Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
My guest tonight, the thirty ninth President of the United States,
who was also a Nobel Peace Prize winner. His latest
book is called Our Endangered Values America's Moral Crisis. Please
welcome to the program, President Jimmy Carter, Sary.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Nice to see you. Thank you for being rid us.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The book is called Our Endangered Values.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It is your twentieth book.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You have been traveling the world, monitoring international elections, doing
wonderful missionary work building homes. Sir, I ask you this,
Why are you busier? Why do you work harder than
our actual president.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, one reason is that although I have been governor
of Georgia, I have been President of the United States.
I have won a Nobel Peace Prize. I have eleven grandchildren,
and they don't think I'll be a success in life
until I've been on The Daily Show. And if I
was president, and if I was president, I couldn't be there.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I understand, sir, And that's what this show is for.
Give kids like you a break. We're here to help
you out.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
How did a.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Southern Baptist conservative really person become the nemesis of the
right in this country. There's a certain segment of the
country that demonizes Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It's a very small segment, a very small segment. Well,
I told the truth, and this book is damping out
about six weeks. Nobody's found anything wrong with it. It
points out, I think in very vivid terms, it's still
in sale.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That yes it is.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And by the way that they have Christmas gift, this
would make.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Absolutely And they have been dramatic and unprecedented basic changes
in America's policies that are deeply concerning to me. It's
not democratic versus republic, and it's not liberal versus conservative.
These are radical changes compared to what was done in
all previous administrations, including George Bush Senior and Dwight Eisenhower
(02:45):
and Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and all Democratic presidents
as well. These are radical changes, and that's what I
thought I'd devote my time. But it's my first book.
It's been about political issues.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
A lot of the changes you pegged to the rise
of fundamentalism, not just in this country but around the
world over the past thirty years, beginning with the hostage
crisis in Iran.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
That's true in religion and in politics, and lately what's
been of great concern, in addition to what I've already said,
is the merger of the two, the merger of religion
in politics, because I happen to be a Christian, and
I think that my religion teaches me that you should
run downder Caasar the things that are caesars, the God
(03:26):
and things that are God. And Thomas Jefferson, one of
our founding fathers, said that we should build a wall
between the church and state. That wall is being deliberately
and ostentatiously, not secretly, broken down. So there's been an
increasing merger in this country, a fundamentalism on the religious side,
fundamentalism on the political side, and the two have come together.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Do you have a sense in your mind why that
hasn't been stopped by the electoral process, Because there is
I see it everywhere concern over that type of extremely
for infiltrating itself into the government or these things, But
every election cycle that comes around doesn't seem to reflect
that dissatisfaction.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well, as a matter of fact, in the year two thousand,
I think the Democrats won.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So it ded with like that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, And two thousand and four the results of election
were predictably distorted because about nine or ten percent of
the American people will tell you today did they vote
for the incumbent president even if they don't agree with
him or as policies, as long as he is the
commander in chief of our young men and women overseas
(04:41):
with their lives in danger. So that the tremendous effect
of patriotism in this country. I think that patriotic incarnation
was strongly savaged but also very greatly utilized by their Republicans, and.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That changes the politics of it.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
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