Jimmy Carter, 98, goes into hospice.
I consider him an excellent president.
Some events a president can shape. Other events shape a presidency.
There is an apocryphal story of King Canute, leader of England beginning in the year 1016. The legend is that he sought to make a point to his flattering courtiers about the limits of his power. He brought his throne to the ocean shore facing an incoming tide. He commanded the tide to retreat. Of course, it did not. The story goes that he then announced, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings."
People inclined to consider Jimmy Carter a poor president observe that he was a good man in a job that requires a ruthless man. He bent over backward to show he had clean hands by selling his peanut farm, lest he be considered self-dealing. But that same impulse to be sure no one was taking special advantage had him looking at the sign-up sheets for the White House tennis court, to be sure that senior people weren't taking advantage of junior people. He micromanaged fairness.
Carter redirected American foreign policy toward support of democratic values. He supported "human rights." That sounds all-American good, but it ran counter to foreign policy "realpolitik" in which foreign policy is hard headed, practical, and played for national advantage, however cynical and hypocritical. What if the country abusing human rights was an ally?
Jimmy Carter lost the election to Ronald Reagan in 1980 because Carter's very election in 1976 was an aberration in the political mood in America. America was in retreat from civil rights. The civil rights laws enacted under Lyndon Johnson in 1964-1968 were a high point of realization for a majority of Americans that Blacks had been treated unjustly. They were blocked from the vote, from education, from employment. America passed laws to address that. And then the backlash grew: Hey wait! Equality meant that Blacks might be a classmate, a child's spouse, a competitor for a job, a boss, a neighbor! Not so fast! Richard Nixon had a "southern strategy" to shape that backlash.
Jimmy Carter won a narrow victory in 1976 anyway. He was the wrong mood on civil rights but he was the right man to be the not-Nixon, candidate. He taught Sunday school. He was a born again Christian. America was ready for a good man as president.
But an unstoppable tide in the form of an energy shock was facing the USA. In response to U.S. support for Israel, countries in the Middle East agreed to cut production and raise the price of oil. Oil tripled in price. The West had built economies around cheap oil. People drove big cars with poor gasoline mileage--why not? Buildings were not energy efficient--why should they be? Energy was cheap. There were lines at gasoline stations to buy high-priced fuel.
He urged people to turn down the heat, to wear a sweater, to conserve energy for the common good. And to drive 55 miles per hour.
I was an aide to a U.S. Congressman (Jim Weaver, Democrat) during his presidency. I staffed a booth at the Jackson County fairgrounds with a display of a bushel of wheat and an empty oil barrel. A sign announced a policy of a fair trade that Weaver said America should insist on: "A bushel of wheat for a barrel of oil." But the world market price of oil was five times that of a bushel of wheat. Petitions and wishes didn't change that. Those prices were the incoming tide
High oil prices meant double-digit inflation. Every contract had a cost of living adjustment calculation. Jimmy Carter promoted Paul Volcker to be Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. It was typical Carter. He did the right thing, not the politically advantageous thing. Inflation-hawk Volcker pushed interest rates up into the teens, starting a recession and intentionally raising what candidate Ronald Reagan called the "misery index." High inflation and high unemployment are two more iterations of incoming tide. They end presidencies. Carter lost the 1980 election.
Carter went on to do what good people do. He did not contest the election. Indeed he graciously conceded the election to Reagan at dinnertime Pacific time on election day, when voters in Oregon were still casting votes. I was on the ballot as a Democrat running for County Commissioner. I was alarmed this would suppress my vote. Somehow, I won.
Jimmy Carter looks old fashioned now. He and Rosalynn live in a two-bedroom, one bath house. He never cashed in on being president or post-president. Trump has persuaded a great many Americans that honesty and virtue in business, personal life, and politics is a loser's game. Presidents need to be strong and ruthless, not good. Virtue is for suckers. It is a dog eat dog world. You want to be led by a fighter, not a saint. I respect Jimmy Carter. I lament fact that he seems so very quaint, so very last-century.
Jimmy Carter didn't change who he was. America changed.
I never knew the why behind the tennis court scheduling. Thanks for the excellent column.
Peter, your Jimmy Carter post was spot on. I've always admired Jimmy as a decent guy who always tries to do the right thing. His post-presidential life is something we all need to aspire to.