Upon hearing the news of former President Jimmy Carter coming down with cancer I decided to take a walk down memory lane. Carter is one of the most maligned President’s in my lifetime. I don’t think he deserved it. Before the ‘swift boating’ of John Kerry, there was the ‘Carter-izing’ of Jimmy Carter by the same players. Today I take some time to remember Jimmy Carter.
The first thoughts that come to mind about Jimmy Carter are in contrast to Ronald Reagan his successor. President Carter left the White House in debt. What did he and his wife do? They immediately established a foundation, Habitat For Humanity, to help poor people by providing housing for those in need. His project is worldwide in scope. When Ronald Reagan left office the first thing I remember him doing was earn two million dollars for a speaking fee from a trading adversary of the U.S.
President Carter was a no nonsense let’s address the problem and solve it President. In contrast Reagan was known as the Teflon President for his slick affable and congenial personality and the uncanny ability to avoid responsibility for his job performance. His style and finesse, remnants of his days as a movie actor, allowed him to hoodwink the American people into failing to hold him responsible for the Iran – Contra affair.
At first Reagan denied that trading arms with the enemy had happened but the facts were just too stubborn to be swept under the rug and he was forced to grudgingly admit his administration had traded guns and arms for hostages to a terrorist state. The Iran- Contra affair involved people working for him who were supplying military armaments to the terrorist state of Iran. He only did this after a congressional hearing exposed the dirty truth that he had been duped by his own intelligence gathering agencies and military operatives. The legacy of the two men reveals the power of the press to occlude the reality of the situation and present a re-written version of history to the public memory. This is evident still today as Reagan is still honored while Carter’s legacy has been dismissed as irrelevant and disastrous.
Americans seem to have a weakness for slick, saccharine tongued figureheads who speak sweet nothings into their ears and blow warm air up their skirts. Reagan’s persona along with Republican and media support enabled him to be the leader of a personality cult. I contrast this to Carter’s willingness to address the problem and see if he can make improvements attitude. Trying to do the right and moral thing is dangerous to your career in American politics, especially if it bucks the status quo. Upon leaving office Reagan’s approval ratings equaled or rivaled those of FDR and Bill Clinton. Such a result clearly indicates how easily lead the electorate is.
I choose to contrast Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan as moral agents as well as Presidents. Men are not only judged by what they accomplish but by the goals they set for themselves to accomplish on behalf of the nation. These goals are always set in motion in the context of an ever changing often adversarial set of circumstances. The President must respond to the circumstances he faces. The way he does this is the way we judge him.
The energy crisis of the 1970’s is a case in point. This crisis was precipitated by the rise of OPEC and the oil embargo it produced. This act by oil producing states laid waste to the American Dream. Carter spoke to the American people and called the action of the OPEC states ‘The moral equivalent’ of war. His speech can read at the link provided.
The activities of our petroleum armed enemies laid waste to the American industrial landscape. The factory I was working in, a union shop, closed its doors and moved to Mexico putting a couple thousand people out of work because of the rising price of natural gas. This sorry scenario was repeated over and over again across the nation.
Carter, a practical but visionary man, installed solar panels on the White House as a symbolic as well as practical act imparting a vision which would inspire a new way to engage the enemy. Nigh forty years later the American public facing the karmic consequences of refusing to take his lead is now facing global warming and the devastation of the planet. Only now, with a glut of oil on hand, is his example being rethought. Today solar farms are being built in the places where oil was once pumped.
But guess what happened to the solar panels President Carter installed. Lo and behold it was none other than the patron saint of the arms industry Ronald Reagan who ordered them removed. This article in the Scientific American August 6, 2010 by David Biello shows the character and foresight of both men. “… in 1986 the Reagan administration quietly dismantled the White House solar panel installation while resurfacing the roof. "Hey! That system is working. Why don't you keep it?" recalls mechanical engineer Fred Morse, now of Abengoa Solar, who helped install the original solar panels as director of the solar energy program during the Carter years and then watched as they were dismantled during his tenure in the same job under Reagan. "Hey! This whole [renewable] R&D program is working, why don't you keep it?"
Allow me to wonder for a while. Imagine a little bit with me. Let’s suppose American Industry and society had begun the change to alternative sources of energy to replace the nation’s reliance on oil from the Middle East and elsewhere when President Carter set the example way back when. In the last few years due to the emerging catastrophe of climate change and global warming solar has become cheap to make and much more efficient. This fact is so clear that now in Texas, the land of oil, solar farms are appearing. See the article by Russell Gold (at the hyperlink) in the August 21, 2015 issue of the WSJ. Is it too little too late? Time will tell. Thanks to the misbegotten policies favoring the oil industry we are playing catch-up now. Let’s hope we win.
What do I think of Jimmy Carter? I think he was a great man and that the nation who rejected and reviled him didn’t deserve him. What do I think of Ronald Reagan? By his words and acts he is either justified or condemned. You make the call.