Its fair to say Carter has had an incredible life and career, a peanut farmer from rural Georgia who would go on to be the leader of the free world.
Carter was ‘Not just peanuts’
Carter started off by serving in the US Navy for 7 years, and upon leaving the navy he took up the family business turning around the struggling peanut farm.
In 1962 Carter made his debut in Georgia politics, being elected state senator for Georgia’s 14th district. During his two terms there he focused on education, an area he would take all the way to the White House creating the Department of Education in 1979.
Carter took his political career to the next level when he became governor of Georgia in 1970 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1966. During his campaign Carter sacrificed his personal integrationist beliefs and took endorsements and from segregationists for political gain.
During his term as governor, he was seen as a progressive, increasing the number of African Americans working in Georgia’s government by 25% and streamlining the state’s bureaucracy.
In light of George McGovern’s failed democratic presidential bid in 1972, and Nixon’s Watergate Scandal, Carter decided to run for president.
Despite being a relative unknown and facing a field of 17 opponents in the 1976 Democratic primary, Carter won. He then went on to fight and win the general election against sitting President Ford. Carter won with a majority of 297 electoral college votes proving to his detractors, as his campaign slogan said, Carter was ‘Not just peanuts’.
Once in the White House, Carter faced a looming inflation crisis and a growing unemployment rate that, by June of 1977, had reached 7.1%. Attempts to curtail this, by raising interest rates, had an adverse effect by triggering a recession.
Even though the administration was facing a tumultuous economic situation, it was able to make some achievements such as expanding the national parks’ lands, tackling the energy shortage, and improving the social security system.
The defining event abroad of Carter’s presidency was the Iranian Hostage crisis, where 52 US diplomats were held for 14 months only to be released on the day Carter left the White House. The near-constant media scrutiny significantly hampered Carter’s last months in office.
Carter did make some significant progress on the international stage with the establishment of diplomacy with China, and the successful negotiation of the SALT II nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union.
Although Carter had some accomplishments both domestically and internationally it was overshadowed by his failure to control the desperate economic situation and resolve the lengthy foreign policy crisis in Iran. Ultimately this resulted in his defeat at the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan.
Since leaving Carter has been an advocate for human rights and a supporter of multiple charitable causes. Most notably his work with the charity, Habitat For Humanity, who he's worked alongside with for more than 35 years - building homes for the homeless and disadvantaged.
Jimmy Carter was one of those presidents who was often termed a 'lame duck' - but lame he was not. Establishing the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, playing a key role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and a noble post-presidential life. Upon the writing of this article, Jimmy Carter is still alive. That will not last forever, it will likely not last until publication of this article. But it was a life well lived, and a duty well served in the eyes of the American public. May God rest his soul.