Last week, I saw a TV show about the Jimmy Carter presidency (part of PBS’s “American Experience” series). It was rather painful to watch. I take a personal interest in Carter since I also have an engineering background, share some of his religious motivations, and since I also worked for the feds in Washington in the late 70s (nowhere near the White House nor any other center of power, however).

Back in ’76, I caught “Carter fever”, as did many other people around my age. Richard Nixon, that personification of Republican evil, had recently fallen, and his lackey, Gerald Ford, had been soundly defeated. Carter promised a new era of rationality and compassion, a deliverance from the horrors of partisan politics. It seemed as though the idealism of the 1960s was finally taking hold in the White House. Not the “peace, pot, microdot” aspect of it, the naive desire of spoiled college students to shape a society around sex, intoxicants and lack of police and military responsibility. Jimmy Carter seemed to represent the better part of the 60s, the Kennedy-esq desire for compassion and responsible leadership devoted to society’s long-term best interests.

I recently started reading “The Presidency of James Earl Carter” by Burton Kaufman. I’ve only gotten thru the first chapter so far, but one thing is quite clear from it. Although Jimmy Carter got a lot of our votes by posturing himself as an anti-politician, he was indeed a crafty politician up through 1976. So why did he fail so badly in exerting political leadership during the crises that confronted America thereafter? Ironically, it seems as though he convinced himself during his Presidency to believe in the image that he created to get elected. He started to believe in the lies that he told to get votes. He disregarded the clearly apparent threats of Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan and actually tried to be a non-political super-administrator dedicated to enforcing the nation’s best interests.

Or was he just stupid? Well, Jimmy Carter was rather dumb in thinking that he could govern as an enlightened dictator. America did indeed elect him in 1976, but it didn’t simultaneously vote to suspend the Constitution. The Constitution was and is based upon good old short-term, partisan politics. I’m now convinced that about the best a president can do is to maintain the status quo, pretty much what Bill Clinton did. Forget about advancing the country towards a kinder, gentler, more rational, more equitable, more long-term way of doing things.

If the country is ever going to go that route, it’s not going to do it via politics. Politics will follow, not lead. Even before Reagan was elected in 1980, the country was slipping into a “get mine now” attitude, providing only for the immediate family and garnering enough to have a nice retirement. Forget about building a better world for future generations and for the third world; there’s not even enough left over for the poor right in our own cities and mountain valleys. Therefore, that’s where our politics are at. Unfortunately, our lack of sharing with the rest of the world (other than some condescending humanitarian aid) is now causing resentments that threaten us. Thus our politics currently focus on “homeland security”, i.e. building up walls. The Roman Empire went through something like that. Deja vu all over again?

We shall see. Jimmy Carter, where are you now? Oh, that’s right. Working with your Center, trying to do whatever good you can do, wherever you can do it. Jimmy, you still have my vote.