Jimmy Carter, A Rare Presidential Legacy of Service and Humanity

Current elected officials and former Presidents could restore the public's dwindling confidence in our government and institutions if they follow the model of service exemplified by Jimmy Carter.

The American media has a terrible habit of valorizing dead Presidents and whitewashing their many sins for the sake of civility and decorum. It is seen as unbecoming to air their dirty, bloody laundry and numerous sins. However, in my lifetime, President Jimmy Carter is one of those rare public servants who deserves a laudatory obituary.

It certainly isn’t for his one-term Presidency, which had one of the lowest Gallup approval ratings towards its end. Rather, the praise is justified for President Carter using his title, influence, and role to pursue selfless service, humanitarian work, and peace for four decades upon leaving office. Just take a second to compare Carter’s track record with George W. Bush, a war criminal who instigated an unnecessary war on Iraq and Afghanistan which destroyed generations and did nothing but inspire hate and resentment towards America. Carter was able to broker the Camp David Accord, a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that still stands. In 1977, the Department of State under the Carter Administration established the first Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs headed by human rights activist Patricia Derian.

After leaving office, Carter spent his weekends building homes for Habitat for Humanity even after he suffered 14 stitches and a black eye in 2019. Meanwhile, Bush spends his time painting, giving toffee to Michelle Obama, and keeping quiet as his party marches towards fascism. Through his humanitarian foundation, the Carter Center - founded to “wage peace, fight disease and build hope” - Carter would be instrumental in essentially eliminating the Guinea worm disease. In 1986, there were 3.5 million cases. By 2022, it had dropped to 13 cases.

In 1986, Carter helped release journalist Luis Mora and labor leader Jose Altamirano from Nicaraguan prisons. He did the work to earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. President Obama undeservingly won the same prize in 2009 for no apparent reason and was responsible for drone strikes, a record number of deportations, and supporting Saudi Arabia in its brutal war in Yemen.

When it came to Israel-Palestine, Carter took immense heat for writing the important book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid in 2006. Specifically, he called out Israel’s unjust occupation of Palestinian territories and the establishment of illegal settlements as one of the two major obstacles to peace. He also condemned some Palestinians using terrorism against Israelis as a means to achieve self-determination. Meanwhile, President Biden has been complicit in what Amnesty International now refers to as a genocide in Gaza and has allowed war criminal Prime Minister Netanyahu to openly cross every single one of his red lines. Biden’s trademark empathy is all but absent for Palestinians who are still enduring a humanitarian crisis.

Even though he could have stayed silent, Carter chose to speak out against the violent insurrection on January 6th and urged people to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. In an era where Presidential corruption and infidelity are now just accepted, I think it’s important to acknowledge that President Carter remained happily married to his wife, Rosalynn, for 77 years until her death in November 2023. Unlike marriages of political convenience, such as the arrangement between the Clintons or Donald and his wife Melania, the Carters remained loving partners who shared a fierce commitment to human rights and service.

Those of us who were too young or not alive during his Presidency remember Carter for his decency and morality. He assumed office after the corrupt legacy of President Nixon and preceded the disastrous ascent of modern-day right-wing authoritarianism that flourished under Reagan’s diseased presidency. Unfortunately, there’s still no airport named after Jimmy Carter, however in D.C. we have Ronald Reagan Airport named for a man who crushed unions, instituted “trickle-down economics,” lied about Iran Contra, and deliberately ignored the AIDS crisis.

Today, it’s painful to compare Carter’s legacy with the man a plurality of Americans decided to vote into office in 2024. Trump has never spent a second of his life serving anyone or anything other than his voracious carnal appetites. He dispenses cruelty and rage instead of kindness and forgiveness. His charity, like his university, was just another vehicle for grifting and fraud. Instead of pursuing peace, he’s perfectly fine instigating insurrections and mocking our allies to kiss up to brutal authoritarians.

For those former Presidents who are still alive, Carter provides an example of humility and service that, sadly, is often forfeited for lucrative corporate contracts and six-figure speech honorariums. Hopefully, current elected officials can look upon President Carter as a model of how to live a post-elected life with dignity, ethics, morality, and humanity. If they follow in his footsteps, they just might inspire and restore the American public’s confidence in our elected officials who as public servants use their privilege and platform to help the people instead of lining up their pockets and feeding their ambitions.

I won’t hold my breath, but here’s to hoping.