Charlie Kirk recently praised the late Jimmy Carter. In a recent post, he wrote:
“Jimmy Carter represents a type of Democrat that no longer exists. Christian, loving husband, and a true patriot. He was objectively an awful president, but he loved America and never intentionally tried to do it harm. America could use more Democrats like him.”
He may have been a loving husband, and was indeed an awful president, everything else Charlie Kirk said about him is wrong. While I agree with Charlie on many issues, appreciate his work in college campuses, and the role he took in getting young people to the polls, he got this wrong. He is not alone; however, many conservatives have expressed similar sentiments.
During the Carter Administration, I was a soldier in the US Army. After my basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, and advanced training at Fort Lee, VA,* I did a tour of duty in Augsburg, West Germany, in a field artillery unit with nuclear capabilities, followed by a tour of duty at Fort Campbell, KY, in the 101st Airbourne Division. While they didn’t call it DEI, we had mandatory 40-hour race relations classes. The men conducting the class were vile and anti-White. A Green Beret officer, forced to attend, walked out in disgust.
In the wake of these classes, race relations deteriorated. As a 19-year-old, I concluded that destroying race relations was the goal. During a battalion formation, we had to listen to a delegation from the Defense Department explaining how vastly inferior we were to the Soviets and Eastern Bloc nations. I asked why they don’t tell Congress and the President about this. My question was never answered, but a senior NCO told me, “Shurtleff, why don’t you chase German girls, drink beer, do your time, and don’t worry about these things.” Years later, I learned that Carter’s National Security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski- the father of Mika – advised Carter that if the Soviets attack NATO, let them have half. It was a surprise that he was happy to give half of NATO to the Soviets.
When I left Boston for military service, renting a decent one-room bedroom apartment in my neighborhood was $125 to $175. When I left the Army in 1980 and returned home, the cost of a one-bedroom apartment had tripled. While all the blame cannot be laid upon Carter, his economic policies had led to double-digit inflation and economic stagnation. The term “stagflation” was popularized during Carter’s term.
While Jimmy Carter was considered an outsider, he was a charter member of the Trilateral Commission, an organization dedicated to a global government, and an “America Last” policy. Carter filled his cabinet with both Trilateral Commission and Council of Foreign Relations members. Carter’s international policy, led by Zbigniew Brezinski, was an unmitigated disaster for the U.S. and its allies. Carter betrayed the Shah of Iran, which led to a takeover of radical Islamists and the taking of American hostages. We are still paying for that disaster. The Carter Administration supported sanctions on Rhodesia, helping communist terrorist Robert Mugabe into power. Carter betrayed Somoza of Nicaragua, paving the way for the communist Sandinista takeover of that once vibrant nation. Perhaps his most destructive foreign policy was the giving of the Panama Canal to dictator Omar Torrijos
The treaty that gave away to Panama also gave millions of dollars used to pay off US bankers.
Despite serving as a US Navy officer, President Carter slashed the US Military budget while opposing the B-1 bomber, the MX missile, and the development of the neutron bomb. He also supported the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union while acknowledging that the Soviets had violated the SALT I treaty. He also vetoed the construction of new aircraft carriers. As mentioned above, his military embraced an early version of D.E.I. with mandatory race relations classes, which helped to erode morale further
Carter’s domestic policies were not much better. His support of an increase in the minimum wage led to high unemployment, mainly for Blacks. While promising not to raise taxes for working families, he promptly supported tax policies that led to high inflation that harmed working families. He was an enemy of the domestic production of oil. His windfall profit tax on crude oil led to a huge increase in the cost of gasoline. He supported a tax on imported oil and a tax increase on gasoline. These two measures were thankfully defeated.
While calling himself a “Born Again” Christian, he supported abortion while president and “same-sex” marriage in later years. He and all of the other ex-presidents came out in support of the job-killing and unconstitutional NAFTA agreement. He was a diehard Democrat, never wavering his support for the destructive policies of the Democrat Party. His last political act was voting for Kamala Harris.
The late Congressman Larry McDonald ran an open letter to Carter in the New York Times listing his disastrous policies and concluded, “You either know what you are doing, or you don’t.” It is my opinion, based on the facts, that he did indeed know what he was doing. He wasn’t a patriot who never intended to harm America, and based on his support for abortion, “same-sex marriage, and the entire agenda of the Democrat Party, I would have to seriously question his commitment to Jesus Christ.
In 1980, Gary Allen authored a detailed article on Carter entitled “The Background and Record of Jimmy Carter.”
