So, here was the post from 2012:
This probably would have been more timely on the first of this month, for President Carter's birthday. He turned 88 this year.
Still, the timing of this, though it could have been better, still is not all that bad. Recently, the Nobel prizes were big news, as a new round of them were rewarded. This happens to be the ten year anniversary of Jimmy Carter being rewarded the Nobel prize for peace (and unlike the sitting President, Jimmy Carter actually earned his Nobel). Also, this is the season of the Presidential elections, and so it seemed appropriate, somehow, to honor my favorite ex-President. Jimmy Carter first won election on November 2, 1976. He lost his re-election bid on November 4, 1980 (thirty-two years ago today). Now, we are two days away from voting yet again for the President for the next four years, either by collectively re-electing Obama, or voting in Romney as the new President. So, honoring another President from another era is timely, I think. Particularly since, to mention the current President yet again, Obama is often being compared to Jimmy Carter. Whether or not that is a fair comparison (and I mean that on several levels) is not as clear. But on this eve of another monumental Presidential election, it seemed somehow appropriate (to me).
That said, I personally think that the comparisons are just a Republican scheme to win an election, by linking the no longer so popular Obama with Jimmy Carter, who they claim was a failed President. It is an argument created and fomented in order to score political points, but hardly qualifies as an informed, let alone objective, analysis of those years. We cannot view Jimmy Carter, or his Presidency, strictly through the eyes of political opportunism, or we miss something. Perhaps the same can be said of virtually any President or world leader, and/or the times that saw them leading their land.
Also, and here this is just personal opinion, but Obama does not warrant any real comparisons to Jimmy Carter, because, simply put, he does not compare. That may sound harsh, but I still do not believe that Obama has done enough to prove himself. Jimmy Carter, while President, spoke about specific things that he felt we needed to do for a brighter future decades on down the line. It was very unpopular, and surely contributed to his re-election loss in 1980. Obama, although also unpopular, has not done much to go against the grain of popular political thinking. He clearly like poll numbers and the possibility of being reelected, but he has not shown the ability, in my opinion, to do what is best for the country, even at the expense of his own political ambitions. Maybe, if he gets a second term, that might change. Maybe. We shall see, if he gets re-elected.
Let me also be clear on one more topic: Jimmy Carter actually earned his Nobel Peace Prize for a lifetime commitment to peace and trying to make the world a better place, while Obama won his coming off the tidal wave of popularity in 2008 that saw him sweep into power here in the United States. He won an election, and was essentially given the Nobel Peace Prize for it was like he was being handed everything, and I, for one, felt that felt cheapened the award, as well as Obama himself. Since taking office, Obama has failed to closed Guantanamo, or even to put an effective end to the torture debate in the United States. He claims he will not resort to it personally, but he is a politician. Even if he does not, he certainly allowed for the possibility of a succeeding President being able to use those kinds of things. He brags about killing Osama bin Laden, and also speaks openly about drone attacks. He did not hesitate to bomb Libya, and claimed to have ended the war in Iraq, although tens of thousands of troops remained there (something that seemed to me a bit reminiscent of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" gaffe, just another political gimmick). He openly spoke in 2008 about expanding the war in Afghanistan, and made good on that promise. Also, he passed the NDAA, which in effect, gives the President the power to suspend habeas corpus. Once again, he gave reassurances that he himself would not use those powers, but he clearly made it easier for a future President to abuse those privileges. Now, if someone wants to, they can break down those things individually and makes arguments, or excuses, for why he did those things that he did. It is all politics, and he had to do some things to show he was tough, some things perhaps were political compromises. I understand all of that. But ultimately, if you take those things collectively, it does not make him exceptional, and certainly, does not make him worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Where were his tireless efforts to negotiate some Mideast Peace treaty, like Carter managed to do, seemingly against impossible odds? Can anyone tell me, truly, what he did to earn the Nobel Peace Prize? I'm sorry, but his "winning" it in 2008 cheapened the award. Period. it was just politics, with the endorsement of a popular new President who was not George W. Bush. But that alone does not a Nobel Peace Prize make.
