Don’t Put The Carter Before The Horsecrap
by Richard Oxman

“People ask what they can do aside from complain, feebly protest and analyze? They can start out by really calling a spade a spade…and see where that leads them. The Peanut Farmer did not change the national language of Nicaragua, did not formally institute slavery, or plan to annex the country to the American South. Like Tennessean William Walker. No, he did worse. Now what does that tell you about what we have to do?” — from a San Jose, California radio call-in show

I don’t see Mr. Carter on his knees begging forgiveness. Do you? Did I miss something?

Yes, there is a lot of reason to praise The Obviously Praiseworthy, like Jimmy Carter’s “support” of Palestinian efforts. BUT… the vast majority of left-leaning citizens are embracing the notion that we owe a debt to the Ex-Prez for “long hidden…vital truths.”

NO. The “support” vis-à-vis publication of his recent release is a good thing. But debt owed, NO!

He’s a murderer, as much of a vile cutthroat as Bush*. Because in the realm which he inhabited much too long, delineated degrees of villainy (via book reviews, etc.) only serve to keep the status quo intact, satisfy the moral consciousnesses of citizens, and score points for writers ‘cause they’re in the know.

*Perhaps you don’t really know, say, Nicaragua’s history…or condition today, traceable to USer (”American”) Abominations. Or Carter’s bloody hand (beyond the headlines) in, say, Somalia. See Michael Maren’s THE ROAD TO HELL for Jimmy Aid 101.

Overlooking the past enables the ongoing User Holocaust to continue. No one absorbs the clear lesson that even an Ex-Prez testimonial will have virtually zero effect in the real world. For Palestinians, for example. That his praiseworthy efforts/accomplishments will NOT serve as a seed to later significant scores for The Left. Takes the focus off of the fact that what must be done next –by EVERYONE concerned– is not another book, article or speech, but an acknowledgement that the institution of the presidency (as it now stands) is rotten to the core, cannot be reformed, and must be rejected, replaced by extreme action following new paradigms. What exactly?! Embracing Hopelessness (as things stand) in lieu of False Hope. Cutting the legs out from under something. Sitting with the notion that writing more reams will not realize our dreams.

Let’s take the old School of the Americas…which went on forever in Carter’s backyard, his home state. Specifically, let’s take NICARAGUA as an example. Quite at random. A truncated hit here, to be sure.

Part of a de-stabilization is propaganda, to discredit the targeted government. A huge such program actually began under Jimmy Carter vis-à-vis Nicaragua. He made possible movies like Red Dawn and their real life Contra counterparts as much as Ronnie Reagan ever did.

Setting things up for Reagan and his atrocities, Carter authorized the CIA to go in and try to make the Sandinistas look to be evil. So in 1979 when they came to power, immediately Washington was trying to cast them as totalitarian, evil, threatening Marxists.

While they abolished the death sentence, while they released 8,000 national guardsmen that they had in their custody (that they could have kept in prison), they said acted more humanely than most others would have, including the U.S. Their stance? “Unless we have evidence of individual crimes, we’re not going to hold someone in prison just because they were associated with the former administration.” Bravo, old Ortetga!

While they set out to launch a literacy campaign to teach the people to read and write, which is something that the dictator Somoza, and us supporting him, had never bothered to get around to doing…while they set out to build 2,500 clinics to give the country something resembling a public health policy, and access to medicines, we began to label them as totalitarian dictators, and to attack them in the press, and to work with the newspaper La Prensa, which -there‘s no question about this!- the U.S. government funded up the kazoo as a propaganda arm.

No, The Peanut Farmer didn’t approve of democracy any more than he approved of replacing The Shah of Iran. Anymore than he insisted upon Human Rights Education for SAVAK or Somalia’s Siyaad Barre. Sweet sweaters and overalls, a singular walk down Pennsylvania Avenue for his Inaugural, a winning, toothsome smile, habitats for humanity, admission of lustful thoughts, and points for Palestinians notwithstanding, he was an unmitigated horror.

But it’s the death, maiming, torture and unacceptable legacy we provided for Nicaraguans…for which I want to damn Carter here. For to put him on a pedestal for his current Pet Palestinian Project is quite… premature. In fact, it’s dead wrong. It’s forcing us all to sing the same old song. THEIR song. Which has as its main refrain: “It’s Rogue Presidents That Do Us Wrong, Not the Angelic Ones That We Can Elect From Time to Time.” As nauseating as any set of IMF/World Bank/WTO lyrics by Bono these days.

We aren’t in danger of losing perspective vis-à-vis Carter. We have lost it. See http://www.counterpunch.org/bisharat01042007.html , if you must. The attitudinal set that says that’s a different subject has sunk us.

All is lost unless we call a spade a spade. Which means IT LOOKS LIKE ALL IS LOST.

For there’s a huge difference between horse crap and horseshit*.

*Please note that when I tried to write “horsecrap” as one word my computer insisted upon separating “horse” from the rest of my word, AND eliminated the “c” consistently leaving me with horse rap. Also, I don’t think too many left-of-center posting centers would allow my intended word. In more than one sense.

The most updated versions of Richard Oxman’s articles are always at www.oxtogrind.org. He can be reached at rmoxman@yahoo.com …to discuss Nancy Pelosi’s coarse “hoarse rap” (with its ever-so-slightly different verbal posturing than what comes from Bush‘s Boar Trap)…or anything else that’s on the reader’s mind. It’s not good enough to say that different parties tell different lies or to point out that one president is relatively better than another. The challenge is to declare them all murderers to friends, family and acquaintances. To not pull punches for political or personal gain.