had Carter remained, the solar panels would have stayed on the White House, and
a) the US might now have the upper hand in solar energy, rather than China or Germany or nearly every other country in the world;
b) the fossil fuel industry might not have bloated to such undue influence in elections and government; and
c) Carter would have been far more open to sustainability. He was a nuclear engineer by training, a scientist, and a pragmatist who understood innovation;
had Carter been re-elected, the AIDS epidemic might not have killed hundreds of thousands of young men from prejudicial neglect;
had Carter stayed, unions might have survived;
had Carter kept engaged, there might now be a wider accord of peace in the middle east - following his breakthrough peace accord, rather than the ongoing war of Iran/Iraq and Afghanistan. Carter/Brzezinski might have turned the key, but Ronald Wilson Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush floored the gas pedal.
And for sure, had Carter stayed in office another four years, there would have been sufficient pressure on Israel to curtail the āsettlementsā which encroach daily on Palestinian land under the Accordsā¦ shrinking them to nearly nothing in the intervening 35 years.
Finally: Jimmy Carter may have been a bigot in his early lifeā¦ but he has the power to change, and he has the ability to empathize. Heās one of the few ex-Presidents in the past 35 years to āgetā #BlackLivesMatter and #PalestinianLivesMatter. Heās no saint, but Ronald Wilson Reaganās āhaloā is made of razor blades, shrapnel, used syringes, dead Marines, guns and a bright heaping dump on the American people.
very good analysis. He simply did not understand how to work with Congress, he thought that because they were Democrats and he was Democrats and he was the President, they would automatically follow his lead. I think that was the engineer in him showing, where he thought it was enough to have a good plan and then everyone else would see it was a good plan and act rationally.
He was elected due to the national mood in 1976, it was a unique moment in American history. Funny how the American people got what they demanded and didnāt like getting it.
if Carter had been a bit more like LBJ, there would not have been an October Surprise and he would have gotten Congress behind him. LBJ was a deeply-flawed president who accomplished both great and terrible things, but one thing is for sure: he knew how to get Congress to do what he wanted.
Itās painful to recall how vile yet effective the rancid comments by Ronald Reagan, already an effective ventriloquistās dummy in all ways were against every good idea Jimmy Carter proposed 40 years ago regarding Election Reform. Reaganās comments at the time were argued, but today are accepted as fact, we have moved so far to the stupid and to the right.
Further proof that Harry Truman was right when he would say āThe only āGood Republicansā are pushing up daisies.ā They have always been assholes and scum and traitors. ALWAYS. Or at least since 1866.
If you want to know who āgave us Reaganā look at every one of us over the age of 18 back then who didnāt vote that year because we were ādiscouraged.ā Every time the left gets ādiscouragedā (see: 2010) it gets its head handed to it. āMan up,ā you fee-fee kids (of both genders)!
Jimmy Carter pardoned the Vietnam draft resistors. If he had not done so, families would still be divided, and the country would still be divided by that war. At my age, some of my high school friends had older brothers who went to war. We had lottery numbers (although the draft ended when we were a year too young to get called). As far as Iām concerned, this act of spiritual generosity on Carterās part is enough for me to forgive him for anything else in his presidency.
and the right-wing went apeshit over that, just like they went apeshit over the Panama Canal treaty (which was actually a good idea in retrospect). He was indeed too farsighted for his own good.
well ya can thank inpart the cowardly and infected dems and that evil liberal media(yeah rite) that let ronnie ray gun and georgie bush sr for getting away with ntheir crimes and lets not forget clinton for sayin ah hell lets not bother sending these two criminals to prison( not an exact quote by any means) the dems had as much to do with reagan getting away with his crimes as any republicon
THANK YOU for distilling Carterās historic essence so succinctly.
I cannot think of any living American politician that has worked so tirelessly and selflessly EVERY DAY more than this sweet,smart,inspiring and lovable man from Plains.
Thatās a bit simplistic, donāt you think? Mr. Perlstein has written three books (working on a fourth) on a subject that you just reduced to four words.
That die was cast when Ford pardoned Nixon. If Clinton had tried to prosecute Reagan and Bush, Congress wouldnāt have waited until 1998 to impeach him.
Jimmy Carter has been both successful and valuable in his lifetime, but I believe if you asked him if he had to chose between the two, he would without hesitation say it is far better to live a life of value. His life has been perpetually valuable to others.
āBut for a president in office in the 1970s, confronted with
impossible complexities, moral conundrums and the beginning of the
polarized partisan politics that make governing almost impossible
today, it was an unusual base of mental operations.ā
People more knowledgeable than you thought differently. I am sure Obama didnāt feel he deserved it either but The Committee saw a great man with a vision for peace.