Although what Carter said might not have been popular at the time, I bet, if Americans really understood then what they increasingly are coming to understand now all these years later - especially now, in the aftermath of yet another disaster, when gas prices, which have escalated in price beyond all reasonable projections from his time in office, are so astronomically high, yet expected only to rise further, when we have fought numerous wars for oil, and when every President since Carter has also paid lip service to achieving America's energy independence, yet none seem to find a way to do it. Few, in fact, have even seriously tried. But Carter was serious and, if the American people had also been serious about it, we would have had a thirty plus year head start, and likely, would have gone much farther than we have thus far in actually achieving it. I cannot help but wonder how much better the country, and perhaps the world, might have been had we actually followed up on that then. But, since we seem intent on learning lessons the hard way, we are really only beginning to learn all of that now, aren't we? But we can only blame ourselves, because despite many Americans perceptions that Carter pointed the finger of blame at anyone but himself, the truth of the matter is that Americans pointed their finger of blame at him, rather unfairly. In fact, he was a serious man who was trying to come up with serious solutions, and we certainly could have done worse than to take him seriously and at least give him a chance.
Instead, we chose worse, and we got what we paid for, so to speak. We did not want to sacrifice voluntarily then, so now, changes are being forced upon us, and we have to learn to adapt.
But he is man who tried to show us a better way, and here, I want to pay homage to him.
So, here I will write my tribute to Jimmy Carter.
I do this because it is my belief that he was perhaps the most underrated President in history, and that had the American people been more patient and, frankly, responsible at that time, we would not be in the mess that we find ourselves presently. Certainly, I don't think that we would have found ourselves in multiple wars involving an oil rich region, started by a President who got rich off of oil (as did numerous prominent members of his administration), and who, with no trace of irony or hypocrisy in his demeanor, once said that America was addicted to oil. As if we needed him to point that out. As if Bush actually did anything about it, to break our addiction or improve the situation.
Now, had we listened to President Carter, and if we had actually followed up on that and seriously tried to do at least some of what he was suggesting, this nation would be far better off now then it presently is. Americans today, blinded by their own perceptions of themselves, and be their sense of superiority, judge Jimmy Carter for what he was not able to control - most obviously the Iran hostage situation. But I will go so far as to say that history will judge that very American sentiment - some might call it arrogance - that instead turned to his successors to bring the illusion of a superpower that had everything, the whole world really, under it's control. That selfish, blind, and presumptuous desire is the main reason that we are in the huge mess (or perhaps series of messes) that we now find ourselves under, and which has at least partially buried much of the high standard that this nation used to enjoy in it's glory days.
The common consensus for many Americans in regards to Jimmy Carter follows along these lines, roughly: he is a very decent man and does a lot of good, both here and abroad, but he was a lousy President.
Not everyone would agree with this assessment. There may be some truth to this claim. Of course, some true cynics would suggest that Carter is not such a decent guy at all, but whatever most people think of his Presidency, it is probably safe to say that those who think so poorly of Carter are in the tiny minority.
The years under President Carter were difficult and tumultuous years. The United States, under President Richard Nixon, had needed to come to terms with two sobering chapters in it's history - Vietnam and Watergate. There had been a major energy crisis in 1973, and America also had to adjust, and rather suddenly, with the seemingly sobering idea of being more reliant than they were comfortable with on foreign oil, given the greater reliance on oil imports from foreign lands - particularly the Middle East. That was what Jimmy Carter walked into on that day when he took the oath of office, just before becoming the first President to get out of the limousine and walk the mile and a half or so to the White House, which was to become the new home for the Carters for the next four years.
Initially, approval ratings for the Carter Presidency were quite high. His walking along the parade route, as well as wearing a more common suit, rather than an expensive, tailored one, seemed to make him moe approachable, more of an every man.
