Did Jimmy Carter or Donald Trump Abandon Henry Kissinger?

The Republic Party thought it was. The Greeks at the time were the wealthiest ethnic group in the country after the Jews, and the most highly educated - and they gave a lot, for the time that is. Today though because of intermarriage, the situation is different of course. No one defines themselves as an ethnicity - with a few exceptions among the very rich..

 

It was common knowledge that most presidents sought Henry Kissinger's advice on foreign policy.

 

The only solution is either Israel withdraws entirely or Israrl invades and annexes the land formally.

There is no alternative.

 

True, but he was no longer welcome in government. Still, his influence is felt.

 

You seemed to be obsessed with Greeks so I am assuming that you are Greek.

I don't know if you lived through those times but the theory that the Greek's missing campaign contributions in 1976 was what defeated Gerald Ford is beyond ridiculous. Gerald Ford was portrayed as a bumbling fool who lucked his way into the Oval Office by the resignation of the Vice President and President, had a lousy economy and virtually no accomplishments to his name. I am somewhat a student of history and I have never heard anyone mention any significant role Greek Americans played in the 1976 election. I even Googled "1976 Presidential Election Greek" and it doesn't even register.

 

Yep, bad education and plain stupidly of people takes its tall.

 

This is not what I said, it is what the Republican Party said at the time - and what Henry Kissinger said. My long term memory is excellent. Why don't you ask him, he'll probably start cursing. (I'm only joking).

Why does it bother you so much?

 

Does it "bother" me that you say the 1976 Presidential election turned on Greek Americans?

No.

But it is ridiculous.

 

It has some empirical support.

 

Society has always been made up of, in its majority, people of average intelligence, and with less education than is available to the highly intelligent with access to resources. We rely on the latter to run things, even in a democracy.

However, the history of the last century or so shows that even these people can really screw things up.

For example, if in 2002, you had taken a random dip of a dozen people from your average roadside diner, and asked them if it would be a good idea to send our military into Iraq, to make it into a nice liberal democracy, I suspect you would have found a lot of skepticism ... especially since the sort of people who eat in such places are the sort of people, or their children, who would actually have to undertake this task.

But our highly-educated, intelligent elite -- including Hilary Clinton -- thought that it was a wonderful idea.

Political views and actions are not mainly a function of the level of intelligence and education of the person having those views and undertaking those actions. The intelligentsia of society have often held views that, in hindsight, turned out to be disastrous.

Politics is not like some sort of giant game of chess. Smart is better than stupid, everything else being equal, but everything else is not equal.

In our own case, today .... I believe that few of the people who voted for Mr Trump, and who will vote for him again, think that he is someone of sterling moral character, deep education, and high intelligence. They had the choice between him, and another candidate, and they thought on balance he would represent their interests better. Then, as we all do, they no doubt rationalized their choice, overlooked their candidate's flaws, exaggerated those of his opponent. We all do this.

In the next election, the Democrats may give us a woman who pretended to be a 'woman of color', who -- surely knowingly -- glorifies a violent criminal who attacked a policeman as a martyr-victim of white racism, and whose administration will greatly loosen controls on illegal immigration. They only way to keep her out of office will be to vote for Mr Trump.

Well, seventy-five years ago, when the alternativea were Hitler or Stalin, the democratic world -- liberals and conservatives -- chose Stalin. Trump is small potatoes compared to that.