A Tribute To A Peanut Farmer (updates)

I have to admit that there’s a lot to process when it comes to the news that former President Jimmy Carter has passed (which we were warned about some months ago as noted here), with Carter being the longest-lived former president and one of the three longest-lived world leaders.

Like many who have served in government in this country (though not so much given mostly the fools and charlatans we have now), Carter made himself through hard work, education (as an engineer), and service to our country. He has the second-longest record of military service of any president since 1950 besides Dwight Eisenhower. And you don’t end up serving on a nuclear submarine under a demanding taskmaster like Admiral Hyman Rickover by being a dummy.

I think, to really consider how Carter emerged, we need to look back (as well as we can) on the era where he rose to a politically elite status. He benefited from the template of a political “outsider” who served as a governor before he was elected to the presidency (Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Dubya would follow suit), though, to be fair, there were other presidents who had first served as a governor of a state before Carter who won the White House (James Polk, both Roosevelts, Rutherford B. Hayes and Woodrow Wilson, for example). This benefitted Carter in 1976 because the country was fed up both with Watergate and the Vietnam War (I was a teenager at the time and can recall this somewhat). Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon was a pretty loud and clear message that maintaining the status quo was paramount in D.C., and that was exactly the message that enough of the country who elected Carter did NOT want to hear (to be fair, Ford was also lampooned pretty ruthlessly in the media, and he had that debate slip-up where he said that the people of Poland did not consider themselves to be under then-Soviet domination, which was decidedly not the case). The mid-to-late ‘70s was also a bad era for the economy mainly because of OPEC and inflation, which hurt Ford in ’76 (and would do the same thing to Carter four years later). Reagan also made a play for the White House in 1976 which frayed the support of the Republican Party behind Ford (and again, Ted Kennedy would do something similar four years later, which also hurt Carter).

You can’t really call Carter’s 1976 election a mandate, since the results were pretty close. However, Ford respected the outcome and didn’t whine about fraud and file 60 lawsuits along with trying to get fake electors named to certify an illegal victory (like you-know-who of course, as noted here). Ford respected the process and allowed the winner to ascend to power (again, like Carter would do four years later). Ford and Carter came to respect one another, from an era where that kind of collegiality is probably now extinct unfortunately, though President Obama and Senator John McCain did manage to achieve that for a time later.

I believe Carter’s biggest problem as president was, ironically I guess, the fact that he really did try to govern as an outsider in a snake pit of a town run by politicians, consultants, lobbyists, and media poohbahs who hold sway pretty much regardless of which party is in power. On the plus side, he made the Department of Energy and the Department of Education cabinet-level positions. The Panama Canal treaty was also a net positive for this country, and normalization of relations with China (that whole process started under Nixon of course) was pretty much recognizing the inevitable. Another milestone of sorts for Carter was the “crisis of confidence” speech where he dared to talk to the people of this country like adults about consumption, primarily concerning our energy habits (here and here). Carter actually got about an 11-point bump in the polls as noted here (Reagan would later denigrate what Carter said of course, calling it the “malaise” speech, even though that word didn’t even show up in the text), but Carter negated any positives from the speech by firing his cabinet, giving ammunition to both Reagan and Ted Kennedy. Carter also pursued Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and the Camp David Accords with Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt in 1978 (I always thought Sadat was the most courageous of the three to pursue peace, and he was slaughtered for it by Islamist radicals three years later). To me, this all played into the narrative of Carter as the guy of big themes and actual or would-be accomplishments who didn’t suffer fools gladly, to the point where it ended up alienating most everyone around him. I’m not necessarily saying he was wrong, but only that that had a lot to do with undoing him politically (and oh yeah, was Carter ever right about the damn solar panels, which Reagan of course ripped from the White House the first chance he got). As president, Carter also deregulated the airline and trucking industries to make them more competitive, though that ended up playing into the corporate consolidation that has taken place in this country ever since. Also, I always thought Carter was completely played by his Federal Reserve Chair (and Reagan pal) Paul Volcker, who raised the federal funds interest rate to nearly 20 percent and ushered in the 1980-1982 recession (yes, it tamed inflation, but at a terrible cost to U.S. workers). Oh, and on the economy, let’s not forget candidate Reagan’s snarky quote that “Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.” Reagan also referred to “the Carter depression” in August 1980, even though Reagan economic advisor Alan Greenspan said, “I wouldn’t have used that term.” Despite inflation and a slowed-down economy, Carter still managed to create nearly 10 million jobs during his presidency as noted here.

