There he goes again.

Jimmy Carter, former Jim Crow man, has accused millions of his fellow
Americans of engaging in the type of racial politics that marked his
political career for years, even up to the eve of the 1980 presidential
election and for which he has never apologized or acknowledged.

Branding his opponents as racists is nothing new for the old,
self-described "redneck." In the fall of 1980, he and his minions
unleashed one of the most vicious campaigns in recent American history
against his opponent, Ronald Reagan.

The attacks were so unprecedented, Nancy Reagan did something which was
unprecedented at the time; she appeared in a television commercial
taking it to President Carter over the slurs against "Ronnie." Carter
had shamefully accused his GOP opponent of wanting to divide American,
"black from white, Christian from Jew & hellip"

It was a curious and more importantly nasty and unfounded attack, as
Reagan had a long history of fighting racism and anti-Semitism. As a
young man playing football for Eureka College, several African-American
members were barred from staying at a "whites only" hotel. While their
coach tried to make some other accommodations, Reagan took his teammates
to his home, where his parents kindly took them in.

In the 1940's, Reagan quit a country club in Los Angeles in protest when
he discovered it had a policy of barring Jewish members. As governor of
California, Reagan appointed more blacks to positions in his
administration, hundreds more than his so-called progressive
predecessors, including Earl Warren and Pat Brown.

Meanwhile Carter, in the early 1960s, supported legislation in the
Georgia State Senate, which would have effectively eviscerated the Civil
Rights Act, and would have prevented the desegregation of public schools
there as well as open housing.

In 1966, during the contested gubernatorial election in Georgia, Carter
had a choice as a state senator. He could support the Republican, Bo
Calloway. He could support the moderate Democrat, Ellis Arnall. Or he
could stand with Lester Maddox, one of the repugnant leaders of
segregation in the South. Carter chose the stand with Maddox, in order
to protect his political future.

During the nasty 1970 Democratic primary for governor of Georgia, Jimmy
Carter's campaign mass produced photos of his opponent, Carl Sanders,
with the black members of the Atlanta Hawks. Sanders was the real
progressive in the campaign.

Even as late as 1976, Carter, while campaigning in the South, praised
Senators John Stennis and Jim Eastland, two longtime Southern Democrats
who were supporters of "Massive Resistance," the attempt by some whites
in the South to oppose racial integration. For the record, President
Lyndon Johnson had also supported Massive Resistance early in his
Congress in Texas.

When reporters caught up with Stennis to ask him his position on racial
desegregation he replied, "I'm against it. Always have been and always
will be."

Also that fall, Carter's home church, the Plains Baptist Church, voted
to ban blacks from joining. Carter did not quit in protest, knowing it
would undermine his "Southern Strategy" in the election. Weakly, he said
he would attempt to change the policy from the inside.

In 1976, Carter took all of the South, excepting Virginia, and the
region constituted 40 percent of his electoral total. He knew in 1976
and again in 1980 that to win, he needed to hold onto the states below
the Mason-Dixon line.

If possible, it got worse in 1980. His campaign produced newspaper ads
charging Reagan with wanting to win so he could stop Carter from
appointing blacks to government. Fearful of losing urban-black votes to
the independent candidacy of John Anderson, his campaign ran false ads
on African-American radio stations claiming Anderson had voted against
the Civil Rights Act.

Even liberal editorialists eviscerated Carter for his vindictive
campaign and two Democratic opponents, former Vice President Hubert
Humphrey and Sen. Ted Kennedy, had often complained over the years over
Carter's nasty brand of politics.

The great Hugh Sidey of Time Magazine wrote at the time, "The wrath that
escapes Carter's lips about racism and hatred when he prays and poses as
the epitome of Christian charity leads even his supporters to protest
his meanness."

In Carter's defense, his peanut business was once boycotted by the
citizens of Plains in the 1960's because he'd supported a local
desegregation issue. Carter is not a bigot. Sometimes he rose above his
culture. Other times, he embraced it, especially when there was an
election at stake.

The irony in Carter's attack on the Tea Party protesters is that his
1976 campaign was based in part on attacking the elites of Washington,
the lobbyists, the bankers, the inside traders. Precisely what has the
Tea Party protesters up in arms today. Indeed, Carter wanted to reduce
their power and influence and give Americans a government "as good" as
they were.

If Carter was true to his revolutionary campaign of the bicentennial
year, he'd be defending the Tea Party protesters, not smearing them.
What's got them upset is not racism, but elitism. Carter, in 1976, would
have torn into tax cheats like Timmy Geithner and Kathleen Sebilius.

In his dotage, Carter should give his fellow citizens the benefit of the
doubt, seeing they are lusting in their hearts not for racism or women,
but for freedom and ethics in their government.