Jimmy Carter? Really?

Millions of liberal thinkers have spent much of the past 10, 20, perhaps 30 years trying to figure out just what makes conservatives tick.We might have just been handed something of a Rosetta Stone. Paddy over at The Political Carnival shared the list of the 25 worst Americans in history, as seen through the eyes of 43 influential conservative bloggers. It's said you can tell a lot about people by the enemies they keep, so what follows are the 25 worst enemies of the right, from 1776 to today:

23) Saul Alinsky (7)
23) Bill Clinton (7)
23) Hillary Clinton (7)
19) Michael Moore (7)
19) George Soros (8)
19) Alger Hiss (8)
19) Al Sharpton (8)
13) Al Gore (9)
13) Noam Chomsky (9)
13) Richard Nixon (9)
13) Jane Fonda (9)
13) Harry Reid (9)
13) Nancy Pelosi (9)
11) John Wilkes Booth (10)
11) Margaret Sanger (10)
9) Aldrich Ames (11)
9) Timothy McVeigh (11)
7) Ted Kennedy (14)
7) Lyndon Johnson (14)
5) Benedict Arnold (17)
5) Woodrow Wilson (17)
4) The Rosenbergs (19)
3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (21)
2) Barack Obama (23)
1) Jimmy Carter (25)
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Margaret Sanger

Ok, let's start with the obvious. Half this list is still alive, so you've got to wonder about the responders' sense of perspective. Secondly, I fully agree with some of the Hated 25, if not the order of their placement. Alger Hiss, John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, Aldrich Ames, sure. There are worse, but this quartet can't be disputed. I have to assume "The Rosenbergs" are referring to Julius and Ethel, not my friends Carol and Dick Rosenberg, who are two of the finest human beings I've ever known, regardless of their politics. Richard Nixon I get, but James Buchanan isn't on the list? And Warren Harding? Ted Kennedy, Bill and Hilary Clinton are on the list for obvious reasons, as are Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, given the audience. JFK, RFK and Tip O'Neil must have escaped because they have the good sense to be dead. I don't know why Thurgood Marshall or Dr. King were left off. George Soros is offensive because he's unforgivably rich and has a conscience, and Al Gore just won't shut up about that damn fraudulent global warming thing, so obviously he's a terribly bad man. Working to reverse climate change must be un-American.

Margaret Sanger's commitment to birth control was bad because, uh, I guess because overpopulation is part of God's Plan.  I thought Jane Fonda was pretty good in On Golden Pond, Klute and Julia, but the right wing never forgave her for Barbarella. Tough crowd. The inclusion of Saul Alinsky made me laugh. Tea Baggers wouldn't exist if not for the godfather of community organizing, but let's not sully the discussion with facts, ok?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Just wondering, though, about Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Speck, Al Capone, Charlie Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Kuklinski, Jim Jones, Ted Kaczynski, Kenneth Bianchi, Angelo Buono, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and another baker's dozen of notorious sociopaths that leap to mind. Margaret Sanger is worse than them? Al Sharpton? FDR, who hauled the country out of the Great Depression and then guided it heroically through World War II, all from a wheelchair?  Well, he created what the right now calls the Welfare State. Preserving families and saving people from starvation must be un-American.

And the worst man in the history of the republic is Jimmy Carter?  Seriously? He isn't even in the bottom third of the worst Presidents. Since he left office, President Carter has worked tirelessly for human rights and lessening suffering around the world. What an awful mission. And of course, the man was educated at Annapolis and he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. According to the right wing, if you're awarded an international accolade for promoting peace, it makes you a villain, because war is always a better solution. Likewise, Woodrow Wilson is at #5 because he envisioned what became the United Nations. International cooperation is never a good idea, according to the right wing. Promoting diplomacy and peace must be un-American.

Jimmy Carter

If this is what passes for The Worst Americans Ever, in the eyes of the right wing, what does this say about the right wing? This isn't a segment of the population with ideas. It's a group of people who barely understand American history. According to this list, empowering communities is a bad idea. Diplomacy and working to find peaceful solutions to conflict is bad. Promoting human rights and safeguarding the middle class are tantamount to treason.

Meanwhile, mass murder, not so terrible, compared to the sins committed by the Big Bad 25. By all means, vote Republican if this makes sense to you.

Photo credits: Margaret Sanger, Business Week. FDR, Library of Congress. Jimmy Carter, jimmycarterbiography.com.