Great take on Carter. Lord knows he wasn’t perfect — and he knew it , too — but he actually believed that governing was about treating people as adults. He respected Americans enough to not talk down to them, and he expected they would return the favor. I don’t know if we’ll see his like again.

When I look at Carter’s life, I see an example of most of the qualities we all claim to want in a leader. I see a man who did his best, putting country above self. I see a man … like me. Or, at least whom I aspire to be.

Rest easy, President Carter. And thank you for being no one else but you. /end

What’s more, I came to realize that if, somehow, I was ever in a position to become president, he was exactly the kind of leader I would end up being — a little micro-managey, a little naive, wearing my heart on my sleeve, but always keeping it in the right place. 5/

As I got older, my perspectives changed, and I began to look back and see how unfair so many of us had been in considering the peanut farmer from Plains, GA. While no one gets to the heights of American politics as a pure saint, Jimmy Carter was by all accounts a decent man. One of the best. 4/

Why did I believe that? Because they told me so. I didn’t put in the work to learn about what had actually happened in this country from ‘76-‘80 — I just bought the narrative they sold me. So, I spent years winking and nodding along with the idea that “Jimmy Carter sucked.” 3/

But I was 5 years old when he left the White House, so Reagan was the first to make a real impression. (And what an impression it was — I was full-on Alex P. Keaton until pretty much college.) I bought fully into the impression that Mr. Carter was a failure and among our worst presidents. 2/

Agreed. But, legally (and politically, for the low-information types out there) it gives them cover for proposing draconian cuts.

They are being funded, but through Congress’ inability to actually pass a budget and regular appropriations bills, the actual authorizing legislation for their funding has expired.

Note that this is a list of programs whose funding authorization has expired, not programs that Vivek & Elon have specifically targeted (at least publicly).

It’s the usual combination of 2 things: MAGA’s foundational dependence on whataboutism & non-MAGA folks’ faith in institutions and actual justice. They have no shame, but since we do, they think anything questionable is a huge gotcha moment.