Jimmy Carter's chat with Maureen Dowd down left me profoundly... profoundly disappointed.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Former President Jimmy Carter spoke out on the current President in an interview out last night with The New York Times‘ Maureen Dowd.

As Dowd writes, Carter sounded “eager” to work with Donald Trump on North Korea. He said he would even be willing to go there himself:

He said he has talked to Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, who is a good friend, including at Zbigniew Brzezinski’s funeral when McMaster asked to sit next to Carter, but has so far gotten a negative response.

“I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” he said.


https://www.mediaite.com/online/jimmy-carter-the-medias-been-harder-on-trump-than-any-other-president/

God bless Jimmy Carter . I hope he lives to be as old as Methuselah but our children and children's children have to live in the nation that Donald Trump and his enablers have bequeathed us; a nation that is divided by race, gender, class, religion, nationality, and orientation. Donald Trump must never be normalized. Either the ideals we hold dear like pluralism, the rule of law, majority rule/individual rights, and the sanctity of the ballot are aberrant or he is.

[NightWatcher]

1. He's offering his assistance to prevent a nuclear war. What a jerk.

I'm glad that people who have nothing in common with that shitgibbon are offering to help him. They are not doing it to help shitgibbon but to save millions of people who'd die in war.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Agreed

[underpants]

3. I agree. He's doing domestic diplomacy here

He knows Trump will hear about this and it could help Carter get involved in some way with the NK issue. It may not be directly or publicly but he could get into the mix in some way and attacking Trump isn't going to help that happen.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. I will go out on a limb.

If Donald Trump accepts his "help" I will never post here again.

[BootinUp]

11. Lol. Come on. Lighten up a little. Nt

[kacekwl]

14. There are others involved besides president moron.

So there's that.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. That's like saying if someone went in the wayback machine

That's like saying if someone went in the wayback machine and was nice to Charlie Manson he wouldn't have ordered his family to kill innocent people.

Trump is not going to be dissuaded from doing awful and destructive things because somebody is nice to him:

"It’s like being Charlie Manson’s foxtrot instructor. You go out there, you teach him a few moves, and you think, ‘Hey, look at that, he can learn the foxtrot.’ And the next thing you know, he’s trying to put a pen in your eye, because he’s Charlie Manson."

-Mike Murphy

[Hortensis]

41. MAUREEN DOWD, anyone!? Mz. Poison Pen will leave any

decent person depressed.

Over the decades, I've often swung between admiration for Carter's good deeds borne of sincere religion well applied and strong aggravation at gaffs arising from arrogance and bad judgement. He's big hearted, humble, arrogant, inspirational, small minded, arrogant, and all too fallible. In some ways he reminds me of Bernie Sanders without the oratorical excellence, and for both 2016 was absolutely not the time to indulge resentment toward Hillary Clinton, whatever it sprang from.

But, get irritated or inspired by Carter directly, for goodness' sakes, don't view him through Dowd's toxic interpretations. I don't care who she has her knives out for, I never read her anymore, bad for one's health. And understanding.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

42. I come out of the same religious tradition as Jimmy Carter so I can empathize with him.

I appreciate his moral rectitude but there is a point where moral rectitude can metamorphosize into self righteousness. Maureen Dowd did put her own spin on their interview with the intention to inflame . That's her modus operandi. That being said, he expressed sentiments that left me shaking my head, especially his sentiments on Trump's press coverage, our standing in the world under Trump, Trump's role in inflaming racial tensions, and Russia's meddling in our election.

And since I come out of the same religious tradition as the 39th president I know "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

If I expressed any of those sentiments on DU I would be pilloried. I might even be banned.



.

[Hortensis]

43. Good post and really pings. I don't believe it's his religion,

which teaches a humility he does truly seem to live in other aspects of his life.

His uber-righteousness politically and seemingly all too frequent convictions that he is right and others are all wrong remind me very much of Bernie Sanders. In both cases it has nothing to do with a religion they do not share, but their personalities.

In truth, much as I respect Carter's good works, I believe if I understood as much about people like him then as I do now, I'd have voted for him in the general far less happily. But we didn't have the internet then and what you saw on ABC, NBC or CBS evening news and read in, in our case, the LA Times, was about it.

In the primary I liked Scoop Jackson even though I was farther left. Don't even remember why Carter didn't make my list, but now I suspect he must have sent out the wrong signals.Then when Scoop got out and Jerry Brown in, for what seems like a week and a half I remember clearly that I got excited for Jerry (I was a Californian). Then it was Carter.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

44. Ha. I liked Scoop Jackson but when Jerry Brown got in the race I supported him.

I was a senior in high school during his 1976 race and Rosalyn Carter came to our high school in North Miami Beach to campaign for him. I live in California now and Jerry Brown has proven to be a very good administrator. It's a shame he isn't ten years younger. Back to the 39th president, Jimmy Carter was a very conservative president for a Democrat.

His themes of a "government as good as its people" and "I will never lie to you" would be great themes in 2020 against Trump. and he did rid the Democratic party of George Wallace and showed southerners could be forward thinking when it comes to race.

Now the bad. If I expressed any of the sentiments he expressed in his Dowd interview here I would Be lambasted. Trump has lowered American prestige dramatically in the world, Carter's waxing about an emergent China and India and a reemerging Russia notwithstanding. Trump has done everything he can to inflame racial tension. The Russians did meddle in our election to benefit Donald Trump. And Trump is getting the negative coverage he deserves. There can be no whitewashing.

