S3 E30: Nice Guy, Bad President - Jimmy Carter's Unfortunate Legacy

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Jimmy Carter is remembered as a nice guy, but a weak man.  A one-term president who never showed strength, he’s one more example of the fad politics of the Democrat party.  Always choosing symbols over ability.  We can only hope the many houses he helped to build had a better plan and a better foundation than did his presidency.

Jimmy Carter was the first in a modern line of southern presidents. Like Bill Clinton he came out of nowhere, the unknown governor of a southern state. Like George Bush he was a former naval officer and businessman. But unlike either one he served a single term leaving failure failure behind to spend the rest of his life successfully polishing his image. He even received a Nobel Peace Prize but much like the award given to Barack Obama no one can tell you how he got it without looking it up first.

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Episode Transcript

The Tenth Man (00:11):
Jimmy Carter is dead, and the media proclaim his
achievements as husband, Bibleteacher, and home builder.
The failed presidency of a niceguy, today, on the 10th man.

(00:32):
Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer.
The Sunday school teacher.
The humanitarian.
A man so admired for hiskindness and humility that he
became the prototype for themodern nice guy president.
But is nice enough for the OvalOffice?

(00:53):
And how much of Carter's legacyis the man himself?
And how much is just cleverimage polishing?
Let's start with this.
I don't want to speak ill of thedead.
By all accounts, Jimmy Carterwas a good man, humble,
compassionate, and sincere.
I'll enjoy meeting him in heavensomeday.

(01:17):
But it's important to confrontthe contradictions of his
presidency.
Not to tear him down, butbecause these contradictions
reveal larger truths aboutleadership, about history, and
about the Democratic Partyitself.
You see, the Democratic Partyhas long been the party of
inconsistency.
And Carter?

(01:38):
He's no exception.
There's Carter the peanutfarmer.
We often hear Carter describedas a humble peanut farmer.
But the truth is different.
Carter wasn't farming peanuts,he was brokering them.
His family owned a peanutwarehousing company in the Jim

(01:59):
Crow South.
Buying peanuts from poor blacksharecroppers and selling them
at a profit.
Carter's role was passive, nottransformational.
He didn't cultivate the landhimself or disrupt the existing
system.
He operated within it.

(02:20):
His work reflected the norms ofthe era, and while he may have
treated his people kindly, hisactions didn't push for progress
or for systemic change.
Think about what we've seenbefore.
Statues being torn down.
Historical figures arecancelled.
Because, through the modernlens, we judge them too harshly.

(02:44):
Yet, Carter, whose world wasshaped by the Jim Crow South,
gets a pass.
This isn't about attacking himpersonally.
It's about pointing out thedouble standard.
One of Carter's most endearingqualities was his lifelong
commitment to teaching SundaySchool.

(03:04):
Even while president, it's arare and admirable trait, a
leader who genuinely lives hisfaith.
But let's consider thecontradiction.
While Carter lived his Christianvalues, his party increasingly
attacked Christianity and themoral stances that come with it,

(03:25):
while Carter stood by.
Christianity often demandstaking unpopular stands on
issues like abortion,homosexuality, promiscuity,
poverty.
But consider the 2024 DemocraticNational Convention where
Planned Parenthood prominentlyshowcased an abortion rights

(03:46):
booth and gave free abortions.
That's going beyond personalchoice.
It's a celebration of what manyChristians see as a grievous
moral wrong.
And let's not forget the party'sinsistence on enforcing taxpayer
funding for abortion.
It's a stark contrast toCarter's personal faith and

(04:08):
values.
And while the Democratic Partychampions personal choice, it
rarely preaches personalresponsibility while both are
Christian values.
Carter's actions in this realm,too, were passive.
He neither challenged hisparty's contradictions nor

(04:28):
sought to bridge the dividebetween faith and policy.
His Sunday School teachingAdmirable as it was, remained a
personal ritual disconnectedfrom his public witness.
Then there's Carter, thepresident, where the media loves
to portray him as a victim ofbad luck, an economic crisis,

(04:51):
the Iran hostage debacle, andother things.
But let's be honest, much ofthis happened on his watch
because of his inaction orineffective responses.
Instead of solving problems,Carter focused on gestures.
He walked to his inauguration toshow humility.

