I wanna say a bunch of sappy shit but nothing sounds right. God I wish there were more good people in positions of power. Thanks for all you did President Carter.
He spoke to the American public like they were intelligent caring individuals. And they despised him for it. Immediately, overwhelmingly electing a huckster charlatan that told them they were all wonderful and perfect little children. Many of whom still worship that man to this day. With Trump being his second coming.
We truly never deserved jimmy. But we still desperately need someone like him to this day.
The media had a big hand in Reagan being elected over Carter. Every newscast every night had a clock on the number of days the US hostages were held by the Iranians. This was a constant reminder on what was perceived as Carter’s failure. So much so, that Reagan sent George Scholtz, to Iran to make a deal for them to keep the hostages until after the election. Which was the begining of Iran-Contra. Anyway, that was the real reason.
Yep. Perception shapes reality for most unfortunately. For all his actual failings however. He was ridiculously better than everyone after him.
Well let’s just overlook all that because
If inclined to donate: Habitat for Humanity
There’s also the Carter Center, which does some work that seems increasingly important what with the attacks against free elections lately across the world.
Someone who wanted to not appear that he had a conflict of interest with his businesses…he sold his peanut farm. Boy… If only that amount of transparency was the norm with who will be running the country in a few weeks 🙄
You mean Elon, right? /s but not really
A life well lived. RIP Jimmy.
words from the Library of Congress “a naval officer, president, and global citizen and advocate for human dignity, racial and gender equality, and democratic values”
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2024/12/jimmy-carter-nations-39th-president-passes-away-at-100/
I think that Carter probably regretted in retrospect that he did not sharply criticize Ford for pardoning Nixon at the time and did not campaign at all for a criminal conviction. You can hardly blame him for that, because he was somewhat of a political outsider with ambition at the time. Nevertheless, his silence ultimately helped his successor, Reagan, to set the course for the current situation: The USA, the most militarily powerful nation in the world, in the hands of criminal brutes who cannot be prosecuted by legal means - an economic super power ruled solely by greed. Nevertheless, I think Carter was the last US president who deserved that title. Whoever came after him no longer represented the interests of the American people. I’m saying this as a European that has witnessed the US do nothing else but straight up villain politics for the last 25 years - probably way longer but that was before my time.
Maybe the only US president I can think of who seemed like a genuinely good person. But I wasn’t alive during his presidency so I don’t know what things may have happened then.
I was. Though too young to have any solid memories of it. But I remember growing up all the hate and ridicule thrown at him because he dared to treat Americans like they were intelligent adults.
That “hate and ridicule” was the beginning of the right wing media takeover we’re still dealing with today, coupled to with an emerging corporate media that only reports scandals and problems to draw ratings. It was and still is absolutely awful.
Well the beginning of the next stage. You have to remember in the 1930s they plotted to overthrow and kill FDR. Fortunately FDR found out about it before they acted. But instead of trying and hanging everyone involved as he should have done. And adequately documenting it. He instead did Back Room negotiations to temporarily pass new deal policies. Which the people he let skate have spent the last 100 years slowly undoing.
FDR was old money, hanging fellow bourgeoisie for trying to influence the government is infinitely more repellent to someone like that than his buddies from the country club successfully doing a coup.
Everyone I know who was alive at that time has a negative opinion of him as a president but I never really understood it fully.
The long and the short of it. Oil crisis and Reagan’s hostage sabotage in Iran. It’s really not that much different to anything today. Listen to any conservative complaint about contemporary Democrats and you will hear clear inane echoes.
He told Americans that we just need to tighten our belts and we will get through it. As he had personally done as a young member of the silent generation during the depression. Reagan told them all they were special little sausages. And should cater to their every greedy Indulgence. I’m sure you can guess which message they liked better. The same message they got this time.
Americans have not and will never learn their lesson as long as the wealthy own the media. Telling people what they want to hear. And turning them against those that would help them in any way.
Their generation ate the paint chips we were warned about.
A lot of it had to do with the Iran hostage crisis (1979-81). There was a failed rescue attempt by US military in 1980 that cost the lives of 8 servicement (chopper crash) that really put the nail in the coffin for Carter.
The final death knell was the October surprise theory (supported by “several individuals—most notably, former Iranian President Abulhassan Banisadr, former Lieutenant Governor of Texas Ben Barnes, former naval intelligence officer and U.S. National Security Council member Gary Sick, and Barbara Honegger, a former campaign staffer and White House analyst for Reagan and his successor, George H. W. Bush—have stood by the allegation.” source). While the theory does have its detractors it has a lot of support by those in the know.
I was around back then and remember watching Carter almost wither away under the onslaught from Reagan and the Moral Majority.
There was also both the energy crisis itself and the “Crisis of Confidence” speech during the middle of the energy crisis, which people saw as Carter just ignoring the energy crisis.
Really, a lot of things went wrong. The biggest, though, was that Carter just refused to kiss Tip O’Neill’s ring and it meant he had both parties working against him.
You didn’t actually explain what the October Surprise Theory was. According to your link:
The 1980 October Surprise theory refers to an allegation that representatives of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign made a secret deal with Iranian leaders to delay the release of American hostages until after the election between Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, the incumbent.
Whoops. Sorry about that.
The 1980 October Surprise theory refers to an allegation that representatives of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign made a secret deal with Iranian leaders to delay the release of American hostages until after the election between Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, the incumbent. The detention of 66 Americans in Iran, held hostage since November 4, 1979, was one of the leading national issues during 1980, and the alleged goal of the deal was to thwart Carter from pulling off an “October surprise”. Reagan won the election, and on the day of his inauguration—minutes after he concluded his 20-minute inaugural address—the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the release of the hostages.
his election in 1976 was the first one i remember. i was in primary school at the time. i got to stay up to watch the news coverage on tv that night.
i’ve been a dfl’er ever since.
in our own mock elections at school, he won by a wide margin (and again in 1980, as did mondale in 1984). in 1980, i was one of the kids in class assigned to stump for carter for a class project.
he will always be near the top of my list of favorite or ‘best’ presidents.
Found the Minnesotan, lol.
I"m guessing Suharto and the Shah don’t exist in whatever fantasy world you live in?
Shit, who’s gonna build all those houses?
He helped build like 4300.
F
I remember reading from somewhere that according to family he was very eager to get to vote one more time and to cast his vote for Harris. So glad he got the chance to do that before going, even though the result wasn’t what he probably was hoping for.
The last thing he witnessed was the US’s fall into true Nazism
Bye Jimmy. Thank you for helping to eradicate the Guinea worm. That alone makes you one of the greatest men to walk the earth.
MIKE! Did you let Crow get ahold of the voodoo dolls again?!
(Bye, Jimmy. You were a good man.)
I had the opportunity to meet him briefly when he was building houses for habitat. He was the real deal, he was hanging doors and working hard and genuinely wanted to help people. I joked to his secret service dudes that they must’ve been pretty happy not to have drawn the short straw and been working for 45 and they guffawed and nodded, in a very professional way of course.
Those secret service guys (I assume not Jimmy’s) flat out deleted a bunch of pretty important evidence around J6. I think Commander Biden knew the score.
So long, and thanks for all the cheese.
i remember that stuff. it was actually really good cheese.
Was good president, and great person.
