On Love, Loss and Failed Leadership

Reflecting on Jimmy Carter's funeral, the Los Angeles fires and the sentencing of Donald Trump

At former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington’s National Cathedral. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)

I had planned a more detailed post for today, but a bad case of the flu has gotten in the way. (In my fall distractions, I foolishly failed to get my annual flu shot. I hope you’ll be smarter and get yours. There’s still time.) Given the flood of news these last days, I do want to share with you some observations.

I have heard from friends in Los Angeles the last few days who have been forced to evacuate their homes without any certainty what will remain when they return. The near-total devastation of Pacific Palisades and the destruction of other parts of the city as a result of drought, massive Santa Ana winds and overwhelming wildfires have traumatically demonstrated the extreme danger of our climate crisis. Early estimates of the catastrophe are over 10,000 structures destroyed, at least 10 lives lost and over $50 billion in damages. The potential of natural disaster is not new for L.A.—canyons along Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean have periodically faced wildfires and floods and mudslides for decades. But this new conflagration may finally push residents who love their city to think twice about whether they can still tolerate this omnipresent, life-and-death danger.

I lived in Santa Monica for seven years. I can’t tell you how many times my family and I drove along the stunningly beautiful Sunset Boulevard toward the Pacific Palisades village to visit the bookstore, the library, a cafe or a grocery store—then stopped at Will Rogers State Park to see the historic ranch house the famous humorist built in 1928. All of these are now gone, as are the homes of most of the residents who’ve lived there for decades and in some cases generations. So are many Malibu houses built along the ocean’s edge.

I think it’s impossible to live on the Westside of L.A. and not know that there’s a serious risk of wildfires and other natural disasters, including earthquakes. But what’s usually true in the stories of people who lose everything is that they never thought it would happen to them. That’s why they often don’t do the planning for those fateful minutes in case of such a disaster. (I confess that I never did when I lived there.) This fire is the worst possible way of learning that the effects of global warming can hit anyone, whatever may be your politics, finances or view of the legitimacy of climate change driven by fossil fuels. Here’s hoping the current fires are soon contained.

The state funeral of Jimmy Carter yesterday at the National Cathedral was touching and uplifting in many ways, particularly because the various eulogizers—including President Joe Biden—reminded us once again of the former president’s essential decency, compassion, love of country, love of people and commitment to public service. His grandson, Jason Carter, may have best captured this by describing his grandfather’s life as a “love story, about love for his fellow humans and about living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.” And, “he led this nation with love and respect.”

He also reminded the audience—eliciting warm laughter—that while Jimmy and Rosalynn lived four years in the Georgia governor’s mansion and four years in the White House, they lived some 92 years in the small town of Plains, Georgia. They were, he said, despite the heights they achieved in this life, “regular folks.”

But in this moment, when environmental disaster is upon us, it’s also worth recalling that Jimmy Carter was a progressive thinker with an agenda intended to slow the damaging affects of rising CO2 levels. As Jason Carter put it, “Fifty years ago he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources.”

You may recall that Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House—one small, but innovative illustration of his commitment. You likely also know that when Ronald Reagan took over in 1980, he proudly, arrogantly stripped away those solar panels. Forget conservation. Forget the need to drive smaller cars that emitted less carbon dioxide. Forget the idea of constraining the fossil fuel industry. America was back, baby. And one of those companies, ExxonMobil, did its part by burying its own studies from the 1970s that predicted rising temperatures and the long-term, damaging impact on our planet from burning fossil fuels. It’s hard to overstate the tragedy of the country choosing leadership that minimized, ignored or just plain didn’t understand the scientific reality that has led us to our current predicament.

Which leads me to Donald Trump, who, as we know, has called climate change a hoax and proudly, arrogantly, stupidly asserted throughout his campaign that an immediate tenet of his agenda would be “Drill, baby, drill.” I dread to see the various ways he and his enablers will seek to undo Biden’s significant commitments to reducing carbon emissions and building an infrastructure to help mitigate and withstand the continuing realities of the climate crisis.

Several days ago, Trump took a phone call from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, ostensibly to hear Alito’s support for one of his former law clerks to receive a government position. But this came just days before the highest court would decide on whether Trump’s sentencing on his 34 felony convictions in New York would proceed today. It was another disgraceful reminder how little Alito cares about any appearance of corruption or impropriety. Unsurprisingly, Alito refused to recuse himself from Trump’s case.

In a small reason for uplift, five of the nine justices refused to stop the sentencing. That included Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the murky presidential immunity ruling, and Amy Coney Barrett joining the court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Alito, of course, joined the extremists who would have given Trump another legal pass from accountability.

And what of the sentencing? Judge Juan Merchan gave Trump an unconditional discharge, at least insuring that the felon would be properly termed a convicted felon and would carry that fact into his presidency. It’s impossible to consider this justice served. After reviewing falsified business records cases from the last 10 years, The New York Times reports that no other defendant in that period has received an unconditional discharge. While a third were sentenced to less than a year of jail, others received more than a year “or were sentenced to probation, conditional discharges, community service or fines.”

Of course, Trump complained in the sentencing hearing about his “very terrible experience” and asserted again his total innocence. Yet prosecutor Joshua Steinglass reminded the judge that “far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our institutions and the rule of law.” He also accurately summarized that Trump “has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm’s way.”

Ten days from now, this convicted felon will be inaugurated into the presidency again. At a time when the country and the globe faces real challenges—and I would put the existential threat of climate change among the top few—we will be saddled with a man who denies climate change, despises science and expertise, and expresses his disdain for and works to further undermine an educated, informed citizenry. As much as I take heart in this tiniest sliver of legal accountability, it reminds me how we will need to deal with Trump’s ongoing distractions, corruption and criminality with the recognition that it stands in the way of finding real solutions and making critical changes.

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