Does Obama Share Jimmy Carter’s Naiveté about the World?
Given the parallels between the various world and economic crises in the late 1970s and today as well as the world views of the Democratic Presidents then and now, some are wondering if it’s 1979 all over again. Back then, we saw unrest in Iran, with mass demonstrations in the streets. Government spending was skyrocketing with inflation looming. Gas prices were on the uptick, with the President urging us to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Chrysler, tin cup in hand, came to Washington begging for a federal bailout.
The fantasy that “moderates” within the mullah regime can be coaxed into a “grand bargain” has taken in better men than Barack Obama, but Obama doesn’t even have the excuse of not being aware of that prior history. The level of self-loathing an American has to possess to believe that the Khomeinists are a brutal, terror-supporting regime entirely because the US hasn’t been nice enough to them is pretty staggering.
Khoemeini and his heirs were and are brutal fanatics. Period, dot. They have subjugated and terrorized their own people and done their level best to kill ours for thirty years because that’s what they are and that’s what they do. The devil didn’t make them do it. There’s nothing you or I or Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush or Barack Obama ever could have said that would have changed them
Read the whole thing where Will Collier, its author, puts forward Ronald Reagan (rather than his predecessor) as an example of how an American President should react to power-hungry regimes which oppress their people. And he’s not the only one.
So, I’m wondering, given the similarities between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter if the one Democrat shares the other’s naiveté about the ways of the world?
I think there’s something more than naiveté at play here. I think we’re seeing instead the influence of leftist academic theories, particularly those of Edward Said, and the President’s left-wing associations before he leapt onto the national stage.
Here (via Gateway) is Obama with Said:
Jimmy Carter was just plain naive and blind to the realities of the world. I fear that Barack Obama really believes the hooey peddled on so many university campuses that repression abroad is just a natural reaction to American “aggression/imperialism.”
By that logic, increasing gay activism since Stonewall has fueled anti-gay bigotry and is thus responsible for hate crimes against homosexuals.
It’s time that President Obama woke up and recognize the brutal reality of some of our nation’s adversaries.
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Anyone else see this “We can’t meddle” thing as a dodge to rationalize doing nothing?
Comment by V the K — June 17, 2009 @ 6:12 pm - June 17, 2009
Mark Bowden’s Guests of the Ayatollah should be required reading for President Obama. Or anyone, really, who is interested in what happened during the 1979 Revolution and what’s going on now.
All this has happened before and all of it will happen again… (/bsg nerdity)
Comment by jellibean — June 17, 2009 @ 6:21 pm - June 17, 2009
#1: “Anyone else see this “We can’t meddle” thing as a dodge to rationalize doing nothing?”
Yes. The Mullahs certainly see it that way.
Comment by Sean A — June 17, 2009 @ 6:44 pm - June 17, 2009
“Increasing gay activism since Stonewall has fueled anti-gay bigotry and is thus responsible for hate crimes against homosexuals.”
Because the better theory is that straight people are all homophobic adulterers who can’t face their own hypocrisy and thus hate gays for exposing them for the hateful frauds they are. Gays in the street waving dildoes and having sex (re: The Chicago Leather Day festival) and selling meth on the side while shouting “Pride! Rainbows! Condoms! (but not really)” has nothing to do with the backlash.
All Muslims I have ever met have been like everyone else–too exhausted from work and family to do much of anything. The idea of getting out of the recliner to do a suicide bombing is just beyond them. It’s not a question of appealing to moderates against radicals, it’s a matter of being realistic about how much energy it takes to overthrow the government. I bet most Iranians feel about the Ayatollah what most people here feel about Obama–yeah, whatever, just don’t do a big speech during the game.
Comment by Ashpenaz — June 17, 2009 @ 7:17 pm - June 17, 2009
I don’t agree that Jimmy Carter was naive and blind to the realities of the world. I think he had, and still has, a profound antisemitism. He not only spews all the world’s wrongs on Israel but has shown an unhealthy affection for any and all thugs and dictators who embrace antisemitism. Unfortunately, Obama is showing the same tendencies.
Comment by John in Dublin, CA — June 17, 2009 @ 8:16 pm - June 17, 2009
“The level of self-loathing an American has to possess to believe that the Khomeinists are a brutal, terror-supporting regime entirely because the US hasn’t been nice enough to them is pretty staggering.”
Pray tell, where as Obama or ANYONE in his adminstration ever said that the evil attitude in Iran and other countries is ENTIRELY because blah blah blah. I doubt you can…. One more case of the blindness caused by an either/or mentality.
“Gays in the street waving dildoes and having sex (re: The Chicago Leather Day festival) and selling meth on the side while shouting “Pride! Rainbows! Condoms! (but not really)” has nothing to do with the backlash”
That’s a pretty darn good NDT imitation there Ashpenaz. Of course we ALL know that ALL gays act like that and the backlash is ENTIRELY due to such behavior.
Doesn’t it ever get boring seeing only in black and white?
Comment by a different Dave — June 17, 2009 @ 9:24 pm - June 17, 2009
In short, when it comes to difficult foreign policy challenges like Iran and North Korea, Obama wants to vote “Present.”
Comment by V the K — June 17, 2009 @ 10:00 pm - June 17, 2009
Obama won’t ‘meddle’ in Iran, but will dictate to Israel.
