Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
On one issue, anyway. The former president, appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday, tore out, wadded up, and threw away one of the most prominent pages in the hymnal of the modern left; he argued that the Democrats should no longer be the party of abortion on demand. Quoth the Sage of Plains:
I never have believed that Jesus Christ would approve of abortions and that was one of the problems I had when I was president having to uphold Roe v. Wade and I did everything I could to minimize the need for abortions. I made it easy to adopt children for instance who were unwanted and also initiated the program called Women and Infant Children or WIC program that’s still in existence now. But except for the times when a mother’s life is in danger or when a pregnancy is caused by rape or incest I would certainly not or never have approved of any abortions.
...
I’ve signed a public letter calling for the Democratic Party at the next convention to espouse my position on abortion which is to minimize the need, requirement for abortion and limit it only to women whose life are in danger or who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest. I think if the Democratic Party would adopt that policy that would be acceptable to a lot of people who are now estranged from our party because of the abortion issue.
The politics aren't quite as clean as Carter suggests. The voters who might be more sympathetic towards Democrats if they cooled it on abortion (such as the blue-collar workers of the Midwest or the erstwhile Blue Dogs of the South), would probably need the party to walk back its broader agenda of social liberalism before they considered reconciliation. And the elite leadership of the Democratic Party (where you'll find a disproportionate number of people who think of abortion as a positive good instead of the usual centrist pablum about "a tragic choice") will absolutely never let it happen.
Still, it's nice to see the old man's characteristic disregard for the opinion of his peers be put to good use for once. Now if he could only get this worked up about a North Korean prison camp every once in a while ...
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Dec '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Not to minimize the horror of rape and incest - because I know survivors of both - but what bearing does the horror of the conception have on whether the unborn child is worthy of surviving? When there's a physical danger to a mother from carrying her baby to term, there's a necessary choice between which of the two lives to save (and sometimes it's a choice not between one or the other, but between one or both). When a child is conceived in horrific circumstances, I don't understand quite how destroying the child is somehow supposed to erase those horrific circumstances.
Jul '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
We spend so much time vexed at Carter that it's rare to have a chance to appreciate something he says. Good for him for not kowtowing to the leadership of his party on this. Any move away from unlimited abortion is a step in the right direction.
Oct '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
And renounce his Palestinian citizenship.
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
He was a dreadful president--just dreadful--but I've never been able to eliminate the suspicion that Jimmy Carter is in some ways very admirable. Quite why Carter chose to wait more than three decades after leaving office to announce that the Democratic Party ought to extend its regard for the little man to unborn children--where was Carter when the Democratic bigwigs refused the late pro-life governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, the right to address the Philadelphia convention? But still. There's a basic sense of human decency at work in the man.
Edited on March 30, 2012 at 8:04pmMay '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Carter has no credibility. Zero. This must be assumed to be an attempt to paint Democrats as less extreme is in the hope of making disillusioned Dems think twice before voting for Romney (or just staying home) in November.
Edited on March 30, 2012 at 8:15pmMay '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Is there a more generous soul on the face of the earth than Peter Robinson?
Peter Robinson: He was a dreadful president--just dreadful--but I've never been able to eliminate the suspicion that Jimmy Carter is in some ways very admirable. Quite why Carter chose to wait more than three decades after leaving office to announce that the Democratic Party ought to extend its regard for the little man to unborn children--where was Carter when the Democratic bigwigs refused the late pro-life governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, the right to address the Philadelphia convention? But still. There's a basic sense of human decency at work in the man. · 9 minutes ago
Edited 1 minute ago
Aug '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Is there really a difference between guys like Jimmy Carter and Mike Huckabee?
May '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
A few questions. If abortion is limited only to a victim of rape how would a woman go about getting an abortion? Would all she have to do is claim or alledge that she has been raped to get an abortion? What kind of evidence would need to be presented for a raped woman to have an abortion? I've never heard anybody explain how this would work. It seems like it would open the floodgates for false accusation. Rape isn't easy to prove. Would some kind of due process have to be involved first for a woman to get an abortion?
Mar '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Knock Knock Knockin' on heaven's door...
Jul '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Casey
Knock Knock Knockin' on heaven's door... · 2 minutes ago
I was going to mention the Grim Reaper, but You stole My thunder.
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
If Carter -- who at least appointed Volcker, began deregulation, believed in balanced budgets (though he wasn't able to produce one), and even (however belatedly) began the military buildup that Reagan accelerated -- was "dreadful," what word would you use to describe Obama? Does even the magnificent English language stretch that far?