In any case North Korea is not going to give up their nukes, any more than a man living out in the woods, one hundred miles from the nearest constable, is going to give up his rifle if his neighbor is threatening to kill him.

[Hortensis]

47. Ha! also. Glad to hear you think Jerry's doing good. We still

read our allotment of LA Times "free" articles, and pick up a free temporary subscription whenever we qualify, but don't follow in detail.

Darn, though. Because of you I'm going to go read that Dowd piece. We take the NYT these years, but last time I clicked on one of her pieces was by accident.

As for that last, so agree. Good grief.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

26. Wow... seems a bit extreme!

[underpants]

27. Stop that silly talk

Carter is keeeping the door open.

[rock]

45. I believe you're perfectly safe

Trump does not want help, not no way, not no how!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

46. Trump's itching for a war to raise his dismal approval ratings.

But North Korea is not Grenada or even Iraq.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. "The media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that Ive known about."

Trump is a monster. Should Stalin have gotten better press ?

"The the media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that I've known about."

If I posted that my post would would be hidden and I would be roasted here.

[BootinUp]

13. Haven't read it, but I assume

there is more context.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. Here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/jimmy-carter-lusts-trump-posting.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fmaureen-dowd&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection


There's also the suggestion Jared can bring peace to the Middle East the suggestion that Russian meddling in our election on behalf of Donald Trump was not determinative.

[BootinUp]

18. Can't get through the paywall. Nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. I will PM it to you.

[BootinUp]

23. Bottom line

Dowd is shit stirring.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

28. I have to agree with you there.

[cwydro]

5. This.

[JI7]

9. Yup. Mcmaster is the one that reached out to him

And probably told him he had to say something like this to have a chance to help.

[kacekwl]

12. Relax people , it seems as this moron president is going

to be here for a while (much to my dismay) but everyone here is bitching about how he will start a war with NK and want to know how he can be stopped. I believe President Carter is trying to bring some sanity to this issue. Stop criticizing someone because they dare to utter a word you disagree with. Seriously if Dennis Rodman could help I would welcome it.

[workinclasszero]

29. Agree

Trying to prevent a nuclear war and the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions far outweighs having to do it through Twitler.

Once again Jimmy Carter shows he is a peacemaker and a child of God.

[mountain grammy]

32. Agree!

[Raine]

48. Absolutely...

I see this as good thing!

[Irish_Dem]

6. Would helping Hitler for the same reason be OK? nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I can think of no reason for "helping" Hitler.

[kacekwl]

15. If it would have stopped him

from killing millions then yes.

[enough]

21. Helping to keep Hitler out of a war would have been OK. NT

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Franz von Papen thought he could tame Hitler and ended up in the dock at Nuremberg.

[Tobin S.]

10. I think Carter sees a great danger here with Trump and North Korea and he's just trying to help.

Any kind words directed at Trump are an attempt to open the door on diplomatic action with North Korea. I don't think Carter truly endorses Trump on any issue. Earlier this year Carter said that America currently has no functioning democracy.

[BootinUp]

17. I think Carter talking about NK is good.

To attack the current admin while doing it, doesn't emphasize the same thing.

[mcar]

24. People we admire are not always going to say exactly what we want them too

Plus, it's Dowd, the hack.

President Carter is a humanitarian. If he has to work with the Dotard to secure peace, so be it.

[monmouth4]

25. Pres. Carter knows the donald needs to be stroked and played to. I truly think this is what is

going on. If Carter appears to side with trump on this, an agreement to no war may be the result IMO..

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

30. Sure, do something or do nothing.

Jimmy is no fool. And Trump is way out of his league but, Trump sits at the seat of power and dealing with it is no easy task. Putin also weighed in with what Trump would call having said nice things about him. This isn't fair, now there there. It's about damage control with some preventive maintenance thrown in.

[saidsimplesimon]

31. The Dowd family has a "gene'

when it comes to party partisanship. sad

[mountain grammy]

33. I wouldn't second guess Jimmy Carter on this.

[crosinski]

34. Yeppers.

[Stargleamer]

35. He was/is a conservative Democrat. . .

and after Carter's term in office as president, we should never have believed that conservative Democrats won't majorly disappoint us. Not doing much in office for the most part, not trying to get us universal healthcare even though he had veto-proof majorities in both houses, bringing back draft registration, etc. were Carter's legacies. Another conservative Democrat--Bill Clinton--had his own: "Don't ask, Don't Tell", DOMA, "ending welfare as we know it", etc.

If we don't want to be disappointed, we need true progressives in office, not those who base their positions on whether they will get repercussions or not. Well within reason anyhow, as even Bernie knows that being for gun control would be too costly in Vermont. Still, to whatever extent we can, we need to avoid conservative positions and politicians, including Democratic ones.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. I am consistent

The only litmus test I currently have is no decent person , left, right, or center, should legitimize Trump and Trumpism.

[UTUSN]

37. I've been trying and trying with Jimmy since 1976 and always come crashing down

[DemocratSinceBirth]

38. He has redeeming qualities.

He's as honest as a politician or human being can be. He seems to have a faith in the American people.

[UTUSN]

39. I didn't say he doesn't have redeeming qualities. That's why I've kept trying.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

40. He's more conservative than we like to think he is.

That said his emphasis on human rights is a nice antidote to what we have now.