BOSTON — “He tells the American people very simply, I will not lie to you.”
That was the campaign pitch, nearly fifty years ago, of one James Earl Carter.
“No one thought that a politician like Jimmy Carter had a shot but he proved everyone wrong,” says historian and author Thomas Whelan of Boston University.
What Carter first proved: geography was no barrier to electoral success.
In 1976, the former Georgia governor became the first southerner elected President since before the Civil War.
but four years later... carter suffered a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan.
“There was high inflation,” says Whelan. “We had borrowed all this money and now the bills were due.
How Carter chose to pay those bills contributed to his downfall.
Instead of adding debt, he turned to the federal reserve.
“They had punishing interest rates,” said Whelan. “They were double digits.”
The economy helped crush carter’s chance for re-election.
But with his days seemingly dwindling Whelan says it’s high time to look past that 1980 loss and focus on Carter’s many accomplishments.
“I think historically, he’s one of the great success stories,” says Whelan.
That included foreign policy triumphs, whelan says, including the Camp David Accords, which brought lasting peace between Middle East rivals.
Egypt and Israel have not gone back to war with one another.
Carter also made ‘human rights’ a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy.
“I think that was a major reason why the Soviet Union did not have a leg to stand on at the end of the Cold War,’ says Whelan.
Whelan says, looking back, Carter was right on energy, on deregulation, and, ultimately, on the economy.
“In some ways, Jimmy Carter is the United States prophet without honor in political circles. I think his administration shows as a shining beacon for Presidents while in office and also when you leave office.”
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