Carter was buffeted by issues that likely would have crippled any presidency regardless of party, but no issue loomed larger than the Iran hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 after Ayatollah Khomeini took over that country. I’ll go along with the notion that Carter didn’t “read the room” in terms of how despised the Shah of Iran was (who of course this country installed after toppling that country’s elected ruler, Mohammed Mosaddegh, in 1958). It was inconceivable at that time, though, to realize that a nation-state would do what Iran did and take 52 American diplomats and associated personnel hostage for about 444 days. And speaking of Reagan, he basically committed treason by undercutting the Carter Administration’s efforts to free the hostages with his own deal to get himself elected in the bargain (here - something similar to what Richard Nixon did in scuttling the Paris peace talks to try and end the Vietnam War in 1968 so he could get elected also). I will unequivocally blame Carter for the failed hostage rescue attempt (I believe it was crippled by a literal desert storm which forced down our helicopters, taking the lives of 8 U.S. military personnel and 1 Iranian), but I will praise Carter for maintaining steadfast vigilance to ensure that all of our hostages returned even after Carter lost the 1980 presidential election. Also, boycotting the 1980 Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was probably the right call, but it played into the image of Carter as a moral scold, which allowed Reagan to continue acting like the amiable, “don’t worry, be happy” candidate he purported to be, which went over better with way too damn many voters in this country. I also once read that Carter wasn’t more combative towards Reagan and his relentless lies about Carter’s record during the debates because he expected the media to call out Reagan over his untruths, which pretty much didn’t happen.

According to historian Douglas Brinkley, “While in office, Carter...achieved a host of less showy, but still significant diplomatic military goals, Including restoring stable relations with Greece and Turkey, NATO’s southeast flank; reducing US ground troops in South Korea; pardoning Vietnam War draft resistors; concluding the Tokyo Round Trade Agreement; providing US assistance to the resistance in Afghanistan; making diplomatic overtures to Cuba and Vietnam; welcoming refugees from Indochina; scrapping the B1 bomber; and cancelling plans to develop a neutron bomb. The Carter administration's sheer level and range of activity, if not the results, suggested a foreign policy equivalent of the domestic activity of the first year of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal,” wrote historian Gaddis Smith. Instead of praising Carter for his many significant successes, however, most newspaper columnists reviewing his presidency in the 1980s credited Carter only for what he didn't do, such as abandon civil rights or send American soldier to war. As veteran newspaperman Haynes Johnson observed “No matter what Carter did, he received credit for almost nothing. And even Henry Kissinger admitted that Carter never really got a fair shake.” It should also be noted that Carter never received the benefit of nominating a U.S. Supreme Court justice (despite that, Carter can claim to be the author of these fine words).

I realize that the sort of “Cliff Notes” version of Jimmy Carter over the last 40 years or so is that of someone who has traveled the world on behalf of free and fair elections in emerging democracies, as well as someone who (through the Carter Center, which he founded of course) has fought health ailments across the globe such as trachoma, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and Guinea worm disease (here). And again, according to historian Douglas Brinkley (and if you want to truly read about Carter’s post-presidency, I wholeheartedly suggest Brinkley’s book), “Since leaving office, Carter had been involved in mediating an impressive list of foreign disputes, civil wars, and political transitions in such troubled lands as Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia. North Korea, Haiti and Bosnia. He had also monitored elections in Panama (1989, 1994), Nicaragua (1990, 1996), Haiti (1987, 1990, 1995), The Dominican Republic (1990), Zambia (1991), Guyana (1990 to 1992), Paraguay (1993), The West Bank/Gaza (1996), Liberia (1997), and Jamaica (1997).” And oh yes, there is the tireless work both he and Rosalynn performed for Habitat for Humanity as well as the legion of worthy causes in this post.

However, I think it’s important to look at Carter in a larger context, including his presidency and the forces he sought to bring to heel to fulfill the role I honestly believe he sought to fill as the political outsider trying to put government to work on behalf of this country (and not being shy about presenting hard truths to the nation when he believed it was warranted). As whatever tributes and remembrances unfold as we mourn the passing of our 39th president, I hope that we keep all of this in mind.

(Additional remembrances are here and here...and as always, pop culture imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.)...



And when it comes to a tune for this occasion, I have to admit that I kept coming back to this one. The Allman Brothers definitely supported Jimmy Carter, and I believe the man from Plains, Georgia lived his life as if he felt he indeed had no time to waste. I think we can all profit from such a sterling example of a life that was well-lived.

Adios, President Carter - fair winds and following seas.



Update 1: More here.

Update 2: And as I drove by Jim Worthington’s Newtown Athletic Club (here), the American flag was at full staff and not half staff...what an utter POS that guy is.

Update 12/30/24: Another important Carter legacy is noted by law professor Melissa Murray here.

Update 1 12/31/24: Worthington's flag at the NAC is still at full staff - what an assh*le!

Update 2 12/31/24: Yeah, it looks like Colorado state rep Matt Soper is as big of an assclown as Worthington (here, and more on Babi Yar Park is here).