(05:12):
He wore cardigan sweaters topromote energy conservation.
But these symbols didn't addressany underlying issues.
Gas lines grew longer.
Double digit inflation crippledthe economy.
And Americans turned down theirthermostats while Carter sent
heating oil to Iran, the samecountry which was holding 52 U.

(05:35):
S.
citizens as hostage.
One of Carter's mostcontroversial decisions was
giving away the Panama Canal, avital U.
S.
asset built with Americaningenuity and sacrifice, was
handed over, weakening America'sstrategic position in the
region.

(05:56):
This was not an act of bolddiplomacy, it was a concession.
Even one of his most celebratedachievements, the Camp David
Accords, showcased Carter'stendency to facilitate rather
than to lead.
It was Menachem Begin and AnwarSadat who did the heavy lifting

(06:19):
and they paid the price.
Begin resigned under pressure afew years later.
and Sadat was assassinated.
Carter's Nobel Prize awardedyears later, it's important to
remember it had nothing to dowith Camp David, but instead
reflected his post presidentialwork.

(06:42):
And then there was the IranHostage Crisis.
Carter's passive leadershipfaltered, culminating in a
botched rescue attempt.
He micromanaged the mission,reportedly insisting that no
Iranian guards be harmed.
The result, a disastrousfailure.
In stark contrast, H.
Ross Perot successfully rescuedtwo employees from Iran with a

(07:06):
private mission.
Meanwhile, Iran finally releasedthe U.
S.
hostages the moment RonaldReagan was inaugurated,
signaling their respect fordecisive leadership Similar to
what we are seeing today in theaftermath of the election of
Donald Trump, Carter's navalcareer also raises questions.

(07:30):
He served as a nuclear submarineofficer.
A role requiring intelligenceand precision.
He was a trained nuclearengineer.
And yet, during the energycrisis, when America needed
solutions, Carter never stronglychampioned nuclear power, even
though it could have addressedboth energy needs, as well as

(07:53):
the climate change concerns thatare in the forefront today.
His presidency also saw theThree Mile Island nuclear
crisis.
Rather than using it as anopportunity to promote safer
nuclear energy, He let feardominate the public discourse,
further stalling a technologycritical to reducing fossil fuel

(08:15):
dependence.
Compare Carter to George H.
W.
Bush, another Navy man, born inthe same year of 1924.
Bush was in high school when theJapanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
and enlisted as a naval aviatorupon his graduation.

(08:36):
Carter was out of high school,so He enrolled in college.
Bush was shot down in combatduring World War II.
Carter, meanwhile wastransferred to another college,
then the Naval Academy, gettingcommissioned four years after
Bush in 1946.

(08:57):
Then when his father died,Carter left the Navy to run the
family business, even though hehad siblings who could have
taken over.
He supposedly dreamed of servinghis country in the U.
S.
Navy, but seemingly forsookevery chance he had to do so.
One of Carter's first acts aspresident was to pardon Vietnam

(09:20):
draft dodgers.
Men who burned their draftcards, fled the country, and
broke the law.
This was a move towardreconciliation, but it also
opened the door to a doublestandard.
Later, Republicans like GeorgeW.
Bush, and especially DonaldTrump, were harshly criticized
for their limited, or lack of,military service.

(09:44):
Even though neither of thembroke the law.
In fact, their decisionsmirrored those of prominent
Democrats like Bill Clinton,Barack Obama, and Joe Biden who
also didn't serve but legallyfollowed the system at the time.
The irony here is stark.

(10:04):
Carter himself could be seen asavoiding combat when he didn't
enlist or when he left the Navyto run his family business,
despite having siblings whocould have stepped in.
And yet, when his party attackedmen like Bush and Trump Who
needed no pardoning, Carter saidnothing.
/His silence on this matterleaves a troubling inconsistency

(10:27):
in his legacy, one thatcontrasts sharply with his image
as a reconciler and unifier.
Jimmy Carter was considered agood man, but the contradictions
of his life and presidencyreveal the limits of being nice.
He lived humbly, but hispolicies left America weaker.

(10:52):
He proclaimed/faith, but rarelychallenged his party's drift
from those values.
And while he spent decadespolishing his image, history
demands a deeper look.
Being good matters, but beinggood at the job matters more.

(11:12):
And in Jimmy Carter's case, thelatter left much to be desired.
Thank you for listening.