“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” — Isaiah 5:20
To understand Jimmy Carter, and by extension the moral architecture of Western Civilization, we must first understand Esav—the Biblical embodiment of the West. Let us begin with an obituary from the archives of antiquity:
OBITUARY: Patriarch Esau, Son of Isaac
Hebron, 1506 BCE — Today we mourn the passing of our beloved Patriarch Esau, tragically taken at the age of 147. To know him was to witness the pinnacle of filial piety; even the Sages admit no man honored his father as Esau did. He was a man of the earth, a "terrific hunter" who was also deeply concerned with the minutiae of the Law, famously asking his father how to tithe even the smallest grains of salt. He leaves behind a legacy of "tears and embraces," having reconciled with his brother Jacob after years of separation. A man of peace, a man of faith. May his memory be a blessing.
— The New York Times (Archival Edition)
Talk about fake news.
While the Sages noted that Esav displayed outward honor to his parents, the Midrash exposes the mechanism of the mask. Why do the Sages compare Esav (and the Roman State he fathered) to a swine?
"When the swine is lying down it puts out its hoofs, as if to say, 'See, I am kosher [split-hooved],' so does this wicked State rob and oppress, yet pretend to be executing justice." (Bereishit Rabbah 65:1)
This is the "Esavic" archetype: the predator who adopts the posture of the pious. When Esav asked his father about tithing salt, it wasn't out of devotion; it was a smokescreen to hide a life of idolatry and violence. When he "embraced" Jacob, the Midrash (Rashi on Gen. 33:4) notes that the Hebrew word for "kissed him" (v’yishakehu) is dotted in the Torah to suggest he actually tried to bite him.
The tragedy of the West is that it is built upon the most beautiful slogans ever devised: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. Human Rights. Democracy. The Rule of Law. But as the Sages observed of the Greek and Roman heirs of Esav: the exterior is a "beautiful shell," but the interior is hollow.
The Beatification of a "Modern Esav"
After Jimmy Carter died, we witnessed the "canonization" of a man the media portrays as an adorable peanut farmer—a gentle soul who builds houses for the poor and cares deeply about "social justice."
But if we look past the cloven hooves of Habitat for Humanity, we find the "swine" of the Midrash. Carter’s career was defined by a terrifying pattern: he never met a butcher he wouldn't embrace, provided they spoke the language of "revolutionary progress."
The Killing Fields of the "Human Rights" President
Nowhere is the Esavic mask more grotesque than in Carter’s handling of the Khmer Rouge. Under Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly one-third of the Cambodian population. They executed people for the "crime" of wearing glasses or speaking a second language.
When Vietnam finally invaded to stop the genocide, the "Human Rights President" reacted not with relief, but with cold, geopolitical spite. The Carter Administration imposed sanctions on the victims (Vietnam) and moved to protect the perpetrators. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s National Security Adviser, later admitted:
"I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot... Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him, but China could."
Carter continued to recognize the Khmer Rouge as the "rightful government" of Cambodia at the UN long after the skulls had piled up in the Killing Fields. He funneled millions in aid to the "border camps" controlled by these genocidaires. This is the "tithe of salt" in the modern age—building a house in Georgia while ensuring the murderers of 2.5 million people remained diplomatically fed.
The "Saint" and the Dictators
The list of Carter’s "holy" alliances reads like a manual for global suffering:
Romania: Carter praised the brutal communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, saying: "Our goals are the same: to have a just system of economics and politics... We believe in enhancing human rights." Ceaușescu’s regime was later revealed to be one of the most repressive and murderous in the Eastern Bloc.
Iran: Carter’s administration famously abandoned the Shah (a flawed but Western-aligned leader) only to pave the way for Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter’s UN Ambassador, Andrew Young, famously called Khomeini a "Gandhi-like figure" and a "saint." The result was a theological dark age, the birth of modern global terrorism, and the use of Iranian children as human "mine-clearers" in the Iran-Iraq war.
North Korea: In 1994, Carter bypassed the Clinton Administration to embrace Kim Il Sung, describing the tyrant as "vigorous and intelligent." He negotiated a "peace deal" that ultimately allowed the North Korean regime the time and resources to develop nuclear weapons. As Carter toasted the dictator with wine on a private yacht, Kim’s people were starving in gulags.
The Head in the Cave
There is a chilling Midrash about the death of Esav. When Jacob was brought to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah, Esav attempted to block the funeral, claiming the plot for himself. In the ensuing struggle, Chushim, the son of Dan, took a sword and decapitated Esav.
His head rolled into the cave and came to rest in the lap of his father, Isaac.
This is the ultimate metaphor for Western Civilization and Jimmy Carter. The body of Esav—the actions, the blood-stained hands, the support for Pol Pot and the Ayatollahs—stays outside the cave of the righteous. But the head—the intellect, the beautiful slogans, the "pious" speech—manages to roll into the sanctuary.
The West is a "Head of Esau" resting in a holy place. It speaks the language of the Patriarchs while its hands do the work of the hunter.
The Victimhood of the Hunter
In true Esavic fashion, Carter has never expressed remorse for the genocides he facilitated or the tyrants he propped up. When asked about his failures, he did not mention the 200,000 dead in East Timor (facilitated by his arms sales) or the 2.5 million Cambodians.
Instead, he lamented his "total incapacity to deal with the American press." He claimed, "I was treated more negatively by the press than any other president in this century."
Like Esav, Carter believes he is the real victim. He presents the "kosher hoof" of the peanut farmer and the Habitat for Humanity hammer, asking us to ignore the "Killing Fields" that his diplomacy helped fertilize.
As we look at the legacy of the 39th President, we must remember the warning of the Sages: Do not be dazzled by the "beautiful exterior." A head that rests in a holy place is still the head of a hunter.
