UPDATE 1/3/25: Jimmy Carter’s death challenges the deeply instilled reticence all well-mannered, self-controlled, decent individuals utilize for social survival. If there’s anything honest to say about him without shrieking like the TDS sufferers on the other side, it is that he was, second only to Joe Biden, America’s worst POTUS with whom the unctuous peanut farmer shared some undesirable history.
The NY Times nicely glosses over Jimmy’s dramatic shortcomings by terming him “complicated” while a prominent, devoutly Catholic pundit charitably puts it, “He wasn’t a good President but tried to be.”
Looking very much the naggy, boring Sunday School teacher who’s lost control of his class.
Jews should remember Carter’s blatantly false slander against Israel as an “apartheid” society alongside great sympathy for the anti-Israel Palestinian cause, placing him firmly in the front ranks of modern antisemites. But isn’t that true of the entire modern Dem Party, still paradoxically attracting the majority of American Jewish voters? His betrayal of the Iranian Shah neatly gave the greenlight to international terrorism and a tyrannized Iranian people. Sensibly, the American electorate rejected his stupid incompetence at handling the consequences of that betrayal and turned to Reagan. Recall the final insult dealt the hapless Jimmy when the Iranian hostages were released literally at the moment a strong, respected American presence was replacing him.
Predictably, his slavish hagiographers will cite his role in brokering what has been hailed as a “peace deal” between Egypt and Israel in the late 70s, but honest Jews should remember Carter accurately for his “40 year smear campaign” against Israel. In substance, he was the natural precursor to the serial subversion of Israel by those Israel-hating Democrats who succeeded him: Clinton (including near-POTUS Hillary), Obama, Biden (and near-POTUS Kamala). The old story, too oft-repeated: reviling their friends, embracing their enemies.
Unsurprisingly, we can expect a week of tears and high praise for this rather fraudulent scold, including even a National Day of Mourning this coming Thursday, closing down America as if it was the passing of a hero for the ages or a long-reigning British monarch. In fact, he was an awful President and, using his undeserved moral authority after a disastrous tenure to champion all the wrong causes, was an even worse ex-President.
UPDATE 2/23/23: For those of us old enough to have lived through his disastrous Presidency, Jimmy Carter’s signature toothy grin and cloying faux-Christian piety always evoked Biblical warnings of wickedness hiding behind that too-big smile. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15). Shakespeare knew this sort of character well: “One may smile, and smile and still be a villain.” (‘Hamlet’ act 1, sc. 5, l. 105).
Let him be judged in part by those monster tyrants he admired in this life-Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat, Hugo Chavez and…
The Carter years were mercifully ended by his betrayal of the Western-minded Persian Shah, emboldening radical Islam that led directly to 9/11 and Iranian nuclear capability. This brilliant international diplomacy has provided a Middle East road map for his Democrat successors Clinton, Obama and now Biden. Israel and Jewry in general discovered in him (and his successors) unrepentant foes which he has always considered one of his many high virtues. This is/was an unabashed antisemite, but, we are repeatedly assured, a “decent” one.
Not even hiding it. Palestine goodness vs. Israel “apartheid.”
Jimmah would leave office in disgrace but thanks to the moral vacuity of modern liberals, he would be accorded the honor of playing Great Elder Statesman, using that platform consistently to cheer on America’s worst enemies. Now that he’s dying, the usual fools are still falling all over themselves heaping lavish praise upon him or, as the record shows, not on him but upon the false image of a “good Christian” cynically parlayed into power and undeserved worldwide admiration. He will be missed only by those blind enough to fall for an age-old con: a malevolent, self-centered fraud successfully passing himself off as a saint.
ORIGINAL POST 12/10/16: As the bizarre Obama episode in our political history comes to an end, one hails back to the harrowing Jimmy Carter years and the nostalgic relief experienced at his political demise. Where the Clintons have been driven by power lust, Carter and Obama are animated almost entirely by their loathing of America and a persistent desire to undermine our friends and exalt our enemies. Carter has spent his entire post-Presidency (and don’t forget his presidency) doggedly wandering the globe, certifying, legitimizing, even praising any regime or individual intent on destroying us, and one suspects Obama will do the same. The two of them remain neck and neck for the title of WPE (Worst POTUS Ever), each in his own special way.