A Man for All Seasons

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Last week, Jimmy Carter’s family announced that, per his wishes, he will be placed in hospice care at his home, a fitting end for a man who cherished his roots above all else. The ex-president has been battling cancer for years, and, at ninety-five years old, he has been growing increasingly fragile—not that that has slowed him down. He continued working even after he cracked his pelvis in a fall in 2019. Carter has continued constructing new homes almost nonstop for his Habitats for Humanity project throughout his illness and despite the vagaries of old age.

Jimmy Carter is somewhat of an anomaly among politicians. While most ex-presidents reside in stately mansions or shuttle between multiple vacation homes, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter have never (besides their years in the White House) moved away from their simple ranch house in Plains, Georgia, even though they easily could have. The ex-president has been a successful peanut farmer and investor for years. His estimated net worth, depending on the source, ranges anywhere from five to sixty million dollars. 

The Bushes have a vacation home Kennebunkport, Maine, The Trumps have Mar-a-Lago, and the Obamas live in D.C.—as well as still having a beautiful home in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Bill Clinton lives in the upscale town of Chappaqua, New York and maintains an office New York City. These ex-presidents have written books, taught, gone on speaking tours, and engaged in various other (sometimes less noble) activities. If they weren’t already wealthy, they would—as a direct result of their presidencies—soon be. 

The difference between them and Jimmy Carter, however, is that Carter never forgot—or forsook—his humble beginnings. At one point, after he left the Navy, he and his wife Rosalyn moved back to Plains to take over the family’s struggling peanut farm and were forced to live in public housing until Mr. Carter was able to return the family business to a paying basis. Appalled by the segregationist policies and being a supporter of racial tolerance, Carter ran for state senate in 1961 and became an outspoken advocate for civil rights and a staunch supporter of President John F. Kennedy. After being elected governor in 1970, Carter continued to focus on civil rights as one of his main priorities. He also instituted educational reforms and showed a budding concern for environmental issues. 

In 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Carter set his sights on the White House, positioning himself as a Washington outsider who could bring decency back to government and was elected in 1976, narrowly defeating incumbent Gerald Ford—Nixon’s tarnished vice-president. Although his term as president was marked by economic woes, including high inflation and recession, which were exacerbated by the energy crisis of 1979. Carter did propose the bill that established the Department of Energy and encouraged Americans to conserve energy by turning down thermostats and driving less. He even installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. Carter also created the Department of Education and attempted to pass a mandatory health care bill.

Carter also brokered the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He also pulled the US from the 1980 Olympic Games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but, unfortunately, his presidential term is always best remembered for the Iran Hostage Crisis, in which 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran for over a year. After Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election, it was revealed in a declassified CIA memo that the Ayatollah Khomeini used the crisis to engineer Reagan’s victory. 

After retiring from the presidency, Carter, in his book Beyond the White House, vowed, as did Harry Truman, never to use his fame as a former leader to gain greater fortune. Like all other ex-presidents, Jimmy Carter established his presidential library in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. He then also started the Carter Center, and since then, the ex-president has focused his efforts on diplomacy in the Middle East and joining forces with Nelson Mandela as well as traveling to Cyprus, Korea, Darfur, and Sudan. The Carter Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating human suffering and has contributed to the eradication of disease in Africa and works in tandem with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, partly for his outspoken criticism of George W. Bush’s aggression against Iraq. 

In the years since his presidency, Carter is probably best known for his work with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization dedicated to constructing or improving homes for the less fortunate. He does not simply advocate or raise money for the organization; he is frequently seen on sites pounding nails and sawing wood. He is also still active in the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. 

While his presidency may not be regarded as one of the more distinguished or successful in American history, Jimmy Carter was a singular American leader because of his humility and his common human decency. Most of his policy was formulated not for political advantage or personal gain, but for the betterment of all. Social equality, educational opportunity, fair access to medical care, and environmental awareness were his priorities. On the world arena, Carter brokered a peace between two of the bitterest enemies in the war-torn Middle East. He imposed severe sanctions on the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan. During his governorship, he had the courage to stand up to segregationists and racists in his home state of Georgia to fight for civil rights. 

In our present era of acute political divisiveness, dark money lobbying, and the blatant and pervasive lying which has filled the hallowed halls of our government, Carter’s legacy seems to exemplify a set of anachronistic ideals. For a man of humble beginnings to rise to the highest office in the land with the sole ambition of making life better for his fellow countrymen—all his fellow countrymen—seems naïve. 

Those of us who experienced the Carter Administration also witnessed the antithesis of it: a sitting president who attempted to overthrow his own government to stay in power by lying to the American people. That both these men were elected president during a single lifetime seems unthinkable. That America has sunk to this level—to elect and support such a man as Trump—is deplorable. And embarrassing.

One of Carter’s professed flaws was his unwillingness to work with other politicians, to play the usual political Washington games. Perhaps it might be a mistake to term this a flaw. Perhaps Carter, ahead of his time on social and environmental issues, was a greater leader than many of us knew then—or will ever know. His decency was constant and unwavering.

We wish him the best and will remember him fondly and with the greatest respect and gratitude.

Sources

https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-on-president-carters-health.html

https://archive.org/details/beyondwhitehouse00cart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Center