James Earl Carter (Part One).
Summary: Today, we begin our look back at the brief but remarkable tenure of President Jimmy Carter. The late ‘70s is a fascinating period on a number of levels. Civil Rights groups had fractured into several pieces, the Vietnam era had come to a disgraceful close and the economy was beginning to falter after more than two decades of astounding post-war growth for the middle class in particular. The GOP’s grip on Washington was tenuous after Nixon’s resignation, and the country wasn’t sure whether Ford was up to the task. For their part, Democrats were still healing from the ‘68 Convention and being sidelined by Nixon’s GOP. Out of the fog came a slow talking southern boy named Jimmy who shocked the world and secured the Democratic nomination for president. This is his origin story.
Listen to the full episode here.
I’ve been struggling to find a narrative thread on the Carter years and become increasingly fascinated by this time period in attempting to do so. There are so many contradictions between the mythology cultivated by Republicans and the brief period the world’s most powerful nation was run by a former peanut farmer and one-term governor of Georgia. The things I find objectionable about the Carter years are the things not often addressed. The worst aspects of what many consider to be a failed presidency stand as beacons of achievement in hindsight.
Most would consider James Earl Carter to be a simple man. To some, he was overly pedantic. To the elite New England Democrats, he was boorish. And oh so Southern. Then again, even his detractors consider him to be an honest man. Albeit, overmatched by the job. Too small for the moment. But, honest. In reality, he’s far from simple. But he is, and always was, unflinchingly honest. Perhaps, to a fault.
There are a few reasons for putting the Carter years under a microscope. First, since Biden’s inauguration, the comparisons have been plentiful.
“The president is reportedly worried about parallels that are being drawn between him and the Carter administration. We’ve drawn those parallels several times ourselves. The thing is, if there is a parallel, maybe we should be happy because the Carter era ended with Ronald Reagan.
Stuart Varney, Fox Business speaking with Larry Kudlow
“You can’t ignore the similarity, right, when you bring up Carter. There was crippling inflation under Carter. There’s crippling inflation under Biden. As you mentioned, that poll you just showed, only 5% of the voters see the economy as excellent, which by the way, is the way the White House describes our economy right now. So they’re completely out of touch. You had skyrocketing gas prices and long lines under Carter. Record high gas prices under Biden. America appears to be weak to our adversaries under Carter. It appears now to be weak under Biden. We saw what’s happening in Afghanistan, what’s happening in Ukraine. What China may do with Taiwan under Biden. But Carter didn’t have a self-inflicted border crisis. Biden does. Or a fentanyl crisis. Biden does. And, in the end, Carter lost 44 states when running for re-election.”
Joe Concha, on Fox & Friends First
Circumstantially, it’s not necessarily a terrible argument. Trouble with Iran. Further escalations with Russia. Multiple economic shocks leading to high inflation. Navigating a fractured country after a scandal-laden presidency. Tension with China over Taiwan. Israeli settlements frustrating Middle East peace talks. Increasing indebtedness in Latin American economies. It’s all very familiar from a headline perspective.
But we’re a vastly different nation than we were during the Carter years, and Joe Biden is a markedly different man. There are similarities on the surface. Both are men of faith. Devoted public servants. And, by all personal accounts, incredibly loyal. As far as I can tell though, that’s where the similarities end.
Two remarkable notes about Jimmy Carter is that he was elected 46 years ago and is still alive. That’s nearly half a century ago. Another remarkable thing about this is that Joe Biden had already been in the Senate for four years when Carter was elected.
So, if I don’t believe in the comparisons, why highlight the Carter years so extensively right now?
A couple of reasons.
First off, most Unf*ckers know that I believe this to be the true beginning of the neoliberal era. The moment that corporate America chose to fight back against regulations, entitlements and oversight. The moment that the Chicago School economists ascended to prominence when it appeared that Keynesian measures were failing the economy. The moment that far right figures concocted a coordinated plan of attack to infect higher education, the judiciary, local, state and federal government, think tanks, organized labor and the media with neoliberal messaging designed to break the back of the establishment.
There are many who believe we’re exiting the neoliberal era as we speak and that the dawn of a new oligarchical phase is upon us. So, there’s some degree of symbolism in covering the dawn of an era and its sunset.
