Dear Progressive Reader,

Tuesday October 1 was the night of the long-awaited vice-presidential debate. While J.D. Vance showed his debate skills, honed at Yale Law School, the Midwest-born-and-raised Tim Walz showcased his simple down-to-earth style. Walz got in the best one-liner when he said to Vance, “That’s a damning non-answer,” after Vance refused to say that Trump had lost the 2020 election. However, the most quoted line of the evening may have come not from a candidate, but from co-moderator Margaret Brennan when she said during one of the few unruly moments: “Gentlemen, the audience can't hear you because your mics are cut.”

October 1 was another event as well—it was the 100th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter. Carter is the first former U.S. President to reach the century mark, and is most certainly remembered as our best ex-President for all that he has done since leaving the White House. “My life since the White House has been much more all-encompassing, much more enjoyable,” he told The Progressive’s Amitabh Pal in a 2008 interview. “The main thing that I’ve acquired in the last twenty-seven years has been access to the poorest and most destitute, forgotten, and suffering people on Earth. It’s not possible for a President to actually know them. But we go into the remote areas of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and actually meet with people who are suffering and find out why.”

Carter’s post-presidential years are marked by work with Habitat for Humanity, the Friendship Force, and the Carter Center which monitors elections around the globe. In November 2000, I had a chance to speak with Carter during a press opportunity that included a one-mile jog in Madison’s Olin Park. I asked him at the time if the Carter Center would be looking into the contested U.S. presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. He said no, because the United States would not grant them the level of access to data and information that other nations provided.

Carter’s time in the White House has been characterized as a “moral” presidency—coming in the wake of the years under “crook” Richard Nixon. In his Inaugural Address, Carter said “Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment to the basic principles of our nation, for we know that if we despise our own government we have no future. We recall in special times when we have stood briefly, but magnificently, united. . . . Our Government must at the same time be both competent and compassionate.” He echoed these sentiments two-and-one-half years later when he told the nation, “The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. . . . As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.” Today Carter clearly perceives this danger again. When asked by his son Chip recently about his upcoming birthday celebration, The Washington Post reports he told him, “It’s just a birthday. He said he cared about voting for Kamala Harris.”

This week on our website, Arvid Dilawar investigates the role of the Internet site Eventbrite in supporting illegal settlements in East Jerusalem; Stephen Zunes analyzes the escalation caused by “turning pagers and walkie-talkies into weapons of war” in Lebanon; and Nell Srinath writes about the continued impact on the Harris campaign of not halting weapons shipments to Israel in its war on Gaza. Plus Hilary Goodfriend and Alexander Main examine Mexico’s changes to its judicial system as a new president takes office; Eleanor Bader reviews the new book The Big Lie About Race in America's Schools; Kali Daugherty pens an op-ed on the need for paid family leave; and Griffin Dix, whose son was killed by an unlocked gun, opines on the important need for gun storage laws.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S, - If you are in or near Madison, Wisconsin, during the week of October 14, The Progressive is helping host two important films you should see before Election Day. On Tuesday October 15, we are welcoming a screening of the new documentary Bad Faith which tells the story of the rise of ChristianNationalism and its impact on politics. This one-night-only screening will be followed by a Q&A with scholar Nancy MacLean. Then on Thursday October 17, we will welcome the Madison premiere of Vigilantes, Inc.: America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen by investigative journalist Greg Palast. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Palast. Both events will take place at The Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Avenue in Madison. More information is available at barrymorelive.com.

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