But that did not last for too long.
President Carter is remembered most specifically for two speeches. The energy speech, and the so-called "malaise speech". He was criticized for both speeches but, even years and years later, he said that he could not really find anything wrong with them, particularly with the "malaise speech". He was making some points, and the speeches were as strong a way of making those points as possible.
Still, he was chastised, much like President Obama is chastised these days, for allegedly blaming others, for finger pointing, and never accepting the fault for things when they went wrong. Yet, the fact of the matter is that those who created problems that would need to be dealt with sometime in the future should not get away with it scot free, simply because they are no longer in power. When, for example, it is said today that we cannot afford the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest among us, it indeed is not Obama that should be blamed, but Bush and his team - as well as the American people who supported them.
I never understood that, of course, because frankly, most problems do not just suddenly pop up, but in fact, do have origins years and sometimes decades earlier than when they really hit the fan, so to speak. Yet, for a nation with apparently short-term memory, and with a nation that seems to feel entitled to instant results, trying to explain this does no good. Might as well talk to a brick wall.
But that is not Carter's fault. I don't really know that it's anybody's fault in particular, although I have more respect for Jimmy Carter, who was willing to speak frankly and tell the nation what would happen in the future, if they did not take steps to take control over their own addictions, than for the man who succeeded him, who knew how to deliver before a camera, and was willing and able to flash his winning smile and tell America what it wanted to hear, rather than what it needed to hear. The 1980 election was not so much about a failed presidency, as it was style over substance. Jimmy Carter had substance, and really thought about the predicaments that faced the nation, and he tried at least to come up with real solutions. Perhaps people did not like the solutions that he came up with (and again, it seems to me that it was because they could not be bothered to so much as lift a finger to sacrifice anything to make our situation more workable in the long term), and so they rejected him. But Reagan offered nothing in terms of long-term solutions himself. He was the consummate politician, although many people would think it blasphemy to suggest such a thing. he was a handsome and recognizable face, who could act the part of a warm father (or maybe Grandfatherly) figure. He could smile before the cameras and tell you that things are okay, that whatever the problems America is facing, he believed it's best days were ahead of it, although he himself did numerous things to assure that the best days were, in fact, behind it. Reagan offered style, at a time when Americans were increasingly turning to style over substance, to mindless consumerism and selfishness over sacrificing in order to do what was best for the nation. Perhaps, the 1980 election was the turning point in the history of the United States, when America became too inward looking, and took the first step down an inevitable path that saw America lose much of it's muster.
I would argue that, in this case, it was the American people that were wrong. At least as wrong as they assumed Jimmy Carter to be, in any case. They failed the leader that they had elected. Failed to listen to his prognostications, which turned out, in fact, to be accurate.
We are all still paying the price for it, collectively. We as a nation would have been better off had we followed the directions of our elected leader, and had we been able to curb our own selfish desires in order to think about what is truly best for the country.
Instead, we chose someone who had a handsome face and a magnetic smile, and could deliver some good conservative soundbites in his speeches, although his policies were far often neither conservative nor liberal, but the first seeds of a very elitist corporate agenda that has come to seem more obvious now, all these years (even decades) later.
Carter was best known for two speeches: the Energy policy speech, where he asked Americans to sacrifice until the United States could achieve energy independence, after Mideast turmoil had compromised American stability. The other speech was the "Crisis in Confidence" speech, often also known as the "malaise speech".
Listen to them now, or read their words. Watch it on Youtube, and see if those words do not resonate with our times, if his dire predictions for what lay ahead for the nation if they did not face the problem head on then and there have not come true. Is such a visionary truly a failure, as modern day politicians would have you believe? Or is the truth, perhaps, that we should reexamine this man and his Presidency, to see what he saw, to understand what he obviously already grasped back then?
Carter's Presidency came during troubled times, of course. When people think back to those times, they remember first and foremost the American hostages taken in Iran, and they blame Carter's approach as ineffective. Yet, it as him, not Reagan, who brought the hostages back home, although many seem to still feel that it was Reagan who brought them back since, technically, Carter was no longer President (for mere minutes) when the hostages were finally freed.
