Jimmy Carter

About a week ago, it was announced that the 98 year old former President Jimmy Carter was entering home hospice care in Plains, Georgia.   

The statement from the Carter Center revealed that Carter had “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

Jimmy Carter was President when I first started high school and well, I didn't like it. 

I was young and uninformed and all I really knew about Jimmy Carter was what I saw and heard. And what I saw and heard did not look or sound like what I thought a President should look or sound like.   

It wasn't just the southern accent but Carter had a sort of soft, almost gentle way of speaking, like Mister Rogers or something.  I mean, nothing against Mister Rogers but the President of the United States shouldn't sound like Mister Rogers. 

His slight build made Jimmy Carter seem overwhelmed by the office. 

And it didn't help that a lot of shit went down during his single term in office with double-digit inflation, an energy crisis thar sparked long lines at gas pumps and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran.  A failed rescue of the hostages cost the lives of 8 Americans, a bleak moment that sealed Jimmy Carter' electoral fate when Ronald Reagan came along. 

I was young and I was a sucker and I bought what Ronald Reagan was selling. Reagan stood tall with broad shoulders and spoke out with a commanding voice that assured us that America was a shining city on a hill and we were gonna by God kick ass again! 

Translation: AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!!!

So Jimmy Carter got his ass kicked but hard in 1980. 

But here's an interesting thing that I was too stupid to be aware of at the time. 

OK, I knew Jimmy Carter was very open about his Christian faith so dummy that I am, I figured he had the vote of the good Christian people in America, right?

Oh hell no! 

Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, a socio-political movement of the Evangelical Christian right worked double time to seal the deal for Ronald Reagan because Reagan told Falwell and his racist, sexist and homophobic ilk what they wanted to hear, about restoring American values which to the Moral Majority meant "Christian" values or more to the point, their particular brand of "Christian" values. 

Self described Christian voters swarmed to Reagan's campaign. I can't throw stones here. I was one of them. 

Ronald Reagan, former TV and movie actor, put on the performance of a lifetime to win the role of a life time. 

Jimmy Carter was never more than who he said he was and got drubbed out of office. Yes, Jimmy Carter was devout in his Christian faith but he never lost sight that he was President of the United States of America and never acted like he was  President of the United States of Evangelical Christians.  

Which of course pissed off the evangelical Christians. 

In his years out of office, Jimmy Carter has lived humbly in the same modest home he and his wife Rosalyn shared for decades while working with the Carter Center to promote democratic and humanitarian initiatives around the world.  And Carter could frequently be found at worksites for Habitat For Humanity, working to build homes for families in need.  

Jimmy Carter didn't simply express his faith. He lived it.  

Looking back on the inanity of my youth, I regret my assessment of Jimmy Carter as President. Yeah, he could've been a bit more of a forceful speaker and conveyed a more decisive image. Part of the power of the Presidency is motivation. And I think Carter struggled with that. 

But I think it was inherent in Carter's nature that perhaps he grasped a fundamental truth that the President of the United States is more a role of ultimate service than it is about ultimate power.  

God bless Jimmy Carter and his family.