Celebrating ‘visionary’ Jimmy Carter on his centennial

KINGSTON, ONT.—We have all seen Jimmy Carter flash that million-watt smile of his, but it never shined as bright as when someone told Carter he reminded them of Herbert Hoover. “I’ve been called a lot of things,” Carter said in reply, “but I’ve never been compared to a Republican like Hoover before.” Hoover, of course, was the American president who had the misfortune to hold office during the Dust Bowl and the start of the Great Depression. Shanty towns for the homeless were called “Hoovervilles”; cars tethered to mules because their owners couldn’t afford gas were known as “Hoovermobiles”; and pockets turned inside out to show their emptiness were “Hoover flags.” Arthur Milnes is a public historian and past speechwriter to then-prime minister Stephen Harper. Photograph courtesy of Arthur Milnes But a funny thing happened to Hoover after he was unceremoniously turfed from the White House. He lived on. And on. And on. And during those long decades of political retirement, he compiled a list of good works that impressed even his greatest political critics. In 1962, two years before his death at age 90, Hoover was asked his secret: how had he managed to turn the tide of history in his favour? That’s easy, he replied, “I outlived the bastards.” History, it seems, belongs not only to the victors, but to the durable. Well, Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday is on Oct. 1. And, in becoming the first U.S. president to reach this historic milestone, the man from Plains, Georgia, has—as Hoover before him—outlived a lot of bastards. Few would have believed it when Carter left Washington, D.C., after his defeat by Ronald Reagan, but Carter is now revered as the most beloved and admired living American. More importantly to him—one suspects—historians are re-examining his presidency. And the idea that it was a failed one is definitely a thing of the past. The Republican-led and decades-long smear that Carter was a weak and hopelessly idealistic left-winger out of his depth both in Washington and on the world stage has itself been consigned to history’s dustbin. “Carter was a Democratic president, but he accomplished many things commonly associated with Ronald Reagan,” Jonathan Alter writes in His Very Best: Jimmy Carter A Life, published in 2020. “It was Carter, not Reagan, who ended rampant inflation; Carter, not Reagan, who cut the deficit and the growth rate of the federal workforce; Carter, not Reagan … who showed toughness by placing intermediate-range missiles in Europe. His Pentagon developed the B-2 stealth bomber and other high-tech weapons that the Soviet Union could not match. He sharply increased the defense budget and approved covert aid to anti-Communist Afghan rebels who helped turn Afghanistan into the Soviet Union’s Vietnam.” “Carter also took risks for peace,” Alter continues, “and paid a political price for avoiding escalation, most conspicuously in the case of the Panama Canal Treaties. Ratified despite fierce opposition, the treaties prevented the deployment of more than 100,000 troops to the Canal Zone and dramatically improved the image of the United States across Latin America.” Another recent biographer, Kai Bird—whose The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter was published in 2021—makes a similar historical case. “Far from being weak or indecisive, Carter repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to make tough decisions despite the predictable political consequences,” Bird writes. “Indeed, he displayed in the Oval Office an unbending backbone and moral certitude in dealing with such politically fraught issues as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Panama Canal, nuclear weapons, the environment, and consumer protection.” Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter kiss at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, 1976. Photograph courtesy of Picryl E. Stanley Godbold Jr.—author of the two-volume, definitive biography of both Mr. and Mrs. Carter whose final volume, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights, was published in 2022—concludes his reappraisal of the Carter presidency this way: “Carter’s greatness as president rested in the fact that he had kept the nation out of war, used the power of his office to save and improve lives, and defended democracy and human rights in many corners of the world... He had been that rare thing, a non-celebrity president who had appealed to people’s better instincts in a troubled and often immoral world and had faced the challenges of his time honestly and courageously.” While it has long been accepted that Carter is the greatest-ever ex-president, it is finally being recognized that he was also a visionary president of uncommon ability and accomplishment while in office from 1977 to 1981. As he marks his centennial at home in Plains this week, Jimmy Carter must feel fortunate to have lived to witness these reappraisals of his entire career. All he had to do was “outlive the bastards” to enjoy it. Happy birthday, Mr. President. Kingston’s Arthur Milnes, who has been contributing columns to The Hill Times since 1993, served as the Memoirs assistant to Brian Mulroney, and was later a speechwriter to then-prime minister Stephen J. Harper. His daily non-partisan celebration of milestone moments in "Canadian politics, Art’s History", appears on National Newswatch. The Hill Times