THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT JIMMY

Jimmy Carter is gone at age 100. And the internet is full of what you’d expect in this day and age in terms of tributes, damnations and other hot takes.

For me, I should start by saying that I was 12 when Carter took office, so inevitably much of what I remember about his term at the time was all the jokes about peanut farming and his brother Billy. And this brilliant comedy album.

Watch on YouTube

Which is why I I’m not that emotionally invested in his legacy, and why for years I felt it was ironic that he went on to be more respected as an elder statesman than a President.

And having grown up with the truism from historians that his presidency was a failure, it’s been educational to see some of the Carter apologetics being posted over the past ten years or so. And the more I've read about him, the more I realised that his term hasn't been retconned so much as assessed more fairly with the distance of time. Which is usually how it works.

I’m not especially convinced of the more hagiographical takes on his presidency, but I think it’s fair to say Carter was an average POTUS – he did some good things and some not-so-good things. And much of his legacy is down to bad luck as much as anything else – as others have pointed out, 1976-1980 would be a tough period for any POTUS.

In the end, Carter comes across to me as someone who was nobody’s fool, but was also a decent person with good intentions who was almost too honest to be President.

Which is why he sounded like a good deal in 1976 when the other option was Jerry Ford, who was a castoff of the Nixon Gang. But by 1980, most people apparently preferred someone who could act like an honest President rather than actually be one.

We’ve apparently devolved since then – nowadays, ppl prefer a POTUS who don’t even bother to hide his dishonesty. Maybe that’s why looks so good Carter in retrospect now. That said, Carter built up plenty of goodwill with his post-POTUS career, so maybe there’s more to it than being nostalgic for an anti-Trump.

Still, the contrast is stark.

Meanwhile, the left or right of Carter will insist that he was a horrible/evil POTUS because [insert hyperspecific grievance here], or out of the usual ideological purity. Even some people on the far left still haven’t forgiven him for that one thing that pissed them off.

Well, there will always be ppl like that. Carter would say a prayer for them. Which just goes to show.

Anyway, I think we were lucky to have Carter when we had him, if only because it shaped the statesman to come. Respect.

Looking forward to Trump trying to make this all about him.

Trust me,

This is dF