Tuesday 1 October 2024 marks the 100th birthday of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. While in the past, Carter’s 1977-1981 administration has been largely regarded as weak or even as a failure, Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin Vaughn write that Carter’s reputation among experts has been improving. In their Presidential Greatness Project survey, they find that Carter is ranked in the top half of all presidents and is also the most underrated president. Revisiting Carter’s presidency, including achievements like the 1979 Camp David Accords and his environmental, education and health policies, and his post-presidency humanitarian work, they comment that Carter’s human legacy is nothing short of stirring and inspiring.
Jimmy Carter turns 100 this week, vowing to vote for Kamala Harris in November with what might be the last ballot he ever casts. Anyone who knows the former President knows he charts his own path – and he doesn’t give up without a fight.
These are qualities we revere in “great” presidents, so why is he never in that discussion?
The changing perceptions of Carter’s presidency
When he left office with a floor scratching 34 percent approval in January 1981, the nation was bent: the twin savages of high inflation and slow economic growth were crippling America, the energy crisis gripped a panicked country of drivers, and the Cold War ground forward as new threats emerged such as the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran. Carter’s political skills were criticized by Republicans, his steadfastness on spending alienated Democrats, and the American public only saw weakness from the Oval Office and gritted teeth through a boycott of the Olympic games.
But time changes perceptions of greatness and legacies have a funny way of catching up to reality.
In fact, Carter’s reputation among experts has been improving of late. In our most recent Presidential Greatness Project survey – in which we interviewed over 150 scholars of presidential politics about everything from how they rate individual presidents to which presidents are the most polarizing, overrated, and ought to be the next carved on Mt. Rushmore – Carter is now ranked in the top half of all presidents, coming in at #22. This ranking sees Carter moving up four slots from our previous survey in 2018 and puts him in the company of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson (whose reputation has been going in the opposite direction), William Howard Taft, and William McKinley. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and George Washington top the list, as is typically the case, while Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, and Donald Trump anchor the bottom.
“Jimmy Carter waving from Air Force One.” NARA – White House Staff Photographers Collection, January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981,
Even more noteworthy than the shift from the bottom half to the top half, this year Carter was also rated as America’s most underrated president, ahead of Ulysses S. Grant, George H.W. Bush, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Less significant, but still worth noting – Carter came in as the 11th least polarizing president, putting him in the top quartile of that category, along with past presidents such as Washington, Eisenhower, and William Henry Harrison, whose mere 32 days in office weren’t long enough to polarize anybody.
How Carter lost the White House
The four-plus decades since Carter left office have left scholars and pundits with plenty of time to revisit the achievements of his presidency and the legacy of his life. Initially viewed as an unsuccessful president who was unable to confront effectively several crises during his administration, the passage of time has subsequently revealed many signature accomplishments.
Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election was due to a variety of factors, including the growing ideological distance between the liberal Democrat and an American electorate that was then trending increasingly conservative. It was also a reaction to a broad feeling of national drift and a lack of capacity to meet the challenges of the day. A dysfunctional economy best remembered by the period of ‘stagflation’ and an energy crisis that hit many Americans hard in their pocketbooks was compounded by fears that the United States was floundering on the global stage, unable to secure the release of dozens of American hostages in Iran or to prevent the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Even Democrats were dissatisfied, with then-Senator Ted Kennedy directly challenging the sitting president in the 1980 primaries, an intra-party rebuke that further softened Carter up for a devastating defeat in the general election by Reagan.
Reassessing Carter’s presidency
Since then, however, perspectives have broadened, and recollections of 1970s-era adversity have been gradually replaced by a growing awareness of the longer-term accomplishments of the Carter Administration and a wholesale rehabilitation of Carter’s personal image from ineffectual chief executive to inspirational ex-president.
Arguably the greatest accomplishment of the Carter Administration, the 1979 Camp David Accords and the peace achieved between long-time enemies Egypt and Israel are even more remarkable in the current moment, where a similar outcome seems fantastical, at best. The outcome Carter helped broker remains the model for Middle Eastern diplomatic breakthroughs and a rare instance of lasting peace in a region frequently beset by violence.
