CARTER RANT:

Carter was our first neoliberal president. Carter is frequently referred to as a failed president because of his management blunder.  I think his blunders are quite monumental and irredeemable, but in this case I am referring to ideological blunders. Unfortunately, they were all planned and executed quite well. He paved the way for Reagan and ultimately Clinton, NAFTA, IMF/World Bank/WTO, repeal of Glass-Stegall and all the rest of this hellish nightmare we live with. 

CARTER RANT: 

Neoliberal ideology first gained a foothold in the 1970s with Carter’s deregulation of the economy and the appointment of monetarist economist, Paul Volcker, to the Federal Reserve. Carter was the first neoliberal president. He made fiscal conservatism the bipartisan alternative to the Welfare State. The neoliberal "revolution" did immense harm to working people. The move toward "free trade" did workers here no good, as manufacturing began to flee our shores for low-wage havens abroad. Incomes began to flow upward. We see neoliberalism as a political response to capital's quest for restored profits beginning in the mid-1970s. Neoliberalism won the day on his watch. The deregulatory philosophy embraced by Carter came to full flower under Reagan and was overdosed with steroids under Clinton

DEREGULATION:

Jimmy Carter got the ball rolling. One of the first tenants of neoliberalism is deregulation. He first deregulated the airline industry followed by trucking, the railroad industries, oil, telecommunications, and natural gas. H...e set it in motion which made Reagan's deregulation easier because he could point to Carter. The deregulation movement started when Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Later, as it spread from energy to trucking to telecommunications and finally, in the Clinton years, to financial services, the rallying cry was the same: Less regulation, more growth. 

Take oil deregulation, first, he announced gradual decontrol of oil prices and the phasing out of the government allocation system. Full decontrol was scheduled to take place in the spring of 1981, Reagan upon taking office lifted controls ...almost immediately, and thus receiving credit for what was mostly the action of his predecessor. They deregulated natural gas in 1979.  It was the Carter Administration that also pushed the antitrust suit against AT&T. The Carter Administration also gave greater power to the Federal Reserve System through the Depository Institutions and Monetary Control Act (DIDMCA) of 1980 which otherwise was a necessary first step in ending the harmful New Deal restrictions placed upon financial institutions. However, Carter actually made it easier for Reagan to take the actions he did.

CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY

The last national stand was for the Consumer Protection Agency. The progressives, led by Nader, put everything they had on that. It was lost because Carter, although he campaigned on it, did not lift a ...finger compared to what he did to deregulate natural gas. It was lost it by 20 votes in the House, although they had a two-thirds majority in the Senate waiting for it. That was the real beginning of the decline. With the loss of the Consumer Protection Agency came the loss of Ralph Nader. Nader was the Consumer Protection Agency. That’s where and how he operated. The take down of Ralph Nader was a concerted and coordinated effort between the corporations, the media and the administration of Jimmy Carter. Former U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho taught the Democrats, starting in 1979, during the Carter Administration, when he was head of the House Campaign Finance Committee, to start raising big-time money from corporate interests, and they did. The more money they raised the less interested they were in any of these popular issues.

VOLCKER: 

In our era, there are basically two economic systems: 1) Social Democracy; 2) Laissez Faire Capitalism. Social Democracy runs on Keynesianism and Fiscal Policy, Laissez Faire Capitalism runs on Milton Friedmanism and Monetarist Policy. This basically shifts the policy from creating jobs to containing inflation. You can’t overthrow the economic system without changing the economic theory and that means the replacing the head of the Federal Reserve. Carter overthrew the economic system. President Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volcker to chair the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Volcker, under the guise of fighting inflation, immediately began to snuff the life out of working class communities by forcing interest rates up to nearly 20 percent. Volcker put it even more bluntly: “The standard [of living] of the average American has to decline. What Carter began, Reagan completed, firing the air traffic controllers and putting the nail in labor's coffin. Finally, Carter eliminated the program that gave free second helpings of milk to 1.4 million needy schoolchildren who got free meals in school. Creating the attitude that set the precedent for Reagan to redefine catsup as a vegetable (:^) maybe that last one was a stretch).

