I graduated from high school in 1976, and voted for the very first time the same year (having just turned 18). I also immediately went into law-enforcement training, as I wanted to be a cop like my father was. While studying criminology and forensic science in college, I was interested, and then frankly alarmed, to see that Carter’s “tough on crime” policies consisted of;
1. Telling his Attorney General, “I want to ban guns, find me a reason to do it.”
2. Simultaneously “de-emphasizing” organized-crime investigations, as he considered them “racially biased”. The FBI was building RICO cases against the Mafia, the Hell’s Angels, the Devil’s Disciples, and a couple of African-American “social groups” later famed as the Bloods and the Crips. Only the motorcycle gangs were “legitimate” targets in Carter’s eyes. (Proving that a stopped clock is right at least twice a day.)
3. De-emphasizing drug enforcement, including ordering his AG to prosecute several cities that mandated mandatory rehab for first-time drug offenders. Several other cities that were considering such a sensible measure dropped the idea like a hot iron right after that.
4. Spent four years covering up for Bert Lance. (No more need be said on that subject.)
5. And of course, officiated at the Mariel boatlift, in which Castro emptied his prisons of hardened criminals, keeping the political dissidents Carter claimed he wanted released (I’ve always had my doubts about how honestly he wanted them able to speak out freely against Fidel). This, equally of course, ended in the explosion of the cocaine traffic from South America that continues today, not to mention endless “Miami Vice” reruns and the remake of “Scarface”.
The damage Carter did to “domestic tranquility” with his “enlightened” version of “tough on crime” policies were nearly as deadly as the damage he did to the world with his “enlightened” foreign policy of “engagement” with people who he simply refused to believe were hell-bent on ruling the world.
And from all indications, President Obama sees absolutely nothing wrong with what Carter did, in either venue.
As P.J. O’Rourke said, apparently there really is no getting through to the “highly insightful”.
(P.S- In 1976, I voted for Gerald Ford.)
clear ether
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