Jimmy Carter

I was twelve years old when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976. So … still wet behind my ears. I remember those days and nights of the hostage crisis. With Ted Koppel providing the nightly count of how many days the hostages had remained in captivity. That Nightline feature probably did more damage to Jimmy Carter than anything else. It was relentless and depressing.

There was plenty else going wrong at the time. High inflation. Oil shocks. Enough that, I believe in my youth, I thought Carter was weak and we needed a change in 1980. Gasp! Did I really support Reagan (although I wasn’t old enough to vote)? I don’t really know. I remember talking to one of my sisters around the election. She was old enough to vote. And what I recall is that we disagreed. Yet I have no memory of which side of the argument we each were on.

Looking back decades later, I’m of the opinion that Jimmy Carter was simply too good a man, too honest a man, to survive in that role. Here is the text of a speech he gave that is known as the “malaise” speech. I can’t imagine a President, or a candidate for the Presidency, giving such an honest speech about the state of the country today. He was also ahead of his time for trying to plan for energy independence with less reliance on fossil fuels.

As I said, he was simply too honest for the office he held.

What Jimmy Carter did better than any other President or other American politician, was to live a life of righteousness after he left office. For 40 years, he helped build homes for the poor, bring peace to wartorn lands, and tried to bring morals and ethics to the forefront of how we should live and govern.

As 2024 winds to a close, we are confronted with the exact opposite with the incoming administration and the billionaires and power-hungry who have wrapped themselves around Donald Trump. Jimmy Carter was the most selfless man to ever hold the Presidency. In a few short weeks we will see the polar opposite — an administration filled with people who are only interested in their bank account, their power, and themselves.

It’s a shame that America isn’t good enough for men (and women) like Jimmy Carter.

The world lost an incredible human being today. It would be nice if we all could take a step back from the precipice and maybe try to be a little more like Jimmy Carter and less like the rage-filled lunatics we all seem to have become.