Saturday, March 30, 2013

The Jimmy Carter Paradox

The vast majority of people forget. President Carter was NOT a liberal Democrat. He was a moderate who actually had a better working relationship with the Republican leadership in Congress; Howard Baker in the Senate and Bob Michael in the House (he essentially admitted as such on the Larry King Show) than he did with the Democrats. Yeah, he did go a little nutty after he left the Presidency but this whole notion that he was a leftist President is historically inaccurate (incompetent maybe but an Obama or a Roosevelt definitely not), in my opinion.....................................................................................And this brings us here to the second part of the paradox. Most of the Presidents who worked effectively (substantively, I'm saying) across the divide tended to have successful Presidencies; Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton. The fact that Carter didn't leads me to think that maybe at least some of the bad things that happened weren't necessarily his fault (and, yes, this is coming from a person who's been critical of him in the past) and that maybe we should cut the dude some slack after all. It's just a suggestion.

8 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

Some would go as far as to say Carter was a conservative.My progressive brother temp.Ss me of that perceived "fact" from time to time.

By today's standards he would be correct.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I was in a generous mood, I guess, on this one. Still say that he was an essentially decent guy at least while in office.

dmarks said...

Carter did actually start aiding Nicaragua's efforts to toss the Soviets out... most usually think the Contras were only helped under Reagan.

dmarks said...

Anyway, whether or not he was a liberal Democrat depends on whether or not he did the typical liberal Democrat thing and push for more power for the State and less for the people.

I honestly don't remember much anymore, though, other than the killer rabbit, the buffoon brother, "foreign awl". and the Misterrogers imitations on TV

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I actually drank a 6-pack of Billy Beer once. It kinda tasted like Pabst as I remember.

dmarks said...

I would hope you only drank that six-pack once, Will.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Like I said, it kinda tasted like Pabst (and I would probably go with Piels and Schaefer, too).

dmarks said...

If you had drank that six pack more that just the once (I.e, after human kidney-involved recycling), it might have tasted like Bud.