As Carter's Presidency ended, he could have gone into retirement mode, and perhaps lived out his days working on his swing on some sunny golf course or other. Most would not have blamed him.
Instead, he devoted himself entirely to the purpose of trying to do his part to improve the world in any way that he could. Thus, the Carter Center, and his own personal, tireless efforts to bring about the most positive change that he could to see things through. To make the world a better place in any way that he could. To this end, he personally traveled to distant places in the world to help fight diseases and grinding poverty, to help bring education, and to help give the people a voice in fair elections. Often times, he put himself in personal danger, yet his commitment has never wavered. Americans should feel proud to have such a universally respected and revered man representing them. Shame on any who would try to cast aspersions on him for political gain.
Jimmy Carter has been a lot of things in his life. A white boy in a segregated land where white domination was the socially accepted norm, as well as the law of the land. He grew up to be a man who fought against that kind of segregation and racism. He became a naval officer, and a peanut farmer. Eventually, yes, he became a politician, and reached the office of Governor of Georgia, before being a dark horse candidate for President who worked both hard and smart and snuck up on everyone to take a lead and to surprise many in taking the Democratic nomination, and then eventually going on to win the Presidency itself. He was then the 39th President of the United States, and enjoyed some notable successes while in office, although his achievements are often overlooked because of his low approval ratings, and the events that seemed to loom over his Presidency, as well, of course, as the fact that he lost his bid for re-election. Still, he did not go silently into the night, although he had every right to. He went on to be more active than ever in the wake of his Presidency, and became a prolific author, as well as a beacon of hope. He tirelessly gave of himself with efforts to make the world a better place, whether it was with Habitat for Humanity, or with the Carter Center, or even officially working with the government to negotiate peaceful settlements in potential looming conflicts, as he did in Haiti and North Korea. Now, Carter is a member of "The Elders", an independent group who, like the Carter Center, try and work towards bettering humanity in general. It was founded by Nelson Mandela, and also features another South African, the former archbishop Desmond Tutu, who serves as the Chair for the Elders. Other members include Kofi Annan, Martti Ahtisaari,Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahmini, Graca Michel, Fernando Cardosa, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Mary Robinson. Jimmy Carter is the only American member of the distinguished group, which is quite the privilege.
He still remains active, even if outspoken. Often criticized for being outspoken, but I certainly understand and agree with his approach: if you are a patriot, why wouldn't you speak out on what you believe? If the sitting President, a successor of yours, is doing something that you do not agree with, why not criticize? No one seemed to criticize Reagan too loudly when he was critical of Clinton in the early years of his Presidency, so why all of the fuss when Carter is critical of, say, George W. Bush? When he was critical of Reagan, it was seen as sour grapes. But should he have kept his mouth shut, because some people feel that it is the socially acceptable thing to do, that an ex-President criticizing a sitting President is somehow taboo? Again, if he cares enough about the country (and I have no doubt that Jimmy Carter does) then why the silence?
Carter grew up in a different America than the one that exists now. Not all of it was better, but certainly, it can be said that not all of it was worse, either. He believed that the nation could improve, and worked hard to bring about those improvements that he felt it could make. He is still working towards those ends, although now, the United States is a vastly different nation. The technological innovations, of which Jimmy Carter was a part in working with the nuclear submarine program, have radically changed the face of the country and, indeed, the world. Conveniences, and even luxuries, are more readily available to us here in the West, and even in much of the underdeveloped world. it can be argued that progress is being made in the underdeveloped world, and here, Carter to, has been very active. Yet, the world is also a much scarier place than it probably was when Carter was a child, growing up in Plains, Georgia, or as an adult before and after World War II. It is even a very different place than it was when he assumed the Presidency. There are more people competing in a world that seems at times to be shrinking. Everything seems to be growing more and more expensive. These changes have also been reflected in politics, as well, where money is everything, and everywhere. Again, not all of the changes are necessarily good, or welcome. Yet, they are the reality.
