God Bless You, Jimmy Carter!

Photo by author

Years ago, before Covid entered the world, people used to attend campaign rallies. It was a political stereotype that the guy (it was always a guy) running for office would shake hands and kiss babies. I know. Impossible to imagine in today’s world: handing over your precious child for some politician to kiss. And yet my parents attended such a rally with me. The campaigner in question kissed me and told my mother that he had a little girl at home just my age. This was my first brush with politics. I would grow up to become an amateur political pundit, and the politician would go on to be the President of the United States.

My parents ADORED Jimmy Carter. They campaigned for him. My dad woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me he’d won the 1976 election. When they first proudly told me the story of Jimmy Carter kissing me as a baby, I was outraged! “You mean you met the president? And he KISSED me? AND YOU DIDN’T TAKE ANY PICTURES????” My father replied “I didn’t even think he was going to be governor. I never DREAMED he’d be the president!” Years later, I would meet President Carter at a book signing and tell him this story. Finally got my picture with him. (That’s me on the left in the white sweater.)

The Carter years were not good years for this country. I remember hours waiting in line with my parents to buy gas. I remember the Iranian hostage crisis. I remember Carter being attacked by a rabbit. But even though his presidential years don’t rank high, he has been universally praised for his White House afterlife: building homes for the homeless, brokering peace, overseeing elections, writing books, teaching both college and Sunday school. A fitting job for the man who taught America the words in Matthew 5:28.

It broke my father’s heart when Carter lost to Reagan in 1980. He proclaimed that Jimmy Carter was “too good a man to be president.” But he never waivered in his devotion to Carter and to the principles he represented. After my mother’s death, I was going through her papers and I found an envelope with my name on it. It was powder blue – the color they used to fashion tuxedos in the 70’s. I recognized my father’s store logo at the top, and his handwritten note to me in the middle: “Keep these. They have Jimmy Carter’s signature on them and will be worth a lot of money.” I opened the envelope to find my parents’ Georgia driver’s licenses from the ‘70s. I burst out laughing! Only my dad could have thought those would be worth money.

My father died in 1988, so he didn’t live long enough to see the Carter Renaissance. Thankfully, he didn’t live to see the toxic waste dump our current political landscape has become. Carter’s successors went from “lust in his heart” to “I did not have sex with that woman” and “grab ‘em by the …” They bought expensive properties and gave speeches for big bucks. Jimmy just went back to live in the same house he lived in before he was elected president – where he still lives today.

I think my father was right about Jimmy Carter. The virtues that he showed – that he continues to show even now: honesty, fidelity, humility – are no longer seen as political assets. On the contrary, they are now considered liabilities. We want a FIGHTER, not a Sunday School teacher. We don’t want any reaching across the aisle; we want punching in the face.

News that the 98-year-old former president had entered hospice care has generated a torrent of praise for him. Famous figures who knew him well will pen more eloquent tributes. But for me, it’s like I’m losing another piece of my dad. Soon, the world will mourn another member of the Greatest Generation. I’m afraid we’re also losing the last of our honor and decency. But maybe like Jimmy Carter, they will have a 2^nd act on the American stage.