Now, his fans like Chris Matthews would rush to correct me, and ask "How could someone who became president of the US HATE it?" (Matthews would be laughing at this point.)
Carter, like Gore, Kerry, Kennedy and most liberals, sincerely loves the US for what it COULD be, what it has the POTENTIAL to be, but what it has so far FAILED to be. They seem to believe that the US will be what it should be when it leads the world in perfecting a kind of democratic-socialist ideal. That is, people get to vote for their representatives, all of whom are philosophically socialists. See, the dirty secret of so many liberals is that they love money. Capitalism for themselves, but socialism for the masses, seems to be their guiding political philosophy--look at how many of them are rich, or who worship rich people.
To Carter and his ilk, this country came close, so very close, under FDR. The WPA and other government sponsorship of the arts is just one example of what America COULD be to them--this wonderful, benevolent monster government that COULD control your life but will only do so when you need a helping hand. (The difference between a real Dem and a real Republican is that Republicans believe in the helping hand, but for dire emergencies, while Dems think that's cruel, and that hand should be available whenever you ask.)
But FDR came and went, and Americans got into that dirty money thing, wanting their own home, wanting to keep the money they earned. Selfish.
So Carter sees himself and his pals as trying to turn this ship of government, and it is slow going.
But if his whole post-presidency life has been devoted to correcting the direction of country so far off course, how could he NOT hate this country?
Great analysis. I never thought about it from that standpoint and its consistent with what you see from the ‘Peace is Patriotic’ crowd.