Goodbye to Jimmy Carter, a man of humility and decency

In the four years that Jimmy Carter served as president of the United States, it often seemed that everything that could go wrong did. In the 100 years that he walked the earth, though, including those the peanut farmer and Annapolis graduate spent in the White House, Carter worked relentlessly to do what was right, serving his fellow man, his nation, and his vision of God with a courtly and humble devotion.

When he died Sunday, 13 months after his wife Rosalynn, after defying melanoma and other illnesses and injuries for years, it was clear he would be remembered most for the humility, decency, and authenticity that marked his years before, during, and after he served in the most powerful position on Earth.

Born on Oct. 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia, Carter was our first president delivered in a hospital, and by the time he died, our longest lived. A success in expanding his family business after a decade as a naval officer, he began his political career in the early 1960s as a state senator and a steady and increasingly vocal supporter of racial integration. But he was also a pragmatist. After losing to a strident racist in his first bid to be governor of Georgia in 1966, Carter actively hid his own devotion to racial equality in the 1970 race to seize the job, then promptly turned toward the light in his inauguration speech, saying, “The time of racial discrimination is over. No poor, rural, weak, or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job or simple justice.”

When Carter announced his presidential bid in 1975, he faced seemingly impossible odds and far better-known candidates, including Alabama Gov. George Wallace and California Gov. Jerry Brown. The experts thought Carter too young, too conservative, too southern, and too openly Christian. But a nation reeling from corruption and cynicism in the wake of President Richard Nixon’s forced resignation and the finally-finished debacle in Vietnam was primed for a fresh candidate with a different vision, and Carter took advantage.

The Camp David accords that brought peace between Israel and Egypt were a bright spot, as was his record as an environmentalist. He protected tens of millions of acres in Alaska, worked to preserve rivers in the West, and installed solar panels on the roof of the White House as part of a prescient push to wean the nation off fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy.

But Carter’s one-term presidency is mostly remembered for the missteps, and the tragedies. Inflation hit 13% by 1980 as OPEC doubled oil prices. Unable to respond forcefully, Carter left Americans despondent with his passive pleas that they wear sweaters, turn down the heat, and drive 55 mph to save fuel. Unemployment was high throughout his presidency, hitting nearly 8%. And interest rates for 30-year home loans had risen to 15% by the time Carter left office. But all of that was secondary to Carter’s inability to secure the release of dozens of American hostages taken by Iranians who stormed the American embassy in Tehran in late 1979. A failed rescue attempt three months into the crisis that left eight American soldiers dead and the deepening economic crisis all but sealed his reelection loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

But that loss became as much a beginning as an ending. By the time Carter died, he was respected and even revered for the hard work, kindness, and relentless decency that defined his life and that of the former first lady to whom he was married for 77 years. At the time of his wife’s death, he said, “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished.”

Post-presidency, Carter labored tirelessly to promote the charity Habitat for Humanity, swinging a hammer and popularizing the cause. He wrote books on topics as varied as religion, diplomacy, freedom, peace and democracy, and fought for those things through a variety of channels. He worked to eradicate Guinea worm disease and through his eponymous Carter Center monitored 113 elections in 39 countries. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And throughout his post-presidential life, he was increasingly granted the respect and love of his nation.

No amount of revisionist history can turn Jimmy Carter’s presidency into a success. But neither can his failures devalue the extraordinary example this president set for his nation, after that nation believed it had set him aside.