Lastly, because the circumstantial parallels are indeed palpable, it’s important to reflect on the conditions that sparked conflict in certain areas to understand how they evolved. If we’re fighting on multiple fronts, be it Israel, Iran, China, Russia—or inflation and an overly aggressive Federal Reserve—surely there’s something to be gained in learning about the origins of these issues and conflicts.
For example, Roe v. Wade was codified into law just a couple of years before Carter took office. The Federalist Society was formed based upon a thesis written by Michael Horowitz during Carter’s last year in office. This same society would wind up as the central power broker in selecting Supreme Court Justices Barrettt, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh; the three far right justices that would deliberately overturn Roe 50 years after its passage.
As I’ve said many times, we cannot understand where we’re headed unless we understand from whence we came.
No matter your impression of Jimmy Carter or his time in office, the fact remains that these years are essential to building our framework of understanding of today’s political, economic and social system. After living with several texts on Carter and watching countless hours of footage, I can confidently say that he was indeed up to the task. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he might have been uniquely suited to the job at that very moment in time. That’s not to say he was perfect. Or had no missteps. There were failings, to be sure. But Jimmy Carter was in the middle of a storm that had been brewing for several years prior, and when it finally came ashore, it’s impossible to imagine any one person weathering it.
Chapter One. The Origin Story.
As of this telling, former President James Earl Carter is 98 years old. Born on October 1st, 1924 to Lillian and James in Plains, Georgia, Carter was the oldest of four children, all of whom have since passed. His parents were known to all as Earl and Ms. Lillian. By all accounts, Jimmy Carter, as he’s most often called, was a studious, shy and industrious young man who got on well with nearly everyone.
The Carters were considered rather well off for the area. While they weren’t part of the southern plantation aristocracy, they were far from poor. Jimmy’s father was a stern, hard working segregationist who many considered extremely tough, but fair. He invested everything into his farm, while also managing side hustles, military service and even a position on the county board of education later in his life.
His father was also a classic southern racist. There’s no sugar coating this fact. But he was the engine in the community that drew blacks and whites together in labor, rent and sometimes even faith. A devout Baptist, it seemed his only vice was the occasional bourbon and Friday night poker.
Lillian, on the other hand, was more outgoing and a bit of a rebel for her time. She smoked. Enjoyed drinking. Had black and white friends—much to the chagrin of her husband—and was raised a Methodist. When asked if people in their small community were upset with her choice of friends, it’s reported that Ms. Lillian remarked, “We had too much money to be ostracized.”
If the Carters were considered rich by the standards of their poor community, one person who was none the wiser was young Jimmy Carter. As the eldest son, Jimmy worked side-by-side with the black field hands that worked for his father. He would often sneak into Baptist sermons in the black church. It’s understood today that the phrase, “he didn’t see color” is absurd and demeaning. But it seemed that, at a minimum, Jimmy Carter didn’t see people of color, just people. In all that has been written or recalled in his nearly 100 years, there isn’t a person who knew him who believed Jimmy Carter had a racist bone in his body.
That’s not to say he wasn’t arrogant. Jimmy Carter was always smart. He was an accomplished student who, along with his siblings, was required by Ms. Lillian to read every night at the dinner table. This would prove to be a lifelong habit, as Carter consumed information as president perhaps more voluminously than anyone before or since.
His grades were good enough to get into community college, then Georgia Tech to study engineering. But his dream was to go to Annapolis. Earl was able to pull some strings for Jimmy to gain admission, and Jimmy Carter’s life in service began in the Naval Academy. In the middle of World War II.
Carter would go on to serve in the Navy for the next ten years. Perhaps the most important thing that happened during Jimmy Carter’s time in the Navy, however, was marrying his sister’s best friend Rosalynn in 1946. Pretty, intelligent, innocent and from Plains, Georgia as well, Rosalynn Carter remains by her husband’s side to this day. From the beginning, she was an honest and resolute truth whisperer, sounding board and guide to her husband. Perhaps the greatest White House partnership since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and certainly more filled with authentic love.
The couple would move throughout the country from post to post over Carter’s decade of service, and it seemed to everyone as though Carter was destined to serve his entire career in the Navy. But in 1953, Earl Carter’s body finally gave out and the Carters returned to Plains, Georgia. To everyone’s surprise, Jimmy Carter quit the Navy and took over his father’s farm. Thus, the legend of Jimmy Carter the peanut farmer was born.
