Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
It's popular to say that Carter was the worst president ever—at least until Biden appeared. But there are some things that conservatives should like about Carter.
Carter served his country in the Navy from the time he was admitted to the Naval Academy in 1943 until he resigned from active duty in 1953. He stayed in the Naval Reserve until 1961. He joined the Naval Academy during World War II and was part of the class that graduated in three years to fight in the war (although it was over by the time he graduated in 1946). He joined the submarine service and was selected by Adm. Hyman Rickover to help start the nuclear navy. Anyone who could win Rickover's confidence was no slouch. He left the sea service with the rank of lieutenant.
As president, Carter deregulated the airline industry, removing government control over routes and fares. He also deregulated the beer industry, allowing the sale of hops and brewer's yeast to ordinary Americans for the first time since Prohibition. Anytime you drink a craft beer, you owe a small debt of thanks to Carter.
Carter revived the Middle East peace process by inviting Begin and Sadat to negotiate the Camp David Accords, which resulted in Egypt becoming the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Sadat had already been moving Egypt away from being a Soviet client state, and the Camp David Accords solidified Egypt's position as a US ally, further weakening the Soviet position in the Middle East.
When the Soviet Union overthrew the government of Afghanistan and invaded, Carter began supplying weapons to the mujahideen. He started the Afghanistan quagmire for the Soviet Union, and, ultimately, the Afghanistan quagmire was an important factor in the Soviet's domestic political quagmire that brought the Communist regime down. Of course, Reagan deserves the lion's share of the credit for ramping up the pressure on the Soviets to unbearable levels.
When Carter took office in 1977, he was determined to reengage with the Soviet Union through friendship. However Soviet aggression forced him to change his approach and request the first inflation-adjusted increases in defense spending since the end of Vietnam. Several foundational weapons systems were procured by the Carter administration, including the M1 Abrams tank, which entered service in 1980. Carter reinstated the MX Peacekeeper missile program in 1979. The KC-10 Extender tanker entered service in 1980. Carter pushed for the development of stealth aircraft, which resulted in the development of the F-117 Nighthawk. While Carter will never be called a defense hawk, he realized that his initial posture of friendship with the Soviets only resulted in greater aggression on their part. He learned from his initial mistakes (unlike Biden) and started the defense buildup that Reagan maximized.
Carter is far down the list of good presidents, and there is a lot to criticize him for, but he is certainly not at the bottom of the list. As we memorialize the 39th president in less than a week, conservatives should give him a hurrah, albeit a small one.
Discussion (26)
CONTRIBUTOR • CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
In 1975-76 Carter was the most conservative Democrat running (I count George Wallace as effectively still third party; he had no chance whatsoever of being nominated by Seventies Democrats) in a year that didn't look good for the GOP. He was one of those out-of-nowhere, Wendell Willkie type political phenoms. A Southerner, a sincere Christian with a distaste for the grandiose, Carter was moderately popular his first two years. The Democratic establishment never warmed to him, the Democrats in Congress didn't know him and weren't afraid of him.
He screwed a lot of things up. But if you make a list of presidents who the press hated, Carter, a member of the same political party as nearly every reporter covering him, would be near the top of the "kill" list. Ironic. There's an old saying I've always agreed with: The Press is not always pro-democrat, but it is always anti-Republican. They despised Carter for not being more progressive. In 1976, they wanted Jerry Brown or Morris Udall. In 1980 they wanted Teddy Kennedy, and tore Carter down so effectively it did half of Reagan's job for him. Carter himself did the rest.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Another thing I like about Carter is that I was younger when he was President. Maybe not more prosperous, but younger is important, too.
CONTRIBUTOR • CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Compare Democrats Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden. Biden did every sort of thing that Obama did, but worse; a third of a century ago, Clinton did everything that Carter did, but better--politically. For all of Clinton's flaws, he was, like Carter, a Southerner, even though he wasn't from the heart of the Cotton South. They were both, by loose Democrat standards, political moderates. They weren't woke in today's terms, just liberal. Clinton, a more gifted politician, was also luckier.
There are endless hinges of history that could have gone the other way. Carter made much of his own bad luck, but not all of it. Admittedly we (the US, not just the Democrats or Carter) had been coasting along with the Shah for decades.
So here's my purely theoretical, imaginative challenge to my fellow amateur historians of the right: as patriots, not just partisans, we should be able to imagine a Carter presidency that would not only have been regarded as successful, but one that set a hands-off attitude towards traditional culture that would have made the Democrats stronger competitors in national elections, as well as better stewards of the interests of the nation when they do get into power.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Luckier because he had a Newt Gingrich lead congress. Gifted because he knew to go along with said congress.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
No, he didn't.
After repeated attempts to obstruct Congressional initiatives, on the very things that Clinton had promised during his campaign, Dick Morris explained to him that he had no choice but to go along.
You're seeing five of 26 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.