So, I try and adhere to Carter's "fresh faith in the old dream" notion. I also will echo more words from his Inaugural Address as well, when he mentioned the words of a teacher of his, who said, "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."
Many may overlook Carter, may dismiss him, or his Presidency. But I think we can do worse than to study this time and his approach, because he was a man who had some answers. Answers that we, as Americans, rejected at the time, but which have proven to have a lasting quality to them that, in essence, have lent them a prophetic quality. Carter advocated a different approach towards new problems, and that was over three decades ago! Now, those new problems have grown old, and we are only now coming around to trying it out his way. Time has proven him right, yet no one wants to talk about it.
So, this tribute was my attempt to remedy that. Today, I honor Jimmy Carter, a President that we can all be proud of, on the eve of our electing, or re-electing, a President who is much more politics as usual, one way or the other. Romney likens Obama to Carter, trying to throw both in the trash can. But Barrack Obama is no Jimmy Carter. Neither is Mitt Romney, for that matter. In fact, truth be told, neither of them deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Carter. They have not earned the accolades, like Carter has.
It was a decade ago that Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it was well-deserved. He did not do it alone, yet, he was obviously the main impetus behind the efforts that saw him eventually win this award. It is to this man's honor that he was so distinguished, and it is to this nation's honor that such a man as this has come to represent the nation, and embody it's most positive qualities.
Here is the piece from History.com today on Jimmy Carter's birthday. You can find the link at:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Oct 1, 1924: Jimmy Carter is born
On this day in 1924, future President James Earl Carter is born in Plains, Georgia. Carter, who preferred to be called "Jimmy," was the son of a peanut farmer and was the first president to be born in a hospital. Carter was raised a devoted Southern Baptist and graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1946. He married Rosalynn Smith later that year.
After graduation, Carter served in the Navy’s new nuclear submarine program and was looking forward to a career in the Navy when his father passed away in 1953. The Carters dutifully returned to Georgia and took over the family farm. Back in Plains, Carter became involved in local politics, serving first on the school board and working his way up to a seat on the George State Planning Commission. In 1962, he was elected to the George Senate and, nine years later, he became governor.
A liberal Democrat, Carter launched a campaign against Republican presidential incumbent Gerald Ford in 1974, when the American electorate was still reeling from the Vietnam War, which ended in 1973, and former President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal. Ford, who assumed office immediately upon Nixon’s resignation in 1974, pardoned his former boss, enraging many who thought Nixon should have had to stand trial. Carter’s "Washington outsider" persona helped him win the White House in 1976.
Carter’s tenure as president was most notable for his alternative-energy policies, racial-equality programs and friendly overtures toward Russia. He was instrumental in brokering a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and signed an arms-reduction treaty with the Soviet Union (SALT II). These triumphs, however, were overshadowed by his inability to lead the nation out of a crippling energy crunch caused by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973.
On top of his administration’s failure to effectively combat the energy crisis, which in turn contributed to rapidly rising inflation, Carter’s administration was forced to deal with another crisis. In 1979, an Islamist student group in Iran stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran, holding 70 Americans hostage for 444 days. Carter’s failure to secure the release of the hostages, the ongoing recession and a growing movement toward conservatism in America contributed to Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential campaign.
The Carters have since stayed active in national and international affairs. In 1982, they founded the Carter Center in Atlanta to advocate for human rights and to alleviate "unnecessary human suffering" around the world. Since 1984, the Carters have given their time each year to build homes and raise awareness of homelessness with the international charitable organization Habitat for Humanity. In 2002, Carter won the prestigious Nobel Prize for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights and to promote economic and social development.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter live in Plains, Georgia, where the former president can still sometimes be found teaching a Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church.