RUTH CARTER STAPLETON/CHRISTIAN RIGHT: 

Carter was the source of the rise of the Christian right (his endless public pronouncements of his faith and his sister's leadership in the actual Christian right gave the movement a new legitimacy). ... A preview of political developments occurred at a famous charismatics Kansas City conference when Ruth Carter Stapleton, the charismatic Baptist healing evangelist, helped the charismatic to side with the "born-again" politics of her brother, President Jimmy Carter. The president's letter, which was read to the Kansas City conference, not only brought the crowd to its feet but brought presidential politics into the evangelical religious arena. This lesson was well learned by Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, who openly courted evangelicals and charismatics in his quest for the White House

AFGHANISTAN/MUJAHEDDIN: 

Carter started the covert CIA operation in Afghanistan, rallying the mujaheddin to fight the Soviets which would bring the Saudis, and Saudi cash and OsamaNouvel Observateur [1], Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, revealed that the CIA had secretly operated in Afghanistan to undermine the regime in Kabul since July 1979, that is to say, five months before the Soviet invasion. Indeed, it was on July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive to provide secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. Carter sent military aid to mujaheddin to fight the leftist government with full knowledge that it would prompt a Soviet invasion. This decision of the Carter Administration in 1979 to intervene and destabilize Afghanistan is the root cause of Afghanistan's destruction as a nation. The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention.

CARTER DOCTRINE: 

Carter also enunciated the Carter Doctrine. This was the first step toward the Bush Doctrine, and I’ll just be damned if it didn’t require a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – amazing, isn’t it?. Carter enacted Presidential... Directive 59, switch to a counter-force strategy, shift in nuclear policy from deterrence to one of a first-strike which stated that the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf region. “The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world's exportable oil. The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Straits of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world's oil must flow. The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil. This situation demands careful thought, steady nerves, and resolute action, not only for this year but for many years to come. It demands collective efforts to meet this new threat to security in the Persian Gulf and in Southwest Asia. It demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who are concerned with global peace and stability. And it demands consultation and close cooperation with countries in the area which might be threatened.”

NICARAGUA: 

During Carter, in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas threw out Anastasio Somoza? Carter told them they had to retain the National Guard, Somoza's elite band of US-trained psychopathic killers. The Sandinistas said no. So Carter ordered ...the CIA to bring up military trainers and torturers running the Argentine death squads to train a force of Nicaraguan, the contras. EL SAVADOR: In October 1979, a coup by reformist officers, the reformers were outmaneuvered, so they resigned en masse. 10,000 were subsequently killed in 1980. Carter ignored pleas from Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero to not send arms to the junta who were massacring many hundreds of peasant leaders, trade unionists, priests, human rights workers and other dissidents. He continued even after Romero was assassinated with the shooting under orders from top Salvadoran general. The Carter Administration sent millions in aid and riot equipment to the Salvadoran military, dispatched US trainers. Carter Administration continued to push this line throughout 1980 until the rape and murder of four Mary-knoll nuns in December

I'm almost finished. I'm not sure he could have done anything on energy, the corporations own the "narrative". I agree that there may not be anything a politician can do, but here is where it breaks down for me. The liberal/progressives ...have the people behind them and they sell out every time. They don't intend to do anything different. It's hard to look at Carter's record and conclude that he planned to anything other than what he did. For example, Nader and the Consumer Protection Agency is the best think that happened to the US and Nader and his Attorneys had the people behind them and Carter took him down - he was the political side. You can find film of Carter publicly ridiculing Nader, when Carter could have supported him. The people would have been behind him, but the corporations needed to shut it down and it always takes a democrat to do that.

TIMOR/INDONESIA/MOROCCAN/TURKEY:

Carter presided over the dispatch of arms to Indonesia, fresh from its invasion of East Timor, which makes him a sponsor of genocide in Asia. Carter, who came to office in early 1977, not long after Indonesia invaded and annexed the tiny island nation of East Timor, increased military aid to the Indonesian dictatorship by 80%, Most of the 200,000 East Timorese deaths occurred during the Carter years. He increased military aid to the Moroccan, whose forces invaded its southern neighbor. He fought Congress to restore military aid to Turkey, Cyprus in 1974. All three in violation UN Security Council. 

ZAIRE/MORROCCAN: 

The people of Zaire rebelled against Mobutu Sese Seko. Carter ordered the U.S. air force to fly in Moroccan troops to save the regime. VIETNAM: Carter declined to give aid to Vietnam for reconstruction replied that there was no special obligation "the destruction was mutual."

ISRAEL/SOUTH AFRICA NUKE TEST: 

Carter ordered evidence of joint South African-Israeli nuclear test be covered up. 

KOREA POLICE ACTION: 

In May 1980, pro-democracy protesters seized South Korean city of Kwangju, protesting U.S. - backed dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan. Carter's envoy advised the South Korean military to hit back hard, and it did on May 17, 1980, killing at least 1,000. The White House instructed the local US military commander to release a South Korean force from border duty to attack the demonstrators. Dictator Syngman Rhee had made similar requests, but Eisenhower had refused. 

KHMER ROUGE: 

Carter Administration that restored the Khmer Rouge to military health after the Vietnamese kicked them out of power in Cambodia. 

