Peloni: In the second half of this Morning Briefing, Schanzer interviews Ken Stein who was a former staffer and longtime, close associate of Jimmy Carter until 2006 when Carter in fact advocated on behalf of terrorism against Israel. Stein provides an interesting perspective on Carter, emphasizing that Carter continuously chose his positions such that he would have a pivotal role to play in any negotiations which might follow.
Jonathan Schanzer’s analysis of the present situation ‘on the ground” in the Middle East is spot on. Ken Stein’s sympathetic account of Carter is what you might expect from a former Carter aide. But he is very wrong about Carter’s good intentions, and does not face up to his anti-Semitism and hostility to Israel. He also does not face up to Carter’s corruption and the corruption of his chief advisors. This is a man who profited personally from his political activities, before, during and after his presidency. Jack Anderson, although a left-leaning pro-Democrat columnist, had the integrity to expose Carter’s corruption and that of his chief advisors. Carter even had connections when the arch-embezzler Robert Vesco after Vesco was granted asylum in Castro’s Cuba.
He’s a Democrat before he’s a Jew though even he had his limits. Took him long enough. But, I get it. In 1980, I had just turned 21 and it was the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in. Even though I was an anarcho-Communist, at the time, I was a registered Democrat and I voted for Carter as did everyone else I knew – and for the same reason. I thought it was 5 minutes to midnight and Reagan would bring fascism to America. I would have voted for a compromised candidate with the cognitive abilities of a houseplant to keep him out. Fortunately, the rest of the electorate had a few more brain cells and practically every state voted for Reagan who also won a landslide in the popular vote. Sound familiar?
It’s a shame pollsters and political scientists at the time didn’t ask the question of that handful of us who voted for the schmuck, did we vote for him because we actually supported him or just as a protest vote against Reagan, though I recall the exact same hysteria about every Republican candidate for the last 100 years, at least.
In 1976, I was too young to vote for the chairman of the Communist Party USA, Gus Hall, like Obama’s future CIA chief, John Brennan.
I’d be curious to know if Carter got any more votes on the merits in 1980 than Kamala Harris did during the primaries. Somehow, I doubt it. 😀
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“You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” – Honest Abe Lincoln
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Just started reading “The Chief Rabbi’s Funeral: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Antisemitic Riot” by Scott D. Seligman. University of Nebraska Press. 2024.
The Pogromists had the Democratic Party machine in their pocket. It was in New York City in 1902!
Kind of weakens the usual argument that there was a time when it made sense for Jews to be Dems. Got it as ebook on Amazon. Barnes and Noble’s Nook and other platforms have it, too.
Amazon’s a little cheaper.
So in 1979 President Carter helps in the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and let’s the Ayatollah Khomeini in. The Ayatollahs and their buddies take over the US Embassy – take all the Americans hostage – a declaration of war against the US -and Carter picks his nose for the next two years and does nothing. Nothing. Carter was in office three years when this happened. No excuses.
The Ayatollahs say from 1979 to today that they will destroy Israel and kill all the
Jews. Then we will destroy America, they said. Carter knew this from day one. So did this guy unless he was alone in a cave somewhere. He was in fact a professor at Emory University ion Georgia.
This guy finally figures all this out in 2006 – that is 27 years later in so far as Carter is an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish Grinning Dunce.
Reagan was a patriot and Carter was a smug, sanctimonious jackass. Carter to the day he died last week understood nothing about Islam. He didn’t want to.
He’s just making excuses for him. How could he not know that he was a rabid antisemite all along? Not worth listening to.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/meir-soloveichik/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-years/