DID BRZEZINSKI RECRUIT OBAMA IN 1981-83?
As for Carter, he became a virtual pariah after leaving office, taking no part whatsoever in the 1984 Democratic national convention or in the campaign of his former Vice President Walter Mondale. He seemed to retreat into the argument that the United States had become ungovernable during his time in office, and that there was nothing that he could have done differently. As for Brzezinski, he went back to Columbia University and by all indications busied himself with the recruitment of a stable of new Manchurian candidates on the Carter model to be deployed farther down the line, in a total political and economic crisis which Samuel Huntington was then predicting for the years between 2010 and 2030. Among the bright young men on the make that Brzezinski began to draw into his orbit at this time was, in all probability, the youthful Barack Obama, who had transferred to Columbia University in 1981, and who graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science, a specialization in international relations, and a thesis topic involving Soviet nuclear disarmament -- a topic that represented Brzezinski's personal area of interest as the boss of the Columbia Institute for Communist Affairs.
CARTER AS HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PESSIMIST
In an essay entitled "Jimmy Carter and the Post-New Deal Presidency," the new deal scholar William E. Leuchtenburg cites an important line from Carter's inaugural address of January 1977: "we have learned that 'more' is not necessarily better, that even our great nation has its recognized limits." Leuchtenburg then goes on to quote the following comment by Carter in his later memoirs: "Watching the sea of approving faces [on Inauguration Day], I wondered how few of the happy celebrants would agree with my words if they analyzed them closely. At the time, it was not possible even for me to imagine the limits we would have to face. In some ways, dealing with limits would become the subliminal theme of the next four years and affect the outcome of the 1980 election." Carter evidently knew well enough right at the outset that he had hoodwinked the American people. Leuchtenburg quotes a remark by Michael Malbin that "Americans remain a people of the Enlightenment who find it hard to accept the postmodern (or ancient) view of a world of limited possibilities." In other words, a presidency founded on historical and cultural pessimism, most notably in the form of Malthusian austerity, is unlikely to be accepted by Americans, and leads to failure and ungovernability. Despite indications of ideological decadence and moral senility in the American people around the turn of the 21st century, it is very likely that the tendency to reject historical and cultural pessimism remains surprisingly strong, and could emerge powerfully under conditions of crisis. A resurgence of scientific optimism and activist government is precisely what synthetic candidates like Carter and Obama have been designed to sabotage. Leuchtenburg cites a reporter who summed up the conclusion of the Carter presidency by remarking: "He preached to us constantly about sacrifice and limitations, which none of us wanted to hear."
The tremendous demoralization and despair associated with the Carter presidency opened the door for the right-wing reactionary Ronald Reagan, who went to the White House wearing a mask of sunny optimism. Leuchtenburg quotes the comment of one scholar that "whatever Reagan did, many Americans felt, would be better than the handwringing, sermons, and demands for sacrifice of the last four years." One former Carter official summed up his boss's message in the following terms: "in order to be a good American ... You've got to drive cars you don't like ... And turn up the thermostat in the summer and down in the winter. You're a pig, you've been using too much energy all your life and you've got to change." (Leuchtenburg 22-23)
CARTER AND THE DEMOCRATS' RETREAT FROM THE NEW DEAL
The Carter presidency inaugurated a retreat from the heritage of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal which has been disastrous for the Democratic Party. It was under Carter that the great U-turn in American life, from rising standards of living to falling standards of living, became evident and institutionalized. From the Carter era onwards, American living standards have been in a process of precipitous decline, down to the current level of barely a third of the Eisenhower-Kennedy norm. When Walter Mondale ran for president in 1984, he began including trade unions and teachers' unions among the sinister interest groups whose influence in Washington had to be contained, as if they were big oil or big pharmaceuticals -- he was carrying on the same process. When Michael Dukakis in 1988 said that the main issue in the election was competence and not ideology, this was another coded repudiation of the Roosevelt tradition. Dukakis ostentatiously refused to offer any promise of increased federal spending to fight poverty.
Bill Clinton declared that the era of big government was over, embraced free trade sellouts, and abolished the welfare system, abandoning millions of poor children to a grim fate. These wretched policies could never take the place of FDR's New Deal, JFK's New Frontier, and LBJ's Great Society.
A FITTING MONUMENT TO CARTER: A BOTTOMLESS PIT
After the Carter administration had left Washington, the prominent trade unionist William R. Winpisinger of the International Association of Machinists was asked for his evaluation of Carter's place in history. He replied: ''as presidents go, he was on a par with Calvin Coolidge. I consider his abilities mediocre, his actions pusillanimous, and his administration a calamity for America's working people. Since an obelisk soaring 555 feet into the air symbolizes the nation's admiration and respect for George Washington, it would seem the only fitting memorial for Jimmy Carter would be a bottomless pit." (Leuchtenburg 17)