Oct '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
I would argue that it's because retaining those exceptions makes the issue politically viable, and because those exceptions are very few and very far between. So ethically and morally (and logically) those exceptions don't make sense, but if allowing those exceptions were the means by which elective abortions were banned, the sacrifice would've been well worth saving the million+ who die each year. Otherwise, they all die.
Jan '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
If adopted by today's Democrats, this would be great news for society. On the other hand, a major position change like this will create problems for tomorrow's GOP: I've long contented that if/when the Democrats become more socially conservative, the GOP splits-up and many of the SoCons find themselves a new home. I've had numerous online discussions with SoCons and far too many of them disdain free markets, foreign trade, and other economic dynamics which create short-term pain yet are essential for growth.
Jun '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Peter Robinson: But still. There's a basic sense of human decency at work in the man. · 43 minutes ago
Edited 34 minutes ago
I used to believe in Carter's essential decency too, Peter. But then came his malicious attacks on the only decent country in the entire Middle East; his pathetic delusions about Kim Jong-Il; and worst of all, his allowing Michael Moore to sit in his box at the Democratic National Convention at the same time Moore was promoting his HateBush piece of garbage, Fahrenheit 9/11.
I'm glad Carter has spoken up for the rights of the unborn, but as they used to say about old Uncle Joe Stalin, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Apr '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Jimmy CarterWhatever!
May '10
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
James Earl Carter is 87 years old. He has had delusions of being America's "Elder Statesman" for a long time.
On June 5, 2004 his successor, Ronald Wilson Reagan, succumbed to age and the ravages of Alzheimer's. The outpouring of love and admiration that flowed for the next week toward Reagan and his widow must have been devastating.
As perplexing as it was to the Democrat Media Complex, imagine Carter, knowing these two things: 1) He would have to go to the funeral and 2) People loved Reagan because he saved us from another four years of his incompetence.
Apr '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Peter Robinson: He was a dreadful president--just dreadful--but I've never been able to eliminate the suspicion that Jimmy Carter is in some ways very admirable. ..... But still. There's a basic sense of human decency at work in the man. · 13 minutes ago
Edited 5 minutes ago
I think I'm kind of in diametric opposition on this. There are a lot of policy/ philosophy grounds on which Carter was magnificent. Tax cutting, deregulating, some sensible appointments (eg., Volcker while he was good), not appointing SCOTUS justices... he had many of the features I look for in a Democrat president.
As a person, though.... Did you catch his self-description as putting the Pope JPII in the same category as Khomeini, and using his personal audience to berate the Pope about women priests and liberation theology? What kind of idiot Baptist thinks that he's actually, literally, more Catholic than the Pope?
I was at a Carter center fundraiser a few months back, where he was asked what had poisoned politics over the last two decades and he responded that Citizens United (2010) had promoted hate speech. As with the Pope, he was both uncharitable and stupid.
Apr '11
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
Steve Manacek
If Carter -- who at least appointed Volcker, began deregulation, believed in balanced budgets (though he wasn't able to produce one), and even (however belatedly) began the military buildup that Reagan accelerated -- was "dreadful," what word would you use to describe Obama? Does even the magnificent English language stretch that far? · 44 minutes ago
That'll teach me to leave a comment open too long! On the condemning side, it's kind of telling that we both used the same examples. And some of Carter's unfulfilled ambitions (like withdrawing from Korea in '78) were bad even by Obama standards, albeit probably less bad than unfulfilled Obama plans such as the EFCA.
Mar '12
Re: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
If an exception was made for rape, that claim would be made whenever a woman found it desirable to get an abortion for any reason. There would be a lot of men, under arrest, defending their actions in court, without ever having had to rape a woman.
In the current business and social environment, such claims would be a stigma that would travel with the individual man. At that point, we'd take one bad idea, abortion, and add another, false claims of rape leading to the destruction of men's characters.
Edited on March 30, 2012 at 10:22pmRe: Jimmy Carter, Dragging Democrats to the Right?
I never have believed that Jesus Christ would approve of abortions . . .
If Jimmy Carter was of such an opinion when he ran for the Democratic nomination and then for the Presidency in 1976, he kept his mouth firmly shut, and he said nothing of the kind while in office.
In the years since his loss to Reagan, Carter has been self-righteous in the extreme. I would, however, guess that, now that he is 87, he is displaying a measure of remorse. Troy, had you asked me yesterday whether I would live to see anything of the sort on the part of Jimmy Carter, I would have have thought you daft. But here it is, and what he has to say cannot be based on a calculation. Carter has nothing to gain from this. His fellow Democrats will be furious. The best that he can hope from from them is disapproving silence. This is a remarkable development.