Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Crazy Aunt in the Attic

You know what Jimma Carter reminds me of? Yeah, the crazy aunt in the attic, the one who shouldn't be out in public without medication. The latest blurbs spewing forth? He tells Wolfie at CNN that our military is torturing prisoners. And that all of the Republican presidential candidates are trying to outdo each other on who'd go to war with Iran first.

Carter is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, I would remind you. He was a Navy officer. He is a former President of the United States. He is a Nobel Prize winner (which no longer means anything to serious people of thought but to some impressed with awards it is an honor) and an international elections monitor.

At one time in this country, it was unheard of for a former president to criticize the sitting president or the administration. It was unheard of for a former president to travel around the world and criticize the sitting president or the administration. It was unheard of for a former president to accuse our military of torturing prisoners. It was unheard of for a former president to accuse the sitting president of a policy in place encouraging torture.

Let's trace this back, shall we? Who in our recent history has conducted himself in such a way? One person until very recently. Jimma Carter. The former president, for whom we can thank for our current troubles with Islamofacists and the threats of terror to our country, is all out there alone in breaking this new ground. Recently, especially since it is campaign season for Hillary, she who must be obeyed, Bill Clinton has felt emboldened to sling insults at President Bush and the Republicans. Moral authority, Bill? Moral authority for the second president impeached? Moral authority from Bill, from the leader of the most corrupt and amoral administration in recent times? Yeah, priceless.

Can you imagine Ronald Reagan going about trading insults about subsequent administrations? Of course you can't. Reagan was a man of dignity. Can you imagine George H.W. Bush going about trading insults while Clinton was in office? No. He remained silent. George H.W. Bush is a man of confidence and humility. Character. He is a man of personal character.

Those are the last four Presidents of the United States. Two Dems and two Republicans. Which team would you be proudest to be a part of? And, just for the record? Which team was it that put rendition and wireless surveillance into policy? That would be Bill Clinton. You know, the one who feels your pain.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn right, sista!

And damn fine piece of writing. I mean it. This is one for the ages.

Jolene said...

I LOLed about the Aunt in the Attic. Unfortunately, in the south we put them out on the front porch for everyone to see our family nut cases. Thing is, he's only important to the nuts on the left ... peanuts not withstanding

Robert said...

Not only do we put them on the porch, Jo, we dress them up and take them out pretty regularly.

I agree with your post and am a solid Reagan conservative, but I have to disagree with your assessment of our current troubles with the Islamofashists. The trouble with them could actually be placed at the feet of Reagan and Bush, Sr. (IF you must pick a President. I don;t feel as if there is any eprsonal responsibility, but hindsight is 20/20)

It was after the Soviet Union's defeat in Afghanistan in 1989, and the fall of the Wall in 1990, together with an 80s resurgence of radical Islam in Iran, that the terrorists became emboldened. Our policy failed to follow through with the mujahadeen defeat of the Soviets, and the power vacuum in the region was filled by wackos.

Anonymous said...

Jo beat me to my comment. Wasn't it Julia or Suzanne Sugarbaker of Designing Women, who said that "in the South we put them out on the front porch for everyone to see"?

Apparently Jimmy Carter, from Georgia, is taking that to the extreme... sitting himself out on the front porch of the world, unmedicated and an embarrassment to all.