Jimmy Carter Was No Friend of Union Workers Like Me
Jimmy Carter Was No Friend of Union Workers Like Me
As a worker in the 1970s, I looked forward to a Jimmy Carter administration. By the end of his term in office, like millions of my union sisters and brothers, I felt betrayed.
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Kind of a weird question— and I’m not defending whatever the article is alleging— but what’s the point of trying to smear Carter’s memory?
He’s dead. Nobody praises the bad things he might have done. This feels like an attempt to instill even more tiredness into an already exhausted society— “see? Even the guy everyone likes sucked! Nobody should be thought of as good, you must keep this in mind.”
This doesn’t help unions. This doesn’t help the left. This doesn’t help anyone. Americans are rightfully haggard and all remaining energy should be spent trying to keep the upcoming administration in chaos to minimize harm or supporting good people. Why waste time trying to diminish the memory of a man who, far as I can tell, has done nothing but good the past 40 years?
And fuck, haven’t we had enough negativity? Many days I avoid social media entirely because it’s just negativity upon negativity. I genuinely can’t fathom a single positive or useful takeaway from media like this.
Why shouldn't someone that felt betrayed by a politician write about their experience? Why shouldn't people learn about these perspectives?
"Can everyone quit being so negative" is an awful take when talking about politics/politicians.
Why shouldn't people learn about these perspectives?
Well yeah, that’s why I’m asking what the point is. What is there to be learned from a bad story on this particular dead individual? I said a few times that I can see no discernible societal benefit. I’d love to see even a hypothetical of how this could lead to positive change.
I hate to be so results-oriented. Really, I do. But the left has lost and lost and lost so I struggle to see a purpose in aiming leftist attention away from the upcoming grim future.
"Can everyone quit being so negative"
I’ve noticed that people are more likely to respond to the last thing said, as if the rest was skimmed or forgotten. When I said it was more important to keep the upcoming administration in chaos, did you think I meant by praising them? Negativity is obviously useful when targeted correctly.
If you reread the comment, it’s pretty clear that my issue is with seemingly pointless negativity— the comment literally begins with “what’s the point?” Like I said, absolutely nobody is praising the bad things Carter may have done. The full focus is on the 40 years of civil service following his presidency. It’s almost always preceded with “he may not have been a good president, but…”
Aiming the limited public attention space at dead Jimmy Carter’s actions from over 40 years ago serves only the people presently planning on killing unions. Yet instead of trying to convince voters that unions aren’t that bad— something I’ve convinced even business owners of, when it’s not their employees— people would rather sit here and turn the never-ending stream of negativity on Current Famous Person.
So really, just tell me the point. If you have one I’m happy to give you that, and if it somehow outweighs the downside of leftist infighting, I’d be thrilled to admit wrong. I’m not here to pick fights and genuinely want to believe the left is trying to generate positive results or that this is article will do that. It’s been pretty hopeless recently watching the right surge forward while the left goes at each other and manages nothing.
Hell, Luigi Mangione alone changed more for society than we’ve managed in years. Probably because he wasn’t (allegedly) aiming at the wrong guy.
I'm only going to answer the initial question of why they should bring up Carter's failures now that he is dead. And that answer is what we saw happen in this country in 2016 and this last November. And the intervening years between 2020 and now.
The democratic party is holding Carter up as some bastion of leftist ideology that should be the antithesis of conservatism. But he's not. At least not while he was president. And we now have neoliberals like Biden, Harris, Clinton, and yes even Obama who are painting a picture of liberalism around right wing centrism that is doing literally nothing for the working poor. Obamacare has been an utter disaster simply because it catered to the insurance companies while only offering some governmental pocket change to the American people. Biden stepped in to break the train conductors so that the country's commerce wouldn't be too badly impacted. All while ignoring the literal train wreck that is our failing railway infrastructure. Every "win" the Democrats have ends up being a loss for the American people. Meanwhile the Republican douche bags get to clean up by sowing dissent and disgruntlement while promising to fix everything and like the author of this article many people, in their unbridled frustration, turn around and vote for those assholes thinking that anything different would be better.
Which is why we are where we are.
That is why, as we reflect of Carter's life, we should remember his many failures as president along with his good deeds after he left office.
Good point and I generally agree. I suppose it comes down to:
But he's not. At least not while he was president.
Almost every time someone praises Carter, it’s prefaced with “presidency aside”. His presidency has been looked down upon for decades. If he hadn’t followed it with decades of humanitarian service, he wouldn’t be remembered.
Perhaps I just don’t see the Dems’ lines about how he’s the ideal leftist. In that context I understand the need to discuss the bads. But having not seen, well, any praise ever for his life as a politician this article comes off as trying to keep leftist spirits down. Still, the Dems doing that would fit right into the MO, so yeah good point.
The truth is important, regardless of how many pseudointellectual walls of text you generate.
Insult and run: the standard response when you can’t actually defend your opinions. Some can explain why they hold a position, but this sure is easier.
If you want people to engage with you more, you should engage with what they want sincerely and succinctly instead of of making massive low density essays that don't have content your previous post didn't have. If you get these kinds of responses regularly maybe it's time for some introspection?
Yeah I can monologue a bit, but I have found that explaining in full avoids miscommunication and eventually gets a real response. I do get the weak replies that can’t justify their own ideas, but in my entire time on Lemmy, I have always eventually gotten a real explanation. Even this time.
I’d wade through a hundred of yous to get to someone willing to engage in length. It’s always worth it.
The problem is that low information density writing is disrespectful of other people's time. You could have said what you said in 4 paragraphs in 2 sentences, but you wasted the time of every person that reads your post instead.
Doesn't help that complaining about people making and sharing blog posts because you think it is bad political strategy is asinine in the first place.
Two sentence comments get strawmanned, and since it’s not a work email, nobody has to read it. Manage your time better and skip it, skip this. Why bother with social media if you don’t want to read more than two sentences?
Not to get like, “back in my day about it”, but long comments and casual conversation used to be encouraged. Used to be seen as lazy to drop points for the sake of brevity. Your comments are short and this is the first time you’ve mentioned the actual topic since the og comment— potentially useful discussion is lost in the race to the bottom.
Poor political strategy is asinine. That one has real world effects.
because it only makes sense in a vacuum, if you compare carter's time to anyone else's, it holds up fine if not great.
it's bullllllshit
Baffling.
We need to whitewash a genocidal war criminal because civility politics and uniting against trump. Because unique to one of 'our good ones' the event of their passing IS NOT a good time to retrospect their lives and impact. Because aren't we tired of the divisiveness of questioning our betters?
Starting to think liberals' brains haven't actually been fried by trump, they've always been feckless monsters
Liberals brains were fried by Bill Clinton. Starting with him they couldn't see the entire party's hard march to the right.