“At the end of a long campaign, I believe I know our people, of this state, as well as anyone could. Based on this knowledge of Georgians, north and south, rural and urban, liberal and conservative; I say to you quite frankly that the time of racial discrimination is over.”
From Jimmy Carter’s inaugural address as governor.
This statement made during Carter’s inaugural address as governor was met with tepid applause. But it says a lot about the man and his time. Prior to winning the governor’s race, Carter had already served as a state senator and was set to run for Congress when the governor’s seat opened up in 1966.
His first attempt was a failure, losing to Lester Maddox, one of the most racist political figures in modern times. This failure set Carter back and prompted him to do a great deal of soul searching. But rather than lean into what many would consider the pragmatic instinct to appeal to a deeply southern contingency, he doubled down on his liberal principles. He ran again in 1970 and was victorious the second time around.
Carter’s single term as governor wasn’t all that notable, but it helped cultivate his governing style and persona that would lay the groundwork for a national campaign that would shock the nation. During his time in office, he collected important people that would guide him for the rest of his political career and become lifelong friends. Chief among them were Bert Lance, Charlie Kirbo and a young Hamilton Jordan. Only Jordan would accompany Carter to the White House and become an integral part of his presidency, but Lance and Kirbo were foundational to Carter’s early success and would prove to be voices of inspiration and reason as he navigated his career in the White House.
The other thing Carter took from this time was a deep understanding of retail politics and the power of populism. While many today probably don’t think of Carter in this way, at the time, he was carrying a powerful message of hope for the poor and the working class that had been lost in the wind under Nixon. Turns out, it’s exactly what the country was yearning for.
Chapter Two. A Good Old Boy bids for the White House.
“I remember when I announced for president in December of 1974, there was a major headline on the editorial page of The Atlanta Constitution that said, ‘Jimmy Carter is Running for What?’”
When Carter announced his bid for president, very few in Washington, and in the media, took him seriously. A good old boy peanut farmer and one term governor wasn’t exactly the typical presidential pedigree. But Carter started early and worked relentlessly to build coalitions on the ground one voter, one state at a time.
By the time the campaign was in full swing and it was clear that Carter wasn’t going anywhere, he was still considered an outsider. But his message had begun to coalesce. Carter ran on a number of promises, some of which still resonate today, and others that seem wholly anachronistic.
He was one of the first to suggest that marijuana be reduced to a misdemeanor. Awesome.
He promised to curb inflation by restraining the money supply. Not awesome.
Carter wanted to reduce foreign imports of oil by increasing prices while giving a tax rebate for the poor. Mixed bag.
He favored increasing the recent auto emission standards. Cool.
But he also wanted to invest heavily in mass transportation. Doubly cool.
He promised to put in strict controls on strip mining.
Create a national health insurance program.
To put in place government sponsored work programs for the unemployed.
Give more funds to the arts.
Provide amnesty for conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War.
Decriminalizing “homosexual conduct.” Ah, that would be an example of a anachronistic policy, but well intended for the time. Pretty woke for someone who still teaches Sunday school.
He spoke in favor of Roe v. Wade.
And was against mandatory prayer in schools.
As almost an afterthought, he was decidedly dovish on foreign policy, but it wasn’t necessarily central to his campaign persona. Over time, Carter’s foreign policy work would come to define him in both positive and negative ways. Something we’ll spend a great deal of time talking about.
The central Book Love resource for these episodes, by the way, is titled The Outlier. It’s a comprehensive retrospective of Carter’s life and years in office written by Kai Bird, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. In the book, Bird notes that no one was really sure what to make of Carter’s candidacy. For example, Washington reporter Kandy Stroud wrote this of Carter:
“Carter is not just complex, he is contradictory. His paradoxes are multiple. He is at once vain and humble, sensitive and ruthless, softer-hearted and tough, conservative and liberal, country boy with city wisdom, spiritual and pragmatic, loving and cold.”
After spending so much time with Carter, it’s amazing how much this sentiment stands the test of time. Perhaps the only thing more complex and contradictory than Carter himself was the time in which he ran for office and presided over the nation.
