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> it really feels like I'm grieving a death. Jimmy Carter's funeral a few days before Trump was inaugurated really felt like the funeral for America. The mora

> it really feels like I'm grieving a death. Jimmy Carter's funeral a few days before Trump was inaugurated really felt like the funeral for America. The moral gulf between Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump is just so vast. To imagine that the US elected someone with the integrity of Jimmy Carter in 1976... and then elected someone who is as morally bankrupt as Trump is in 2024. > there is simply no coming back from the fact that it's been laid bare how quickly and easily vast swaths of our political leadership would sell out to completely destroy our Constitutional principles. Indeed. Well said. I doubt we'll ever see the likes of a Carter again in the Whitehouse.

AnimalMuppet 5mo ago
But why was Carter elected? Partly it was disgust at Watergate. Could we see someone of integrity elected as a result of a backlash of disgust at Trump? Yes, we could. Will the Democrats run such a person? I don't have much hope.
- lazide 5mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidentia... Carter won basically because Ford pardoned Nixon.
idiotsecant 5mo ago
Carter was basically the prototypical example of a politician whose good intentions eclipsed their ability to govern. You need to be a little bit of a high functioning sociopath to be an effective leader. The key is properly controlling those high functioning sociopaths by training them that doing good things is in their best interests.
- epistasis 5mo ago
  Say what you will about Carter, he kept the Strait of Hormuz open through his strength. He governed well. It was inflation that did him in, not his governance. Trump maganed to hand the Stair of Hormuz over to Iran, and instigate massive inflation personally. The US is laughed at or ignored or treated as a problem on the world stage now, rather than being the leader. However, the more sociopathic in society see Trump as strong, for some weird reason, and Carter as weak, for some weird reason. Very strange.
  - UncleOxidant 5mo ago
    > It was inflation that did him in, not his governance And that was mostly hanging around from earlier oil shocks and the spending on Vietnam. He did the right thing by choosing Paul Volker to be Fed chair. In Carter's interview of Volker he asked what he would do to bring down inflation. Volker replied that he would significantly raise interest rates. Volker figured that he didn't get the job based on this honest response and was surprised when Carter picked him.
  - idiotsecant 5mo ago
    I don't think the people who see trump as strong are sociopaths. They are people who desperately need the structure of heirarchy. They are as comfortable at the bottom as they would be at the top, so long as there is someone below them. The heirarchy is only valid so long as the people above them are good and strong and the people beneath them are contemptible and weak. The very highest member of the heirarchy being weak throws the whole thing into doubt, and must be avoided at all costs. The leader is strong and wise and we must ensure that everyone else thinks so. The sociopaths (at least the high functioning ones) are simply doing what they can to climb the ladder.

AnimalMuppet 5mo ago

But why was Carter elected? Partly it was disgust at Watergate. Could we see someone of integrity elected as a result of a backlash of disgust at Trump? Yes, we could. Will the Democrats run such a person? I don't have much hope.

lazide 5mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidentia... Carter won basically because Ford pardoned Nixon.

idiotsecant 5mo ago

Carter was basically the prototypical example of a politician whose good intentions eclipsed their ability to govern. You need to be a little bit of a high functioning sociopath to be an effective leader. The key is properly controlling those high functioning sociopaths by training them that doing good things is in their best interests.

epistasis 5mo ago
Say what you will about Carter, he kept the Strait of Hormuz open through his strength. He governed well. It was inflation that did him in, not his governance. Trump maganed to hand the Stair of Hormuz over to Iran, and instigate massive inflation personally. The US is laughed at or ignored or treated as a problem on the world stage now, rather than being the leader. However, the more sociopathic in society see Trump as strong, for some weird reason, and Carter as weak, for some weird reason. Very strange.
- UncleOxidant 5mo ago
  > It was inflation that did him in, not his governance And that was mostly hanging around from earlier oil shocks and the spending on Vietnam. He did the right thing by choosing Paul Volker to be Fed chair. In Carter's interview of Volker he asked what he would do to bring down inflation. Volker replied that he would significantly raise interest rates. Volker figured that he didn't get the job based on this honest response and was surprised when Carter picked him.
- idiotsecant 5mo ago
  I don't think the people who see trump as strong are sociopaths. They are people who desperately need the structure of heirarchy. They are as comfortable at the bottom as they would be at the top, so long as there is someone below them. The heirarchy is only valid so long as the people above them are good and strong and the people beneath them are contemptible and weak. The very highest member of the heirarchy being weak throws the whole thing into doubt, and must be avoided at all costs. The leader is strong and wise and we must ensure that everyone else thinks so. The sociopaths (at least the high functioning ones) are simply doing what they can to climb the ladder.