1/5/24

I waited a bit following the passing of Jimmy Carter (12/29) before writing this.

The response of some to Joe Biden’s comments on Carter after his passing prompted me to pay my respects. On FOX especially, there was a sensitive woke-response to Biden’s comments. A melty snowflakey vibe. Now I have never been a fan of Biden’s, but he gets some things right some of the times. This was one of those times.

When asked about what President Trump might learn from Carter, Biden said:

“Decency.”

And:

“Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk? I can’t.”

And:

“…the rest of the world looks to us. And he was worth looking to.”

Set aside how stupid and transparent the question was.

It is laden with the understanding of how decent a man Carter was his entire life and an insinuation that Trump is something other- and quite honestly less. Someone who could learn from Carter’s example. That question, asked that way, is clickbait out loud and is counterproductive. 

Anybody who has paid any kind of attention to Trump’s very intentionally public profile knows what he is known for and he has publicly let us all know himself. Being “decent” is not really his style. Ted Nugent draft-dodging, Toby Keith boot-up-your-assing, Kid Rock beer-shootin’, name-calling, intolerant, delicate far-right angry-melting is Trump’s jam. So why even ask?

A better question:

What was it about Jimmy Carter that leaders and Americans, in general, could look to as qualities we should want in a leader- a role model in general?

So I want to focus on that.

I had seen this picture before.

Seeing it again since his recent passing was just another reminder of what a decent guy who had lived a real life Carter was his whole life. Also, it is another reminder of what sorts of things we don’t see enough of, hear enough about, or talk enough about in the day-to-day zeitgeist of the world we’re living in right now. So a quick review of the life of the man:

Jimmy Carter:

…born in 1924, the first American president to be born in a hospital, he was taken back to a house that lacked electricity and indoor plumbing. By the time he was ten, the boy stacked produce from the family farm onto a wagon, hauled it into town, and sold it. He saved his money, and by the age of thirteen, he bought five houses around Plains that the Great Depression had put on the market at rock-bottom prices. These homes were rented to families in the area.

Before he even entered high school he had written the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, to ask for a catalog. In 1941, he graduated as class valedictorian of his tiny high school.

Carter flung himself into his coursework, studying for a year at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1942. Carter was admitted to Annapolis in 1943 and graduated in the top ten percent of his class in 1946 Carter earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. As a submariner, he helped build the reactor for the early Seawolf nuclear submarine.

In 1952, a 28 year old Navy Lieutenant Carter led a team tasked with clean up and repair following the Chalk River nuclear disaster. 

In 1953, Carter and his new wife Rosalynn faced a difficult decision. His father, Earl, had died of cancer, and the family peanut farm and his mother’s livelihood were in danger. Resigning from the Navy, Carter and his wife returned to Georgia to save the farm. After a difficult first few years, the farm began to prosper. He became a deacon and Sunday school teacher in the Plains Baptist Church and began serving on local civic boards before being elected to two terms in the Georgia state senate. There he earned a reputation as a tough, independent operator who attacked wasteful government practices and helped repeal laws designed to discourage African Americans from voting.

But, back to that picture of Carter:

Carter said of his attachment to country music and southern rock musicians:

 “There are some people that didn’t like my being deeply involved with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and disreputable rock and rollers, but I didn’t care about that because I was doing what I really believed… And the response from the followers of those musicians was much more influential than a few people that thought being associated with rock and roll and radical people was inappropriate for a president.”

Gregg Allman, showing up far too late to a reception being held by then Governor Carter for Bob Dylan and the Band, following an Atlanta show, found the lights being turned off to end the gathering and the limo being turned away. But Carter told the guards to let the limo in, and spent the evening listening to music with Allman, sharing a drink, and becoming friends. In fact, Carter spent time off and on stage with some great artists of the day.

Allman recalled that they had a drink together and then the governor said, “By the way, I’m running for president.” It seemed absurd to Allman that this guy sipping scotch and listening to deep blues might become president of the United States, but he truly liked Mr. Carter, admiring his gumption and “just folks” appeal. (1974)

I’ll get to some more in the next one, and deal with policy and politics. I think substance in this man is pretty evident. I can’t say the same for presidents since, but maybe I’m just partial to good music.