The 1970s were bursting at the seams in all corners of the country. The post Vietnam era found a generation of Baby Boomers finally coming of age in a turbulent economy and fractured political environment. Richard Nixon had destroyed trust in the Oval Office, and his VP successor Ford didn’t do much to restore it when his first act was to pardon his former boss. The economy was failing for the first time in earnest since the post war boom and racial tensions continued to seethe, with the Civil Rights movement becoming increasingly factionalized.
This is where many of the comparisons to the present day come into focus. Here are some comparisons from the Brookings Institute, to put things in perspective.
“Elevated inflation and weak growth. The global economy has been emerging from the pandemic-related global recession of 2020, just as it did during the stagflationary period after the global recession in 1975.”
“Supply shocks after prolonged monetary policy accommodation. Supply disruptions driven by the pandemic and the recent supply shock dealt to global energy and food prices by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resemble the oil shocks in 1973 and 1979-80. Increases in energy prices in the 1970s and during the period 2020-22 have constituted the largest changes in prices of the past 50 years. Then and now, monetary policy generally was highly accommodative in the run-up to these shocks, with interest rates negative in real terms for several years.”
“Significant vulnerabilities in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). In the 1970s and early 1980s, as now, high debt, elevated inflation, and weak fiscal positions made EMDEs vulnerable to tightening financial conditions. The stagflation of the 1970s coincided with the first global wave of debt accumulation in the past half-century.”
Coming into the 1970s, it’s important to remember that the Democratic Party was pretty much in disarray. Memories of the disastrous ‘68 convention still remained and the days of Camelot had pretty much evaporated. Senator Ted Kennedy was probably still the biggest star of the party, but he wasn’t yet of a mind to stake his claim, as the murder of both his brothers still haunted the Kennedy family.
So, the Democrats in contention for the White House to run against Gerald Ford were kind of a motley bunch. Aside from Carter, who had announced his intentions early, the leading contenders were Jerry Brown of California, George Wallace of Alabama, Frank Church of Idaho and Mo Udall of Arizona.
Due to the timing of the primaries, Mississippi was one of the first caucuses held, and Wallace crushed it. Even still, Carter had a relatively strong showing given his southern heritage. The only other notable primary was Massachusetts, which spread pretty evenly among the leading candidates. While Brown and Udall had positive showings out west, Carter pretty much dominated the field and ran the table with an overwhelming delegate count of 2,239. Mo Udall actually came in second with a paltry 330 delegates.
And so, this enigma from Georgia was selected to run against a president who could barely muster the energy to even show that he wanted to keep the job. Even still, Carter’s election was far from a lock.
As much as there were social and economic issues to contend with, it’s important to remember that we were still in the throes of the Cold War during this period. One of the questions that followed the former Georgia governor around was whether he could competently grasp the pressing foreign policy issues of the day.
During the presidential debate, President Ford offered an opening that the media would pounce on. As would Carter.
“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”
President Gerald Ford during the presidential debate
Ford had intended to support the people of Eastern Europe and their quest for sovereignty, but instead bungled his response and made it look like he was unaware that the Soviet Union literally controlled the entire region. In an instant, it seemed like the Georgian was amazingly on equal footing with the president where our biggest foreign adversary was concerned.
A begrudging Washington Democratic establishment, along with artists and musicians from Willy Nelson, Hunter Thompson and Bob Dylan, were suddenly on board the Carter train. Many with some amusement, others with great caution. This was their candidate, and as the weeks wore on, the American people warmed to the idea of this soft spoken southern boy becoming president. In the end, it was an extremely tight race, with Carter winning 297 delegates to become the President Elect of the United States of America.
As Kai writes:
“He had come from nowhere and triumphed. Just ten years earlier, he had been knocking on doors, asking people to accept Christ. And now he was the president-elect who owed the establishment nothing.”
In the next episode, we’ll walk carefully through the first half of the Carter presidency. What we’ll find is an astounding record of achievement, along with the seeds of his ultimate downfall.
Here endeth Part One.
Resources
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/panama-canal
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/jimmy-carters-unheralded-legacy.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1979/05/the-passionless-presidency/308516/
https://www.vox.com/2016/1/25/10826056/reagan-iran-hostage-negotiation