CARTER DOES NOT DESERVE TO LIE IN STATE AND NEITHER WILL BIDEN

Submitted to the Washington Post

All this pomp and circumstance of the funeral for Jimmy Carter is absurd. He does not deserve to lie in state as his was a failed presidency. Carter was deserved of accolades for the way he comported himself after his presidency, but that should not equate to the pompousness and cost of lying in state.  Carter’s home state of Georgia is where all the celebrations should have stayed.

I was in my twenties when Carter was president, and his ineptness and hypocrisy made life difficult on Americans. I bought a starter home for my wife and I under Carter – we paid over 18% interest on the loan!

Does anybody recall the long lines to get expensive gas?

How about his ineptness at securing release for the Iranian hostages?

Do you remember he gave away the Panama Canal?

Think inflation has been bad under Biden at 5.2% – how would you have liked the 9.9% inflation index under Carter?

According to Ron Kessler’s book, In the President’s Secret Service, Carter prohibited alcohol at the White House, Air Force One, and Camp David. That is except for Jimmy and Roslyn Carter, who imbibed when and where they felt like it. 

Also, according to Kessler, Carter made a show of carrying his own suitcase when running for president. That may have appeared impressive, except the suitcases were empty. How shallow is that?

Further, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft dodgers, established the worthless Department of Education, boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics, and imposed a grain embargo on Russia escalating the Cold War.

His lying in state holds all the pretense as when other inept and corrupt individuals laid in state due to partisan politics at taxpayer expense. That list would include Harry Reid, Brian Sicknick, Ruth Ginsberg, John McCain, Daniel Inouye, and Edgar Hoover. There is no way those people deserve the same honor as Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, or Ronald Regan.

I would bet when Biden passes, he will be the next to lie in state, the most undeserved of all.

A case could be made that had Gerald Ford not pardoned Richard Nixon, Carter would have never been president, emphasizing how important elections are. Perhaps that was a missed opportunity for America, particularly when I look back at how miserable life was under Carter.