Life of service
Jimmy Carter’s passing is mourned because of his life of service, honesty, and faith. He is unquestionably the most successful of the “ex-Presidents” in that he achieved much after he left office. His work with Habitat for Humanity and nearly eliminating the guinea worm that caused blindness in Africa were outstanding successes. Carter’s presidency, however, was adjudged by some as a failure given Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980.
True, Carter left office after suffering the worst re-election defeat since Herbert Hoover’s loss to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Moreover, Carter saw Democrats lose the Senate for the first time since 1952. Partially it was because the Georgian behaved more like an independent than a Democrat. In 1977, despite having 292 Democrats in the House, Carter’s proposals were supported mostly by conservatives and moderate Republicans rather than by liberals in Congress.
This is understandable when one reflects that Carter was a businessman, having made money primarily from warehousing and growing peanuts. Therefore he tended to get along with small businessmen in the GOP more than the professionals that dominated the Democratic party. He was an anomaly, a candidate that was known as “Jimmy who?” in 1975 to then capture the Democratic nomination in 1976 over the objections of that party’s establishment.
Carter was not a tax and spender, and pursued deregulation in airlines and trucking that did not fit the model of a party regular. Now the Democratic elites may have been correct, however, in that Carter’s approach did not help retain power.
Thomas “Tip” O’Neill was no fan of the president, seeing him as stubborn and untutored in the ways of Washington D.C. He had a point; by 1980, when inflation raged and the Iranian hostage crisis went on endlessly, Carter had to fend off a primary challenge from Edward Kennedy.
In addition, one of the Republican moderates Carter liked so much, John Anderson, challenged him as an independent candidate.
But in the end, Carter cared more about doing what he considered correct than political expediency. He did not crave the presidency, as he proved when he left office without rancor or regret.
His measurement of success came from his Christian faith and his moral compass. In humanitarianism, he ranks in comparison with Tolstoy and Gandhi. Like these prophets, he abhorred materialism and greed in full view during the “era of greed” in the 1980s. He lived very modestly in the small town of Plains Georgia, where he cheerfully taught Sunday school at his Baptist Church. As with Thomas Jefferson, Carter did not rank winning the presidency as his highest achievement. That rank went to his marriage to Rosalyn, which lasted 77 years.
Carter’s warning about the limits of “the Economy, Stupid” approach to politics and society should be heeded. It has produced a rootless elite that knows more about the cash box than the American past. Indeed, Carter lived to 100 and knew a thing or two about values that counted. May he rest in peace and with honor.