Finally, here is the entire text of the speech that he gave earlier this year, which I first posted on August 29, 2013 ("Speeches at the 50th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream"), which itself was taken from the link: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/08/28/carter-clinton-praise-mlk-at-50th-anniversary-event/?mod=WSJBlog
President Jimmy Carter's Speech:
Well, I’m greatly honored to be here. And I realize that most people know that it’s highly unlikely that any of us three over on my right would have served in the White House or be on this platform had it not been for Martin Luther King Jr. and his movement and his crusade for civil rights. So we are grateful to him for us being here. (Applause.)
I’m also proud that I came from the same part of the South as he did. He never lost contact with the folks back home. He was helping Tennessee garbage workers, as you know, when he gave his life to a racist bullet.
I remember how it was, back in those days. I left Georgia in 1943 for college and the Navy. And when I came home from submarine duty, I was put on the Board of Education. I suggested to the other members that we visit all the schools in the county. They had never done this before, and they were reluctant to go with me.
But we finally did it, and we found that white children had three nice brick buildings, but the African-American children had 26 different elementary schools in the county. They were in churches, in front living rooms and a few in barns. They had so many because there were no school buses for African-American children, and they had to be within walking distance of where they went to class. Their schoolbooks were outdated and worn out, and every one of them had a white child’s name in the front of the book.
We finally obtained some buses. And then the state legislature ordained that the front fenders be painted black. Not even the school buses could be equal to each other.
One of the finest moments of my life was 10 months after Dr. King’s famous speech right here, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. I was really grateful when the King family adopted me as their presidential candidate in 1976. (Cheers.) Every handshake from Dr. King, from Daddy King, every hug from Coretta got me a million Yankee votes. (Laughter.)
Daddy King prayed at the Democratic Convention — for quite a while, I might say — (laughter) — and Coretta was in the hotel room with me and Rosalyn when I was elected president.
My Presidential Medal of Freedom citation to Coretta for Dr. King said, and I quote, “He gazed at the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. He made our nation stronger because he made it better.”
We were able to create a national historic site where Dr. King lived, worked and worshipped. It’s next door to the Carter Center, linked together just by a walking path. And at the Carter Center, we try to make the (principles ?) that we follow the same as his, emphasizing peace and human rights.
I remember that Daddy King said, too many people think Martin freed only black people; in truth, he helped to free all people. (Applause.) And Daddy King added, it’s not enough to have a right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a meal. And he also said, the ghetto still looks the same even from the front seat of a bus.
Perhaps the most challenging statement of Martin Luther King Jr. was, and I quote: “The crucial question of our time is how to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” In the Nobel Prize ceremony of 2002, I said that my fellow Georgian was, and I quote again, “the greatest leader that my native state, and perhaps my native country, has ever produced.” And I was not excluding presidents and even the Founding Fathers when I said this.
(Cheers, applause.)
I believe we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to the new ID requirements to exclude certain voters, especially African- Americans. I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to the Supreme Court striking down a crucial part of the Voters’ Rights Act just recently passed overwhelmingly by Congress. I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to unemployment among African- Americans being almost twice the rate of white people and for teenagers at 42 percent. I think we would all know how Dr. King would have reacted to our country being awash in guns and for more and more states passing “stand your ground” laws. I think we know how Dr. King would have reacted for people of District of Columbia still not having full citizenship rights. (Cheers, applause.)
And I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to have more than 835,000 African-American men in prison, five times as many as when I left office, and with one-third of all African-American males being destined to be in prison in their lifetimes.
Well, there’s a tremendous agenda ahead of us, and I’m thankful to Martin Luther King Jr. that his dream is still alive. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)
“I would respectfully suggest that Martin Luther King did not live and die to hear his heirs whine about political gridlock. It’s time to stop complaining and put our shoulders against the stubborn gates holding the American people back,” he said.
Here is the link to The Carter Center:
http://www.cartercenter.org/index.html
Here is the link to the site of "The Elders":
http://theelders.org/http://theelders.org/
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