He Was a Good Man, But a Bad President
I am old enough to remember, but just barely, the Carter Presidency, I was a little elementary school aged kid. Even at that young age I was aware enough to notice my parents concern with the state of the nation, the direction of the country and I remember hearing their complaints about high prices, specifically gas and food. And I remember my mother’s concern over the possibility of war, with either the Soviets or Iran, or possibly both. I doubt my parents were ever so nervous under any other Presidential administration. They became what political scientists call “Reagan Democrats”. After Carter my parents never voted for a Democrat again. They were not alone in their political shift towards the Republican party, the Democrats lost the next three Presidential elections. For a decade after he left office, he was politically toxic for Democrats. So, when I got to college and began volunteering for the Republican party, the stench of Carter had not yet dissipated and I remember being told by one precinct captain, “Every time you are talking to a voter remind them that Jimmy Carter was a Democrat.”
Most people don’t remember now but Carter’s election in 1976 was a fluke. He had a very light resume, but in the wake of the Watergate scandal the country was looking for an outsider, that is someone not employed in Washington. Carter, a Navel Academy graduate, a Governor, businessman and a perceived moderate and fiscal conservative, seemed to be tailor made for the times. They say timing is everything in politics and the Carter experience proves it. The little-known Governor ran in the right year, any other year he wouldn’t have gotten his Party’s nomination, let alone elected President.
His strengths were his outsider resume, his vagueness on the issues, and his tenacity as a campaigner. In 1975 he camped out in Iowa shaking every Democratic voter’s hand. It worked he won the caucuses and was on his way to the nomination. The remarkable thing about Carter is that he had everybody fooled, conservatives thought he was a conservative Democrat, moderates thought he was a moderate, and liberals thought he was a liberal. For example, I had a friend who grew up in South Carolina in the 1970’s, he recalled hearing Carter’s campaign ads. On a country music station, he would hear one ad, the announcer, with Dixie being played in the background, reminded voters that Carter was a state’s rights southern Democrat. And my friend said on another ad which ran on a predominantly black radio station, Carter would talk about his support for civil rights.
It is interesting, if you look at the electoral map, Carter won every southern state but Virginia. Carter was the last Democrat to be able to claim the solid south, indeed the south provided him with the margin of victory. I do think that southerners regret electing Carter, and that no doubt accelerated the south’s shift towards the Republicans.
Well, being a blank slate helped him get elected, but it didn’t help him govern. While his party did controlled Congress, they didn’t like him and worked to sabotage his agenda. Ironically, he thought of himself as a great peace maker between the Arabs and Israelis, but he had trouble working with his own party in Washington. Carter was naive and sanctimonious, which no doubt turned off members of Congress. He also was poor manager of people, and he lacked leadership skills.
The Carter years were tough. On his watch the Soviets were on the march supporting communist insurgents all over the world, and at the same time America was in decline economically. Sensing Carter’s weakness the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and also the Iranians stormed our Embassy that year and took hostages. Carter attempted to rescue them, but it failed, adding to the feeling that he was a failure. Americans no doubt still had a fresh memory of us landing on the moon, but under Carter our rescue mission couldn’t get off the ground.
He could do nothing right it seemed and midway into his term the nation completely lost confidence in him. He was weak and ineffectual, and he even seemed to blame the country with his malaise speech.
Carter sought to fight for human rights, which is admirable, but he didn’t seem to factor in the ramifications for our own interests. For example, his failure to support the Shah of Iran led to a revolution, the Shah was overthrown, and the Mullah’s who took over were even worse abusers of human rights, especially for women. Iran, which was western oriented, was taken over by the religious zealots. The country became anti American and the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism. It is still being felt today. Who lost Iran? Jimmy Carter.
On the domestic front inflation was in double digits and mortgage rates were in the teens. In combination with a weak dollar, and an OPEC oil embargo energy cost soared, and in response Carter suggested in an address to the nation that people follow his lead, which was to wear a sweater and turn down the thermostat. It had to be the first time a President addressed the nation wearing a cardigan. He even put solar panels on the roof of the White House. It seemed the more he tried the worse he did, and the less confidence Americans had in him.
Well, no surprise Carter lost in 1980, in a landslide, the worst defeat for an incumbent President since Herbert Hoover in 1932. Carter only won six states plus the District of Columbia; Hoover also won 6 states. Carter left with a 34 percent approval rating.
Why now does the public today have a favorable view of Carter. Two main reasons most Americans weren’t alive when he was in office, and for the last 40 years he has gotten great press. The media in an effort to revive his legacy even came up with a new category, “the ex-presidency” or a “Post Presidency.” That is, they knew that they couldn’t praise his time in office, so they decided to highlight his time out of office. How convenient.
I always thought it is an odd thing to praise someone for. To me it’s like judging an ex-NFL player on his productive retirement. Like saying, Ryan Leaf was a great ex NFL quarterback.
With the help of the media, interest groups, and academia, Carter rebuilt his image. The media loved to show videos of him hammering in some nails while helping to build a house, no doubt it provided a great photo op for him, or passing out food at a homeless shelter, or observing elections overseas. The logic was doing these things was better than spending time playing golf like some ex-Presidents. If only more ex-Presidents would spend time building houses for poor people. But of course, they weren’t as virtuous as Carter.
Carter also spent his post presidency attacking Reagan, both Bushes’ and Trump. In 1990 when President Bush was trying to mobilize Arab nations to join us in a militarily effort to evicted Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait, Carter tried to undo the coalition. Why he wasn’t prosecuted under the Logan Act I don’t know.
He attacked Israel and denounced American foreign policy on multiple occasion. And because of those factors the left secured him a Nobel Peace Prize, something Carter clearly wanted, and probably lobbied for. Why did he win a Nobel Peace prize? Why Did Obama win a Nobel Peace prize? Same reason, for nothing specific, but in Carter’s case it was like a lifetime of service. In service to the left. Carter was no doubt happy to get the award, because he wanted to be a somebody. And for Carter these sorts of prizes were in and of themselves accomplishments.
They say that Jimmy Carter was a good Christian and a good man. I am sure that is true, but that always struck me as underwhelming praise especially for someone who for four years held the most powerful job on earth.
David Shephard is the author of two books. Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.
Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books
