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Jimmy Carter: I fear for our democracy

22 points by Jimmc414 5y ago

Jimmc414 5y ago
https://archive.fo/aSY94 https://archive.fo/aSY94
allears 5y ago
Jimmy is a good and intelligent man, and probably the most effective and accomplished of our ex-presidents. Everything he says in this op-ed piece is true. However, I fear he is too idealistic and living in a past where a principled call to action for people of integrity could have a positive effect. We may well be too far down the rabbit hole at this point.
- finite_jest 5y ago
  By what measure is Carter "probably the most effective and accomplished of our ex-presidents"? In terms of being effective, I don't think he is even comparable to FDR or LBJ. He didn't even manage to get reelected. The hostage crisis and the botched Operation Eagle Claw [1] happened during his presidency. I kinda think that could make him a candidate for the list of the not-very-competent US ex-presidents. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
  - anigbrowl 5y ago
    I think GP means effective and accomplished in terms of what he did after leaving office.
  - MBCook 5y ago
    I assumed allears meant living ex-presidents.
MBCook 5y ago
I’m glad he wrote this. One of the things I’m the most disappointed in over the last year is that the other living presidents haven’t strongly come out against the events of January 6th (and, preferably, the claims of fraud leading up to it). I realize it’s traditional for ex-presidents to step out of the office and largely step away from presidential politics (except to promote a candidate). But I feel like following that tradition over the last year has done a very large disservice to our democracy. If Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Obama had released some sort of strong joint statement I think it may have meant a lot.
- Jimmc414 5y ago
  I'm just as worried about the damage to democracy caused by the response to January 6th. January 6th set a series of destructive events in motion, but the threat of the insurrection itself could have been neutralized in minutes if someone in power had made the call to do so.
  - MBCook 5y ago
    The problem was a great portion of those in power stood to benefit from it. So they weren’t going to neutralize it.
uejfiweun 5y ago
I have to say, the cognitive dissonance in our modern time is pretty crazy to me. Yes, the Jan 6 riots were bad and certainly embarrassing. No, I don't think that a bunch of MAGA morons running around in the capitol is a serious threat to our democracy. At the time, I just thought it was more pathetic than anything else. We have a freaking military to safeguard against these kinds of things. But if I said that in public then I'd probably be called some kind of X-ist. Meanwhile, the BLM protests last summer changed my life pretty drastically. The dystopian free speech crackdown is still ongoing. My old college town got completely boarded up. Literally every major city in the US experienced violent unrest for months. And the craziest part? You STILL aren't allowed to talk about this without being called an X-ist or being ostracized. One event was just one day, and I only experienced it through the news, and it was literally a bunch of idiots running around for less than an afternoon. The other crippled US cities for months, prompted a wave of censorship, and inflamed social tensions like I have never seen before. But no, the first one is the threat to democracy, because my media overlords told me so. I'm aware that this probably isn't a very popular opinion, please know that I don't mean it in ill will. I just think it's kind of absurd that we can freak out and denounce one thing but not even criticize the other.
- blacksqr 5y ago
  The Reichstag Fire only lasted two and a half hours, nobody was killed or hurt, and life in the city of Berlin was not interrupted at all.
- psyc 5y ago
  I stopped reading at "almost succeeded". Maybe the rest of the article is good, but I'm so turned off by sophistry.
  - uejfiweun 5y ago
    Yeah. I feel like the media doesn't realize it, but their spell is completely broken for many people. I'm now hyper-aware of all the disingenuous arguments and lies they put out. I guess this is what happens when you staff your newsroom with only young college leftists and allow them to bully the sane people out.

22 points by Jimmc414 5y ago

https://archive.fo/aSY94 https://archive.fo/aSY94

Jimmy is a good and intelligent man, and probably the most effective and accomplished of our ex-presidents. Everything he says in this op-ed piece is true. However, I fear he is too idealistic and living in a past where a principled call to action for people of integrity could have a positive effect. We may well be too far down the rabbit hole at this point.

finite_jest 5y ago
By what measure is Carter "probably the most effective and accomplished of our ex-presidents"? In terms of being effective, I don't think he is even comparable to FDR or LBJ. He didn't even manage to get reelected. The hostage crisis and the botched Operation Eagle Claw [1] happened during his presidency. I kinda think that could make him a candidate for the list of the not-very-competent US ex-presidents. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
- anigbrowl 5y ago
  I think GP means effective and accomplished in terms of what he did after leaving office.
- MBCook 5y ago
  I assumed allears meant living ex-presidents.

MBCook 5y ago

I’m glad he wrote this. One of the things I’m the most disappointed in over the last year is that the other living presidents haven’t strongly come out against the events of January 6th (and, preferably, the claims of fraud leading up to it). I realize it’s traditional for ex-presidents to step out of the office and largely step away from presidential politics (except to promote a candidate). But I feel like following that tradition over the last year has done a very large disservice to our democracy. If Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Obama had released some sort of strong joint statement I think it may have meant a lot.

Jimmc414 5y ago
I'm just as worried about the damage to democracy caused by the response to January 6th. January 6th set a series of destructive events in motion, but the threat of the insurrection itself could have been neutralized in minutes if someone in power had made the call to do so.
- MBCook 5y ago
  The problem was a great portion of those in power stood to benefit from it. So they weren’t going to neutralize it.

uejfiweun 5y ago

I have to say, the cognitive dissonance in our modern time is pretty crazy to me. Yes, the Jan 6 riots were bad and certainly embarrassing. No, I don't think that a bunch of MAGA morons running around in the capitol is a serious threat to our democracy. At the time, I just thought it was more pathetic than anything else. We have a freaking military to safeguard against these kinds of things. But if I said that in public then I'd probably be called some kind of X-ist. Meanwhile, the BLM protests last summer changed my life pretty drastically. The dystopian free speech crackdown is still ongoing. My old college town got completely boarded up. Literally every major city in the US experienced violent unrest for months. And the craziest part? You STILL aren't allowed to talk about this without being called an X-ist or being ostracized. One event was just one day, and I only experienced it through the news, and it was literally a bunch of idiots running around for less than an afternoon. The other crippled US cities for months, prompted a wave of censorship, and inflamed social tensions like I have never seen before. But no, the first one is the threat to democracy, because my media overlords told me so. I'm aware that this probably isn't a very popular opinion, please know that I don't mean it in ill will. I just think it's kind of absurd that we can freak out and denounce one thing but not even criticize the other.

blacksqr 5y ago
The Reichstag Fire only lasted two and a half hours, nobody was killed or hurt, and life in the city of Berlin was not interrupted at all.
psyc 5y ago
I stopped reading at "almost succeeded". Maybe the rest of the article is good, but I'm so turned off by sophistry.
- uejfiweun 5y ago
  Yeah. I feel like the media doesn't realize it, but their spell is completely broken for many people. I'm now hyper-aware of all the disingenuous arguments and lies they put out. I guess this is what happens when you staff your newsroom with only young college leftists and allow them to bully the sane people out.