“Jimmy Carter addresses a joint session of congress on the Camp David Accords.” NARA – White House Staff Photographers Collection, January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981,
Carter’s diplomatic successes weren’t limited to the Middle East, either. Carter led with his heart, putting human rights and efforts towards peace first. His administration reopened diplomatic relations with China, formally recognizing the country and leading to improved economic and political relations. In Latin America, Carter’s negotiation of the Panama Canal treaties also helped avoid conflict in that region while ensuring American access to the all-important canal. He took serious heat for saying, in 1980, the US would embrace refuges from Communist nations with “open arms,” leading to the arrivals of 125,000 Cubans by boat – the right thing to do but electorally disastrous, previewing today’s battles over limits on asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, Carter scored accomplishments domestically, particularly with respect to energy and the environment, even if he’s still mostly remembered for lamenting American malaise and encouraging Americans to drive at 55 mph to save gas and to put on a sweater in the face of soaring energy prices. He called the energy crisis the greatest challenge, except war, confronting the nation. Indeed, he was ahead of the political curve on issues such as sustainability and conservation. He signed into law the bill that created the Department of Energy, which improved government efficiency in this policy area as it brought several disparate energy-related agencies under one administrative roof, while also advocated for both increased use of renewable energy sources and reduced reliance on foreign oil. His installation of solar panels on the White House – in 1979! – subject at the time to mixed feelings and occasional lampooning, seems prescient now, as homes and commercial buildings across the nation utilize panels to improve environmental friendliness and reduce energy costs.
Carter’s focus on education and health care previewed the modern Democratic playbook. Promising teachers’ unions he would create a cabinet-level department during the campaign, he signed the Department of Education into law. He expanded the Great Society Head Start program. He dabbled with proposing a universal health care system – the first since Truman to peak into that window – but abandoned the idea he ultimately thought too far reaching at the time. Another proposed idea that failed to pass: decriminalizing cannabis, which Carter backed in 1977.
Carter promoted diversity before it was protocol – or controversial. His cabinet hosted the first African American woman, and his judicial appointments still rank number one in the appointments of women and people of color, selecting the first female African American circuit court judge, the first Hispanic circuit court judge, and the first female Hispanic district court judge.
What we can learn from Carter’s underrated presidential and inspiring post-presidential life
Perhaps most important of all when considering why Carter has gone from being remembered as a failed president to our nation’s most underrated president is the life he lived after leaving the White House. Carter’s human legacy is nothing short of stirring and inspiring. He has showcased a lifelong commitment to public service through his tireless work with Habitat for Humanity, where he helped build more than 4,000 homes. He also represented the United States abroad, becoming arguably the nation’s most visible advocate for humanitarianism while mediating disputes in fraught areas like North Korea and Libya, and working with the Carter Center, which has observed scores of elections across the globe as part of its effort to strengthen democracy while also making the world a healthier place through public health initiative such as the eradication of the Guinea worm, which once afflicted millions in places throughout Africa and Asia.
After a dismally unstable presidency during the Nixon Watergate years – highlighted by a nation torn apart by war and racial strife – Carter’s re-legitimized, almost boring, presidency seemed a calming agent. Today’s political turmoil fraught with overpromises, half-truths (or sometimes full untruths), and political bickering are in some ways a stark contrast to an unpopular but earnest presidency.
Carter’s humble approach to the presidency seems quaint now, almost outdated, as if giving a George Washington’s cherry tree “too good to be true” vibe. A wholesome faith in America reflected in the fact that he’s the first and likely last president to teach Sunday school before and after his term in office, which he did for 40 years at his beloved Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.
Carter biographer Jonathan Alter once said, on reflecting on the 39th president, “his accomplishments are seen better, and his failures are less remembered.” But it is more than the passing of time that invigorates Carter’s rising ranking. As the world catches up to its own problems, the nation today confronts challenges Carter gave us pause to consider.
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- Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.
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