RIP Jimmy Carter

[weltweit]

There was another interview with Carter on X but that was with Piers Morgan, I decided to spare you that one

 

[bcuster]

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The Jimmy Carter regime was responsible for encouraging the growth of a violent form of a far-right movement that has caused huge suffering in the world: Islamism.

A military coup in Afghanistan in April 1978 established a left-wing regime that was committed to implementing reforms that had been implemented in other countries as feudalist systems were overthrown. There was land reform, and women were given rights The landlords and the moneylenders and the imams were unhappy about these reforms and launched an armed rebellion. The new regime was allied to the USSR, with which Afghan state had long had friendly relations.

The Carter regime decided to give support to these rebels, with a view to provoking the USSR to intervene to prevent the establishment of a potentially hostile regime on its borders. This would be a drain on the USSR, both economically and militarily, which would be to the advantage of the interests of US imperialism.​

Sure enough, the USSR sent troops into Afghanistan to bolster the Afghan army in December 1979.

Then the Carter regime gave even more aid to the Islamist rebels in Afghanistan.

The war in Afghanistan became a cause célèbre of Islamism, and the USA encouraged the governments of predominantly Muslim country to free Islamist dissidents and allow them to travel to Afghanistan to “fight the Godless communists”. This led to the birth of Al Qaeda.

Thus the Carter regime helped set the world on a road that led to the civil war in Algeria, the destruction of the Twin Towers, the enslavement of Yazidi women, and all the other horrors inflicted in the past forty-six years by violent Islamism.​

Soviet propaganda from the time stressed how they were freeing Afghans, particularly Afghan women who were now free to be educated and work and exist as entities independent of men. And given the work opportunities afforded to women in the Ussr, you could take them at their word for that.

It is incredibly depressing to see how that has all panned out. The US, under Carter, teamed up with Saudi Arabia to promote the most extreme repression imaginable. And we're still there, 45 years later.

 

[The39thStep]

I was talking to an old friend last night about how the media are presenting Carter and she made the point that most of the eulogies for him are not related to his Presidency but his post-President period . We both remembered here ( after dusting off some cobwebs) when Reagan was elected, by some margin, over Carter and that the most common explanation was that whilst Carter's initial campaign was backed with some optimism by sections of the left and some trade unions that by the end of his tenure that enthusiasm had long since waned.

Time magazine heralded Carter as one of the best conservative Presidents "In some ways, Carter actually did more to push American economic policy to the right than his Republican successors Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump"

His programme of deregulation paved the way for Reagan. His budget cuts overwhelmingly targeted minorities and the poor, slashing funding for food stamps, welfare, job training, and aid to the cities. Even his liberal credentials didn't hold up in his re introduction of the draft, his endorsement of the Supreme Court decision to outlaw positive action at Universities or his backing of the expansion of religious schools.

This short pice from a union organiser sums a view from the left on his tenure

Jimmy Carter Was No Friend of Union Workers Like Me

As a worker in the 1970s, I looked forward to a Jimmy Carter administration. By the end of his term in office, like millions of my union sisters and brothers, I felt betrayed.

jacobin.com

However, the verdict on the Carter administration, wasn't delivered by the left but by millions of American workers. Despite all warnings of Reagans right wingness and the pleas to support the 'lesser evil' Reagan won a landslide victory.


I did a bit of digging on the suggestion of views on Carter being influenced not by his actual Presidency but by his post Presidential period and my friend has a point .

Carter's approval /disapproval rate during his period of office



CBS took another poll in 2021 and his restrospective approval rate became 44% his disapproval rate 44%

Gallup did a poll in 2023 where 57% approved of Carters period in office and 37% disaproved.

 

[tim]

Shaking hands with the common folk like a proper royal: a person who treated the people as subjects.

 

[JimW]

Was reading something about him also killing a good opportunity for single payer healthcare but was in comments somewhere.

 

[Ted Striker]

Reading the various obits he sounds like the epitome of the Nice/lefty/wise/righteous Democrat politician that was actually ultimately utterly ineffective and even harmful?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Reading the various obits he sounds like the epitome of the Nice/lefty/wise/righteous Democrat politician that was actually ultimately utterly ineffective and even harmful?

He wasn't really, though, when in office. He continued the US anti-communist obsession. That anywhere should fall into communist hands was the worst possible thing that could happen, and it was the job of the US to prevent it from happening. Not by sending in their own troops - Vietnam put paid to that - but by supporting covert ops in various places (sometimes not so covert - Carter met publicly with Videla). Despite being ok in other respects, Carter still did plenty of that.