The Under-Appreciated Jimmy Carter on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 76th Governor of Georgia at the age of 46 on this day in 1971. A relatively obscure Georgia state senator and operator of a peanut-growing business, Carter failed in a 1966 bid for the Democratic party nomination for Governor, but succeeded in 1970. Slightly more than six years later, the obscure Governor Carter would become the 39th President of the United States.

"Carter gets a very bad rap, particularly from libertarians and conservatives, but it's not entirely clear why. It has something to do with 'malaise' and lack of 'leadership.' And the Carter administration surely had its blunders, particularly on foreign policy. But Carter also oversaw major (and under-appreciated) foreign policy successes, such as the SALT II nuclear weapons reductions, the Camp David Accords ending the Egypt-Israel conflict, and the removal of US nuclear weapons from Korea...To fight stagflation, Carter appointed tight-money advocate Paul Volker to head the Federal Reserve Board, and Volker pulled the brakes on inflationary monetary policy — hard. It solved inflation but sent the economy into a painful correction that probably cost Carter reelection. And despite his personal big government sympathies, Carter's most lasting legacy is as the Great Deregulator. Carter deregulated oil, trucking, railroads, airlines, and beer." fee.org

So why do people hate Carter so much? Gene Healy suggests that it’s a case of perception over reality: "Carter-bashers seem obsessed with style over substance: that Mr. Rogers sweater, the 'malaise' speech, Carter’s sanctimonious, unlovable public persona — the way he seemed to personify national decline.

People want the illusion of control: a comforting, competent father-protector at the helm of our national destiny — and Carter couldn’t fake that role as well as most presidents before or since. Liberals downgrade the Carter presidency as one short on transformative visions: It brought no New Deals, no New Frontiers.

Instead, at its best, the Carter legacy was one of workaday reforms that made significant improvements in American life: cheaper travel and cheaper goods for the middle class. Ironically enough, the president you’d never want to have a beer with brought you better beer — and much else besides."

"Jimmy Carter may have been the last Jeffersonian to be president. A recent article in the Washington Post labeled him the “Un-Celebrity President.” In either case, Carter is a reflection of a people and a place. He is the most authentic man elected president since Calvin Coolidge, and like Coolidge a true Christian gentleman.

At the very minimum, Carter represented the Founders’ vision for a republican executive. He walked to his inaugural, refused to have 'Hail to the Chief' played while he boarded Air Force One or Marine One, carried his own luggage, and when soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan went home to Plains, Georgia to the same two bedroom rancher he built in 1961. He’s never left...Carter was never a political thug who would sink to purchasing votes for power. He was probably too nice for Washington. That should be a badge of honor." lewrockwell.com

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