Israeli security forces alert the Palestinians about a roadisde bomb in Gaza intended for Carter, but Hamas isn’t a terrorist organization.
the big jarring similarity I see is that obama and carter don’t like the Jews very much. Interesting, cuz I don’t think they like gays much either.
Comment by Leah — June 17, 2009 @ 10:42 pm - June 17, 2009
#6: “Pray tell, where as Obama or ANYONE in his adminstration ever said that the evil attitude in Iran and other countries is ENTIRELY because blah blah blah. I doubt you can…. One more case of the blindness caused by an either/or mentality.”
ADD, here’s what Obama said about the 9/11 terrorists:
“We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.”
Hmmmmm. He seems pretty sure of his poverty, ignorance, helplessness, and despair = terrorism theory.
ADD, as long as people like you keep bitching about “black/white” and “either/or” when it comes to Islamic terrorism, I will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that I still know the difference between objective right and wrong and that I haven’t been sucked into the sick, hopeless, vile moral relativism that you stupidly (and arrogantly) present as a product of a superior intellect. You are a fool. Some things are complicated. Islamic fundamentalism is not.
Comment by Sean A — June 17, 2009 @ 10:42 pm - June 17, 2009
Like those gays who fill the streets for the International Mr. Leather contest, the media and most people’s impression of the gay community is based on its most radical members. In the same way we would like not to be judged by the Pride/Prop 8 rally/IML/ActUp crowd, we should work not to judge Islam by it’s radical fringe. Like The Gays who do all the marching, Muslim radicals are the lonely, pathetic people who have no lives and have to build their identity by dressing up in funny clothes and shouting. Most Muslims and homosexuals have to work and support and family and probably don’t really have much energy to do much else.
Comment by Ashpenaz — June 18, 2009 @ 12:17 am - June 18, 2009
Doesn’t it ever get boring staring at the inside of your sigmoid colon every day of your life?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — June 18, 2009 @ 2:06 am - June 18, 2009
#10: “In the same way we would like not to be judged by the Pride/Prop 8 rally/IML/ActUp crowd, we should work not to judge Islam by it’s radical fringe.”
“We should work”, Ashpenaz? If gays don’t want to be judged by it’s radical fringe, they should condemn and/or distance themselves from it. The same goes for Muslims. People outside these groups don’t have any “work” to do. It’s the members of the groups themselves that have these responsibilities.
Comment by Sean A — June 18, 2009 @ 2:44 am - June 18, 2009
If gays don’t want to be judged by it’s radical fringe, they should condemn and/or distance themselves from it. The same goes for Muslims
Exactly! Why is this point so hard for some people to grasp? Take the LDS church, for example. A small breakaway fringe sect practices polygamy. But the church doesn’t just say, “Oh, they’re just a fringe, they don’t represent us” they actively condemn polygamy, excommunicate anyone who is involved in polygamy, and make condemnation of polygamy an integral part of church doctrine.
Why can’t Muslims do the same about terrorism? Or teh gheys do the same about Folsom Street Fair? They may lack a central authority, but that’s no excuse for all the mosques and gay groups not to distributively make a point of condemning them. In the case of Muslims, they should do so unequivocally… not in the “violence is sort of bad, but the Jews have it coming” way that CAIR does.
Comment by V the K — June 18, 2009 @ 6:09 am - June 18, 2009
Sean, V the K,
I agree. I condemn the FSF as ‘freaking the mudanes’ and not keeping it behind closed doors where it should be. I don’t care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes, but I do care when their actions become a threat and an offense to what I do in the privacy of my home.
Comment by The Livewire — June 18, 2009 @ 6:48 am - June 18, 2009
I suppose mainstream Muslims are afraid of condemning violence and radicalism because they are afraid of being labeled self-loathing Islamophobes. They don’t want to be accused of “Christian-acting.”
Comment by Ashpenaz — June 18, 2009 @ 11:17 am - June 18, 2009
“Hmmmmm. He seems pretty sure of his poverty, ignorance, helplessness, and despair = terrorism theory.”
Only only a total ignoramus won’t see the truth in what he said. But Sean, that statement has nothing to do with the US being “mean” to people thus causing terrorism. And, to correct another lapse in your understanding, my reference to black/white has nothing to do with “moral relativism” it refers to the simple FACT that there are many factors that can drive a person to extreme belief and action. Acknowledging that is NOT justifying it. It’s got nothing to do with intellect, ignorance is a choice. And the big difference between you and your cronies here, and myself is that I NEVER claim to be superior while y’all NEVER stop making that claim.
So, how are to please all you screeching about gays distancing themselves from the extreme. Do I have to walk into work and pronounce that I’m not into leather, fisting or drag? Should we start a parade of all the “normal” gays. It’s not enough for you folks that most of us don’t participate in the extremes but we have shout it from the rooftops. Perhaps it’s that we don’t have the need to prove ourselves “normal” like you apparently so desperately do.
Comment by a different Dave — June 19, 2009 @ 2:29 pm - June 19, 2009
Read the best seller “Jimmy Carter – The Liberal Left and World Chaos” by Mike Evans. It will open your eyes.
Available at a deep discount at the link below:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/audioimagegroup_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_ipgZ
Comment by Dave — July 31, 2009 @ 7:56 am - July 31, 2009