Month: January 2025

Jimmy Carter’s Legacy Could Be Affected By Donald Trump!

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Jimmy Carter’s legacy could be affected by Donald Trump, becoming President in 16 days.

Trump is threatening Panama over the control of the Canal Zone, which by treaty was agreed to be handed back to Panama during the Carter Presidency, and occurring peacefully in the year 2000.

Carter presided over the creation of the Department of Education, but ever since, Republicans have called for the closing of a federal agency on education, and now, it is a real threat to the survival of the cabinet agency during the Trump Administration.

Carter promoted the environment as a major goal of accomplishment, and warned of the dangers of long term dependence on oil, coal and gas, advocating nuclear and solar energy. Now, Trump is declaring war on the environment, and failing to see the dangers of climate change and global warming.

Carter promoted the importance of immigration for the future growth of America, while now, Trump is preparing to deport millions of immigrants.

Carter advocated high ethical standards and the importance of compassion and empathy, and Trump is the polar opposite of that.

Even now, Trump is complaining that Carter’s death has created a 30 day period of mourning, with the flags flown at half staff until January 28, therefore including the inauguration date of Trump on January 20. Who can say that he will not, possibly, order the return of the flags to full staff at his inauguration, as unseemly as that would be?

It should be pointed out that Richard Nixon’s Second Inauguration in 1973 included the flying of the flag at half staff for former President Harry Truman, who had passed awwy on December 26, 1972, and yet, Nixon did not complain publicly or make an issue of the flag being at half staff for his second inauguration.

In these ways and more, Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump are as diametrically opposite in dramatic and sad ways as is imaginable!

Jimmy Carter’s Post Presidency Unmatched By Any Other President!

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Jimmy Carter’s post Presidency of 44 years will, forever, remain unmatched.

Carter left office at the early age of 56, and survived health challenges to reach age 100, also highly unlikely, ever to be matched or surpassed.

Carter established the Carter Center to promote human rights in 1982, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum was opened in 1986 in Atlanta, and this blogger and scholar visited the site two times, finding it a very impressive memorial to the President.

Carter also spent several years teaching at Emory University in Atlana.

Carter wrote a total of 33 books in his lifetime, more than any other President.

Carter participated in building housing for the poor through Habitat For Humanity.

Carter traveled the world, fighting disease, promoting free elections, and advocating resolution of various international conflicts.

Carter had varying relations with his successors and predecessors, becoming particularly close to President Gerald Ford, creating the closest friendship with a fellow President since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Other Presidents who were active after their Presidency included John Quincy Adams, who served in the House of Representatives for nearly 18 years, and wrote a diary from age 12 to age 80.

Also, Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, and Theodore Roosevelt ran for the Presidency after their terms in office.

William Howard Taft served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for nine years after his Presidency.

Also, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, along with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama presently, have been active, but none on the level of Jimmy Carter.

Carter’s historical ranking is sure to rise from the mid 20s to the top one third over time, as his passing makes the true Carter scholarship ever more expansive in the next generation!

Jimmy Carter-Walter Mondale: The Most Intimate Team In White House History!

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Presidents and Vice Presidents often are an awkward pair, with the Vice President chosen for electoral and regional reasons, not because of friendship or familiarity before the Presidential term.

Most Vice Presidents are ignored by the Presidents they are serving, and some have even, actively, worked against the President’s interests.

Most Vice Presidents, historically, have not been even considered as possible successors.

Often, the connection between Presidents and Vice Presidents are considered like a “shotgun marriage”!

Examples of awkward combinations are Thomas Jefferson under John Adams; Aaron Burr under Thomas Jefferson; John C. Calhoun under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; Charles Fairbanks under Thedodore Roosevelt; Thomas Marshall under Woodrow Wilson; Charles G. Dawes under Calvin Coolidge; John Nance Garner under Franklin D. Roosevelt; Lyndon B. Johnson under John F. Kennedy; Hubert Humphrey under Lyndon B. Johnson; Spiro Agnew under Richard Nixon; Dan Quayle under George H W Bush; and Mike Pence under Donald Trump.

The greatest and most intimate team was Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, and their partnership lasted 45 plus years until Mondale died in April 2021. Carter made Mondale as close to a co-President as could be possible, as Mondale was in on every decision, and the two men and their wives were very close in office and for the 40 plus years of retirement together.

No other combinaton comes close, although Joe Biden under Barack Obama would rank second in closeness and intimacy.

Until the revelation of the personal scandals under Bill Clinton, Al Gore was also very close and intimate, but the Monica Lewinsky scandal created a barrier for the remainder of Clinton’s second term, causing Gore not to utilize Clinton in the 2000 Presidential race, a major factor in Gore’s defeat, despite winning the national popular vote over George W. Bush.

The extent of the closeness and intimacy of Kamala Harris with Joe Biden is not yet fully understood.

Jimmy Carter, The Best One Term Environmentalist President

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Jimmy Carter may have only had one term in the Presidency, but regarding environmental issues, Presidential scholars and Environmental experts agree he had the most productive one term we have seen, although it may be that Joe Biden’s one term might be seen in evaluation in the future as having surpassed Carter.

Carter put solar panels on the White House, which his successor, Ronald Reagan, had removed.

Carter put tens of millions of acres in Alaska off limits to developers, specifically 56 million acres under the 1906 Antiquities Act passed under Theodore Roosevelt.

Before he left office, he added another 100 million acres in Alaska of Wildlife Refuge under protection, an amazing accomplishment.

Carter had a great Interior Secretary, Cecil Andrus, former Governor of Idaho, who worked against the domination of mining, oil, timber, and grazing interests, and limited control of dams that could harm the health of rivers.

Also, Carter presided over the creation of the Department of Energy as a Cabinet post.

One can only imagine how much more Carter might have done had he won reelection in 1980 over Ronald Reagan.

As it is, Carter is rated as one of the top eight environmental Presidents, alongside Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.