IRAN: 

Carter supported Shah of Iran to the end. The dictator ordered forces to fire onto thousands of unarmed demonstrators. Carter dismissed anger at the 1953 U.S.-led overthrow constitutional government, was "ancient history,"

MARCOS/ZIA/FAUD/HARKIN/INDIAN OCEAN/SALT II: 

Strong supporter of Fernando Marcos, Pakistani General Zia al Huq, Saudi King Faud. He blocked human rights legislation initiated by Tom Harkin. He increased U.S. military spending, militarized ...the Indian Ocean, withdrew the SALT II Treaty from the Senate before they even took a vote: 

ISRAEL/PALESTINE: 

Carter opposed Palestinian statehood. He refused to meet Palestinian leaders. He dramatically increased military aid to Begin even after Israel violated the annex to Camp David Accord resuming settlements on West Bank. Carter refused to enforce the treaty. He dramatically increased military aid to Egyptian regime of Anwar Sadat.

 

1979 CAMP DAVID PEACE ACCORDS: 

Egypt is, by far, the largest population block in the Middle East. You cannot have a Arab resistance or even an Arab renaissance without Egypt. To make peace with only Egypt was a calculated strategic move by both the US and Israel. Historically, what Washington always really feared is Arab nationalism, not crackpot self-made jihadis. Arab nationalism is intrinsically, viscerally, opposed to the 1979 Camp David peace accords, which have neutralized Egypt and left Israel with a free iron hand to proceed with its slow strangulation of Palestine;

JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (JSOC): 

JSOC was formed and funded in the wake of the 1979 hostage rescue debacle in Iran. In the 80's while JSOC was forming as a coordinating command like all these coordinating elements that receive truckloads of money, it grew into a kind of bureaucratic empire. In terms of scale and scope this may well be the most horrific military apparatus in the history of the planet.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL: 

Carter vetoed consecutive UN Security Council against South Africa. Carter took American corporate interests. He participated in the erosion of the UN and the destruction of the New International Economic (and Information) Order. In the late 1970s there was optimism at the UN, reforming agendas such as the report of the Brandt Commission, which called for radical transformation of the world economic order, Carter undercut that whole initiative for readjustment of the economic relationship of North and South which then, came to nought: 

YEMEN: 

In 1979, in an absurd episodes of the Cold War. In March, South Yemeni forces, in support of some North Yemeni guerrillas, shelled some North Yemeni government positions. In response, Carter ordered the aircraft carrier Constellatio...n and a flotilla of warships to the Arabian Sea as a show of force. Bypassing approval of the US Congress, the administration rushed nearly $499 million worth of modern weaponry to North Yemen, including 64 M-60 tanks, 70 armored personnel carriers, and 12 F-5E aircraft. Included were an estimated 400 American advisers and 80 Taiwanese pilots for the sophisticated warplanes that no Yemeni knew how to fly. This gross overreaction to a local conflict led to widespread international criticism. Indeed, the Soviets were apparently unaware of the border clashes and the fighting died down within a couple of weeks. Development groups were particularly critical of this US attempt to send such expensive high-tech weaponry to a country with some of the highest rates of infant mortality, chronic disease and illiteracy in the world.

GENERAL MILITARY: 

He was a supporter of the Vietnam War until its end. He continued to support regimes that engaged in imprisonment of dissenters, torture, and mass murder: in the Philippines, in Iran, in Nicaragua, and in Indonesia. 

MILITARY SPENDING: 

He promised to end the sale of arms to repressive regimes, but bulk of the sales continued. In his campaign he said, “we can reduce present defense expenditures by about 5 to 7 billion dollars annually." But his first budget proposed not a decrease but an increase of $10 billion for the military. Despite talk of "human rights" abroad, he remained within the historic political boundaries of the American system, protecting corporate wealth and power, maintaining a huge military machine that drained the national wealth, allying the United States with right-wing tyrannies abroad. Carter was elected in 1976 with a promise to cut the defense budget. Instead, he initiated both an expansion of the defense budget and also an expansion of U.S. influence into the Indian Ocean. It appeared on the surface that with the blessing of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, the traditional U.S. search for unilateral domination would be abandoned. But…the 1970s were a period in which a major "intellectual counterrevolution" was mustered, to mobilize conservative opinion with the aid of vast amounts of money…. By the time SALT II was signed in 1979, Carter had consented to significant new weapons programs and arms budget increases (reversing his campaign pledge)

And this is what we call the least culpable of our war criminals. I must say that since Carter has been out of office he seems to have been working on his redemption. I give him points for his Apartheid book and even bigger points for catching a lawsuit on it If he acquits himself well on the law suit. Now we need to add up all the people he has killed – but let’s just say that it is too any to count and enough to fry in hell. 

Oh yea, no one seems to recall that he led a campaign to free Lieutenant Calley [of My Lai infamy] but that was when Carter was governor of Georgia."