We’re Going Home — Jimmy Carter

On Jan. 22, 1977, two days after being sworn into office, President Jimmy Carter called on all Americans to turn down their thermostats to 65 degrees during the day and cooler at night. We were in an energy crisis and using less natural gas and electricity was part of his plan to deal with it. He wasn’t a popular president.

As I write this post, Carter’s remains are enroute to Washington D.C. with his funeral service scheduled at the National Cathedral on Thursday, Jan. 9. I did not care for Carter as president. I caucused for Ted Kennedy during the Iowa precinct caucuses in 1980. If I had known then what I know now about Ronald Reagan, I would have been firmly in Carter’s camp and supported his re-election. Hindsight is usually twenty-twenty.

Because Jimmy Carter had a long post-presidential life, there is a tendency to revise the history of his presidency. Part of that is normal analysis. Part is wishful thinking. While working on another project, yesterday I found my journal entry about Carter written on May 30, 1982. I stand by this assessment of his presidency as much as anything else I recently read. Here it is in its unedited entirety:

About native ability: Jimmy Carter is one who comes to mind. He was a Washington outsider and this, I believe, was the cause of his downfall. In a popular magazine I read an article about Rosalynn and him down in Plains, Georgia living a life of word processors, bicycling, and family memories. Jimmy Carter seems to me to be a president who relied on his native ability to see him through. He was judged, even by members of his party, as a failure, though. Native ability was not enough.

Carter was decent, honest, and hard-working, but his lack of understanding of the Washington scene in which he placed himself made it impossible for him to be successful. His successor scorns him, members of the Democratic Party only extend the minimum of traditional courtesy due an ex-president. Yes, native ability is not enough these days. Not enough for Jimmy Carter, not enough for me.

There is a lot to be said about native abilities. It’s what made America what it was in its early days through the 20th Century. People call Carter a lot of things, yet the one that seems more apt is the “next modern president.”

What Carter sought to do was ahead of the times and he suffered for it. If his initiatives — like harnessing sunlight for energy, personal responsibility, human rights, respect for individuals, and others — had endured, America would be a much different place. Instead he is unrecognized, yet woven into the warp and weft of a society that believes it can be better than it is. He took steps to do what he could to realize such a place, using his native talents and abilities.

As Robert Browning said, “…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” It seems unlikely there will be another like Jimmy Carter. May he rest in peace.