I am not one to whitewash history, nor am I one who generally declares any single thing as certain. That said, I believe it is unquestionable that Jimmy Carter is the greatest ex-president in American history. I do not believe anyone nicer has ever held the office, and no offense to any of the candidates, there is no threat for that to change in 2020. I rate him highly as an ethical president, but not highly as an effective president. Still, I would not exchange his lack of effectiveness for his saintly service in retirement.
I personally am not, but for those inclined toward Christianity, if we were waiting for another savior to be sent back to us, we may not have recognized him dressed as a peanut farmer. America was struggling. Gerald Ford, also a really nice man and a much better representative than he is credited for, was in an impossible situation. The country was divided, and his pardoning of Richard Nixon was highly unpopular. He said it was to put the national nightmare behind us, but it also came after he was made vice-president because the elected vice-president had also resigned in disgrace. I believe Gerald Ford did, at least in part, just want to put the Nixon saga behind us so we could move forward.
I do not presume to know Gerald Ford’s full motives for pardoning Nixon. I do know the result was Jimmy Carter eking out an unlikely victory in 1976. It was unlikely that he would have been nominated had there not been controversies about the most likely nominees, and an expanded primary process designed to give voters the say in the nomination. This was in retaliation for the process that gave us Hubert Humphrey as the nominee in 1968 despite that he didn’t compete in any primaries. Carter was also unlikely because he shared his vision rather than condemning his opponents’ visions and characters like we were and are accustomed to hearing from candidates.
Mostly it was unlikely because he lost California and won Texas. His 1.7 million popular vote margin of victory distorts how close the election really was. Fewer than 4,000 votes in Hawaii, and fewer than 6,000 votes in Ohio, would have resulted in Gerald Ford getting the necessary 270 electoral votes to win reelection. Despite that victory, Jimmy Carter would lose rather decisively to Ronald Reagan four years later, and the party bosses were not pleased.
As I said before, if we ever were sent a savior to be president, that savior was dressed as a peanut farmer. He was given a Nobel prize for bringing the Egyptians and Israelis together, and not letting them go until they had negotiated peace. On the other hand, he was crucified for telling us the truth that we needed to change our habits to save the world. He appointed the most responsible Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the history of America, and he carried his own cross up the hill.
In order to make sure someone like a savior could not screw up the party again, the party created super delegates. I concede that Jimmy Carter was not “an effective president.” I do not know how anyone can argue that he was not “an ethical president.” I cannot think of anyone who was “a nicer president.” I think he is unquestionably the greatest ex-president in American history, and that is not even close. To reiterate, in order to make certain that we do not place too high of values on qualities like how ethical and kind people are, and more value on a person’s effectiveness, the party created super delegates.
I don’t want to say Jimmy Carter could have saved the world. I will suggest, however, when he told us that wearing sweaters indoors would save a lot on energy consumption, we could have listened and then followed him into helping our neighbors by building houses, teaching the children high moral values, and demonstrating for others what saviors teach us when we don’t literally crucify them.
I believe it is an error to associate Barack Obama’s popularity with anything other than his message resonating with the people. America doesn’t elect presidents because they are black people. America elected Barack Obama - even though he was black - because he inspired people to become active and vote.
I believe it is an error to associate Bill Clinton’s popularity with his intellect. He spoke to the common person when he said he felt our pain. I think it is also an error to not relate Bill Clinton’s victory with a rather low percentage of the popular vote to Ross Perot’s popularity with people who were more likely to vote for George H.W. Bush than they were to vote for Clinton.
It is not a purity issue if we want someone who seriously wants to make the country better for everyone, like Franklin Roosevelt. It is not a purity issue if we want someone who seriously gives us visions and inspirations, like John Kennedy.
It is a purity issue when it comes to Jimmy Carter. I can accept that the next candidate will not be as saintly as he is. I can accept that the next candidate will not be as kind and nice a person as he is. I don’t know if there is a person in politics who can match him in those regards. Besides, we had him. We did not recognize it. If it is not converted into a lesson from which we learn, we just doom ourselves to repeating it.
I am not demanding purity. I am demanding they support taking money out of politics by not accepting donations from special interest groups. If they do not meet that standard, there is no need to discuss why we should also waive speeches to Wall Street executives given behind closed doors, and we don’t have to worry about votes against amendments that would allow Americans to fill prescriptions in Canada after taking pharma contributions. They are hoping to cheerlead us into forgetting that they did these things. However, I’ve been keeping score even though they told us there were no winners or losers in the party.
The people who I find get angered when I point out they don’t get to negotiate my vote hear the table being slammed if they suggest I leave the table. I still run into people who say they would have voted for Trump had Bernie been nominated. If that is the case, then let’s nominate Bernie and they can join the Republican party where they belong. They don’t get to blame me for Trump when I voted for their candidate, and then tell me they would have voted for Trump if my favored candidate had been the nominee. I voted for Hillary in 2016. It did not work. Any self-described Democrat who would vote for Trump over Bernie is in the wrong party.
I would like to see anyone who was also a super delegate for Hillary in 2016 to be off the table so we can try to woo the ten million voters back that Bernie had involved in 2016, but we should allow each to support their own arguments that might entice those voters back. I am skeptical that it can be done, but, if they reject special interest donations, I will likely vote for the nominee. That does not mean that I can deliver to the party some ten million votes from people who aren’t going to compromise, just as they didn’t compromise in 2016. Those votes belong to those people. The candidate is responsible to inspire the voters to mark their ballots and get them in on time.
It is not about purity. We had our chance for that. We saw him as incompetent, and we made special rules to make sure that level of purity is never again a president from the Democratic party. He accepted the decision, and then he became the greatest ex-president in American history. I don’t want to dismiss the “Jimmy Carter quality” as insignificant. I don’t think it is in the interest of progressive voters or my grandchildren to dismiss that level of purity as irrelevant. It is not irrelevant. It is only rare; extremely rare.
If anyone accuses the progressive wing of the party of requiring too much purity, remind them that was the argument we were given as one of the main reasons Bernie Sanders did not deserve their votes. We have many more people and much more experience coming into this election. We need to exert our authority to help set the rules, or to be prepared to exercise our first amendment rights to gather and speak out against the process.
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The Jimmy Carter Quality is a chapter from my eBook Practical Democracy: A Progressive Voter's Argument For the Electoral College.
