Today, several former presidents sat in observance of former-president Jimmy Carter’s passing. The current president, Joe Biden, gave the eulogy, focusing on Carter’ s “simple decency.” Former president Barack Obama and former and future president Donald Trump sat next to each another engaged in lively conversation. Vice-President Kamala Harris, sitting in front of the presidents’ row, appeared to roll her eyes at the two. Former president George W. Bush walked into the scene with his chest puffed out.
What was not mentioned was Carter’s involvement with the Trilateral Commission, an experience that played a significant role in shaping his political trajectory. In fact, Carter was a founding member of that organization. George H. W. Bush, who was CIA director when Carter entered office, also had strong ties to the Trilateral Commission, particularly through his connections with David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. I say both of these presidents’ names in the same breath because both reflected the Trilateral Commissions desire to establish global governance, expressed as the “New World Order” in Bush’s September 11, 1990 speech before a joint-session of Congress.
The Trilateral Commission, established in 1973 by Rockefeller, aimed to parlay the historic cooperation among North America, Western Europe, and Japan into a New World Order. The commission provided Carter with an opportunity to engage with prominent thinkers and policymakers, those whom Antonio Gramsci would have classified as “organic intellectuals,” in this case those who represented the interests of the transnational corporate and financial elite.
This association with the Trilateral Commission elevated Carter’s visibility on the international stage. To dissimulate the agenda of the Trilateral Commission and Carter as its vessel, the image of Carter the peanut farmer was projected. The narrative portrayed a humble Christian man of simple decency coming from nowhere to lead the nation back from the twin disgraces of Watergate and the Church Committee Hearings, a narrative reinforced by the seeming penance paid during his long ex-presidency by occasionally driving nails into 2X4s before a fawning media.
A key figure in Carter’s connection to the Trilateral Commission was Zbigniew Brzezinski, a political scientist who served as the commission’s first director. Brzezinski became a close advisor to Carter and significantly influenced his foreign policy. Indeed, after winning the presidency, Carter appointed Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor. Brzezinski’s emphasis on geopolitical strategy, particularly in managing US-Chine relations, US-Soviet relations, and the Middle East and Central Asia.
It was Carter who recognized the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate state of the Chinese people. The normalization of diplomatic relations was guided by Brzezinski. Normalization with the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party opened up a range of opportunities, not just in politics but also in science and trade, paving the way for China’s gradual integration into the global economy over the subsequent decades. President Biden was a champion of this cause. His role in the funeral was not merely because he is the sitting president. He played a major role in advancing the agenda. (See Hell on Earth or Earthly Heaven? The Totalitarian Threats Facing the West.)
It was under Brzezinski’s guidance that Carter toppled the democratically-elected government in Afghanistan in order to compel the Soviet Union to honor the mutual defense pact they had established with Kabul, thus ushering in decades of clerical fascism, associated death and destruction, and the total subordination of women under the Taliban (see Sowing the Seeds of Terrorism? Capitalist Intrigue and Adventurism in Afghanistan; Jimmy Carter, Trilateralist, Entering Hospice; Everybody Loves Jimmy Carter). It was also under Brzezinski’s guidance that clerical fascism came to power in Iran, subjecting the Persian people to the brutality of ayatollah and mullahs to this day. (See Who’s Responsible for Iran’s Theocratic State?)
And don’t forget Carter’s action of selling the Panama Canal, a structure the United States built and dozens of men died in building, for one dollar. As I wrote about yesterday, in Monroe Doctrine 2.0, Donald Trump has signaled that America wants it back.
freedom and reason 