Why Is Nobody Listening to Jimmy Carter’s Searing Critique of America?

Shouldn’t it grab our attention when a past president takes to the biggest print platform in the nation to warn, You’re investing too much power in the presidency? Yet Bill Clinton attracted more notice when he defended private equity firms. To me, that suggests our sense of newsworthiness is warped.

There’s a lot more to Carter’s column, including this noteworthy passage (emphasis added):

The detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, now houses 169 prisoners. About half have been cleared for release, yet have little prospect of ever obtaining their freedom. American authorities have revealed that, in order to obtain confessions, some of the few being tried (only in military courts) have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers. Astoundingly, these facts cannot be used as a defense by the accused, because the government claims they occurred under the cover of “national security.” Most of the other prisoners have no prospect of ever being charged or tried either.

If there is a more extreme example of a prominent politician breaking with his fellow elites I
don’t know what it is. But he is saying things most people don’t want to hear, so a past president accusing other presidents of violating the law and trampling on human rights is all but ignored.

Michelle Obama picked the wrong moment to start being proud of her country.