Catsy
I hope you made a full recovery. That sounds painful.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
It’s hard to think of anything he did that was profoundly wrong, at least as far as the conventional wisdom about Presidents is concerned. Much of the lousy economy was due to factors entirely beyond his control. His handling of the hostage crisis looks smart in comparison to Reagan’s boys, who made every cynical deal with every two-bit terror outfit they could think of. Scolding the nation about energy policy and general malaise was bad PR but he was right about those things. Those are the things that more or less did in Carter, and in hindsight he looks a lot better on those issues than he did at the time.
SiubhanDuinne
I have had the privilege — and that’s exactly what it is — of meeting and working with President Carter on a number of occasions. (In fact, if I may brag, when I had my quadruple bypass surgery in 2001, I received a personal letter from him and a personally-inscribed copy of his latest book. Yes, the letter is framed and displayed, why do you ask?)
He is everything you say: a good, decent man, a Christian in the best sense of the word rather than the perversion most Christianists have made of their faith.
Couple of things: he is a member of a 12-person (I believe) Council of Elders, whose membership includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Mary Robinson. I don’t know much about this group (in fact I learned of it only a couple of hours ago!) but it sounds like the inverse of Bilderberg, IOW an organization of genuinely experienced, wise and caring leaders who are intent on leaving the world better than they found it rather than seeking power.
Also, Jimmy Carter is the first and loudest to proclaim his absolute equality and partnership with Rosalynn. At this point they’ve been married something like 64 years, and he maintains that if The Carter Center had never done anything else it would be world-renowned because of her mental health initiatives. I mentioned in a thread a couple of months ago about the incredible work she’s done on this front (notwithstanding the fact that she’s an unimpressive public speaker) and I really agree with him.
They are treasures, and those of us in Atlanta should remind ourselves of that every day, ’cause they’re not going to be around forever.
tkogrumpy
@Midnight Marauder: Exactly.Today it’s all about optics, and the Carter administration”s optics were terrible, but he told the American people the truth. It’s not his fault that we can’t stand the truth.He is the only president in my lifetime who wasn’t a cardboard cutout.
gex
Well, frankly, he gives the lie to their “compassionate conservatism”. Does anything they do look like compassion? If anyone praised Carter for his post-presidential works, they’d be underscoring that contrast.
And of course, he just wasn’t in the right tribe.
asiangrrlMN
I had the privilege of hearing him speak at my college (St. Olaf). He was eloquent, graceful, humble, and thoughtful–in short, everything I thought he would be. I have the utmost respect for President Carter because he is steadfastly walking the walk that he’s talked for such a long time. He truly is a compassionate Christian in a country that usually merely only gives lip-service to such a thing. In fact, I agree that many Republicans hate him FOR this very reason. He shows how utterly corrupt and despicable they are, not just on the Christianity front, either. As noted, he served admirably; he hasn’t cheated on his wife (yes, I know he lusted in his heart); he treats her as an equal; he speaks the truth as he sees it. Just a thoroughly decent man all around.
redoubt
@Cat Lady: Well, yes, of course. They got to exchange bullets with Egyptians for thirty years before the peace treaty. If nothing else, imagine Egypt, with ten times Israel’s population, is still exchanging bullets with Israel in 2010.
@PurpleGirl: This in a nutshell. “Faith without works”, etc. The “faith” they do have is evil, so the works are evil.
I work in Atlanta, and have met the man. He walks the talk.
wobbly
C’mon people. This is Jiminy Peanut, the Reverend Doctor Goober Peas, the guy who, as Governor of Georgia, proclaimed William Calley Day???
The guy who suckered Anwar Sadat into signing a peace treaty with Israel by putting the Palestinian question into the footnotes???
“Don’t worry, Anwar. I’ll take care of that. Later.”
The guy who caved in to Kissinger and let the Shah into the United States, without the foresight to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Tehran???
The guy who thought the best way to counter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to raise a ragtag army of crazy Muslim fanatics, hand out Stinger missiles, and hope for the best???
“Don’t worry, Osama. We’ll take care of y’all. Later.”
The guy who thought the big problem with Viet Nam invading Cambodia and stopping the ongoing mass murder was the Vietnamese? The guy who kept Pol Pot’s men in the U.N. and on the Thai border for decades?
Yeah, he walks the walk now. It’s called doing penance.