On Jimmy Carter

On Jimmy Carter

Jan 07, 2025



Jimmy Carter was born two years ahead of my dad.  And like my dad, he was someone that was active all his life.  The above picture captures perfectly what kind of human Jimmy Carter was.   He got the shiner when working for Habitat for Humanity. My dad was also the type to be out there, working even after his hands were cut by barb wire or limping from a horse that stepped on his foot.  So, in some ways, especially later in his life, I looked at Carter through the prism of my dad.  

I was able to vote when I turned 18 in 1981, which meant I didn’t have the chance to participate in the election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.  But I clearly remember President Jimmy Carter.  I remember him beating Gerald Ford back in 1976.  I wrote a letter to Gerald Ford saying that I was sorry he lost to Carter, mainly because I felt bad for him as he had to clean up after Nixon and Vietnam.  No good deed goes unpunished.  Even at 13, I felt that the letdown of Nixon and the humiliation of a war that would be a forerunner for a lot of wars going forward, unwinnable due to lack of a moral compass.  So I wrote President Ford.   I got a letter back from his office saying he was grateful for my letter.  

In 1976,  we lurched into the bicentennial of the United States a bit shell-shocked.  Even a kid of 13 could feel that a change was needed in our country.  Carter was that change.  

I was dismayed that he gave the Panama Canal back to Panama, not because it made sense, but because my great grandfather was killed in a railroad accident helping to build it.   His death changed the trajectory of our family dynamics in many ways that we still are dealing with today.   Giving the canal back seemed to be a dishonoring of my great-grandfather’s sacrifice.  But such are thoughts of a young person unaware of geopolitics. 

What I do remember about Carter was that he was not a charismatic person.  He was very droll in his delivery and didn’t have the jaunty “I know what I am doing” sort of personality that Reagan had (at least during his first four years in office) or the stature of JFK, or the chutzpah of FDR.  He was plain spoken from Plains, Georgia.  

I dismissed his plain, honest, non-dramatic speaking as that of a person who lacked leadership, not personality.  How wrong I was in that aspect.  

During the early 1980’s, it would be doctrinal decisions in Europe that Carter put in place, (especially dealing with the Soviet Union), that the charismatic character of Reagan would accomplish.  Carter couldn’t tell Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in Berlin.  Reagan could as he had the dramatic bearing to do so.  But it was Carter who ultimately was the better statesman.  He was horrible at marketing his accomplishments.

I voted for Reagan when I was able to vote because I was afraid of war with the Soviet Union.  The Cold War was a real thing.  And I was of drafting age.  It would take me another four years of college and then working to make me realize that the idea of the “trickle-down” economics that was espoused by President Reagan was more akin to the wealthy peeing on the heads of the middle class.  I was (and am) on the receiving end.

I voted for George Bush, Sr.  He seemed an honorable man in my opinion.  It wouldn’t be until Bill Clinton’s second term that I would pull the lever for a Democrat, mainly because I couldn’t stand Newt Gingrich and his brand of Republicanism.  I wanted my vote to jolt Republicans into alignment with Lincoln’s morality.   And the way I was raised.  That didn’t happen.  

Clinton’s human failing with Monica Lewinsky brought in George W. Bush.  Like Gerald Ford, Al Gore would get the beating for another’s sins. (Though history will long study the results of that election.)  

Truly, the damage had been done.  It was clear to me there was an abdication of morals. Being a good person to serve in government was in danger.  The rise of mouthpieces such as Rush Limbaugh hastened the unraveling of unity.   Morals were now about having righteous anger for your viewpoint regardless of the truth.  

I also was a full-time musician by now.  I saw firsthand how people of all stripes were faring.  I played for the very poor and the very rich.  The only difference the majority of times was their financial inequality.  There are good people who are fortunate and good people who are unfortunate.  It was plain to me that we needed to protect people more unfortunate rather than punish them.  I felt that a “rising tide” should lift all boats, and that tide was a healthy middle class.  And my playing music, especially for those in dire need of it, was more important than any other sort of career.   As I have written before, it was a calling akin to the priesthood my mom would have been thrilled for me to have taken.  The same vows: poverty, chastity and obedience to the muse.  It wouldn't make me wealthy, but I was enriched just the same.  And I could bring people together with music.  (I am surprised that being a musician puts me almost in the same category as a bomb-throwing anarchist in the eyes of some folks! But that’s for another blog.)

All during these years of tumult, Jimmy Carter marched along, doing good in the world.  He showed me that being a person of character has nothing to do with theatrics. Though it could be argued that the presidency does call for some drama at times, it shouldn’t be all the time. 

Carter’s life after the presidency will be long remembered. He could very well be the last of our “good” presidents, a person who put his faith into practice, who turned the other cheek and used a hammer to build homes for the homeless rather than on his opponents.  His post-presidency was more presidential than his presidency could ever have been.  He was a person with standards more similar to Lincoln in my opinion.  And he was just as down to earth.  It is that example that I mourn. That I hope we can bring back to the leadership country. I didn’t see it in Carter when I was younger, but I sure do now. 

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