When Jimmy Carter Becomes the Democrats' Voice of Reason

Of all of the five living former Presidents, President Trump has surprisingly found his most loyal ally in Former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.  In a recent interview with The New York Times, President Carter admitted that the media has not treated any previous President as unfairly as they have treated President Trump.  In that same interview, he said that he doubted that Russia had any significant impact on the results of the 2016 Presidential Election.  Making such a statement amounts to heresy in today’s Democratic Party, as would his stance on abortion.     

 

President Carter’s election came in the middle of an “Era of Bad Feelings”.  At the time of America’s bicentennial, The Watergate scandal that prematurely ended the Nixon Presidency had destroyed the faith of many Americans in our political system.  They looked to the little-known Georgia Governor as a breath of fresh air.  While they did not use the phrase, many American people someone who could “drain the swamp” and thought they had found their man in James Earl Carter. 

 

However, the Carter Presidency did not provide Americans the peace and prosperity they had hoped for.  High inflation, the Iran Hostage Crisis, and an energy shortage plagued the Carter Presidency.  Prior to the election of President Obama, many conservatives cited Carter as the worst President in American history.  In addition, many historians rank the Carter Presidency as below average.  Tim Matheson, the actor who played Ronald Reagan in “Killing Reagan” put it best by saying “Carter was a lovely man but not a great President.”  As he sought a second term, President Carter faced a primary challenger in Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), whose reputation had been tarnished outside of Massachusetts and the Big Cities due to the Chappaquiddick incident.  In spite of this, JFK’s younger brother managed to carry 12 states and win nearly 40 percent of the popular vote in the Democratic Party Presidential Primaries.  The fight between Carter and Kennedy lasted all the way until the Convention.  Rather than support Carter in the general election, many liberals chose to support Independent Candidate John Anderson, a liberal Republican who had previously sought the Republican nomination.  Liberal TV producer Norman Lear, who voted for Anderson, recalls the 1980 Presidential Election as the only time he did not support the Democratic nominee for President; referring to the Carter Presidency as a “complete disaster.”  Ronald Reagan went on to win the 1980 Presidential Election, carrying 44 states and accumulating nearly 500 electoral votes. 

 

At 36 years and counting, Carter has had the longest Post-Presidency in American History.  Carter himself said “I can’t deny I’m a better ex-President than I was a president.”  In the high point of his Post-Presidency, Carter became involved with Habitat for Humanity, a Christian-based charity devoted to building affordable housing.  At age 93, Carter still plays an active role in the charity.  In the low point of his Post-Presidency, Carter made a trip to North Korea on behalf of then-President Bill Clinton to “negotiate” with dictator Kim Il-Sung; grandfather of the rogue regime’s current “dear leader.”  As we can see now, that trip did not pay off as North Korea remains a major national security threat to the United States nearly a quarter century later.  I guess all of that money we gave North Korea just wasn’t enough to force them to stop developing nuclear weapons. 

 

When Jimmy Carter becomes the voice of reason for the Democratic Party, it should immediately become clear how far the party has drifted off course.  Jimmy Carter has treated the President with more respect than many Republicans, including Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, both of whom have decided not to run for re-election next year.  Flake had long aspired to the role of Chief Conscientious Objector to the Trump Administration but that combined with his support for the Gang of Eight amnesty bill did not sit well with the voters in his home state of Arizona.  Polls showed him trailing his primary opponent Kelli Ward; who has aligned herself with the Trump agenda.  During his string of media appearances celebrating his new status as a rock star, the media could tried and failed to bait Senator Flake into saying that President Trump deserves impeachment.  Since Corker’s shackles came off after deciding not to run for re-election, he has emerged as a Trump critic; the two have gone at it several times on Twitter in recent weeks, with the President blasting Corker for his involvement in the Iran Nuclear Deal and Corker comparing the White House to an adult day care.  Every American should breathe a sigh of relief that Trump did not choose Corker as his running mate.  It looks Corker will be replaced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn; a reliable conservative and a supporter of the President’s.  As Ann Coulter pointed out, the retirement of Corker and Flake means that only nine of the fourteen Republican Senators who voted in favor of the Gang of Eight will remain in office after next year’s midterms.  Something tells me she will not rest until that number reaches zero.

 

While some Republicans may give the President headaches from time to time, those on the far left remain determined to remove him from office before his term expires.  Should they fail to make his Presidency meet the same fate as Richard Nixon’s, they hope that his Presidency will meet the same fate as Gerald Ford’s and George H.W. Bush’s.  They would hope to mount a primary challenger that will fracture the Republican party causing the Democrat to prevail in the general election.  Mark Cuban has indicated that he may challenge the President for the Republican nomination in the 2020 Presidential Election.  Cuban’s statement on Fox News’s “OBJECTified” earlier this week has given fuel to the media’s narrative of a Republican party in chaos.    

 

The Democrats’ long-term political strategy involves completely writing off the “basket of deplorables” and instead relying on the new electorate that has resulted from the 1965 Hart-Celler Act and the 1986 Amnesty in combination with the feminists and urban elites to put them over the top in Presidential Elections.  They hoped that whoever became President in 2016 would legalize all the DACA beneficiaries and sign “comprehensive immigration reform” in the mold of the Gang of Eight.  All of the Democratic Presidential candidates and many of the Republican Presidential candidates would have happily gone along with their scheme.  However, President Trump, as a wealthy self-funder who championed the phrases “America First” and “Build the Wall”, seems a lot less likely to enact policies that would result in the electoral suicide of his political party.  Since President Trump represents a clear and present danger to the Democrats’ long-term political strategy, they have decided that their short-term strategy requires opposing him at all costs; even if it means hurting their constituents in the process.  For an example of this, look no further than the tax reform bill.  A successful tax reform bill would give the President a “win”; which the Democrats know could potentially lead to his re-election.  After all, President Bill Clinton said “It’s the economy, stupid.”  No matter how much they may dislike President Trump’s personality and style, people will still support him if they get a pay raise.

 

I never thought I would say this, but if the Democrats want to do well in next year’s midterm elections, they need to listen to Jimmy Carter.  Continuing to support #TheResistance will only turn those in the middle off.  Jimmy Carter may be the last living Democrat who can actually appeal to the middle.