The Visionary Presidency of Jimmy Carter And Its Effects Today
A statesman is a failed politician and a visionary is a prophet ignored -- that is until the prophecy is fulfilled.
President Jimmy Carter was the first and last president to come from Annapolis and the only president to have a bachelor’s in science. He was an engineer at heart and perhaps engineers don’t make for great politicians but they do make for great visionaries.
And if the leader has no vision the people perish. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
Jimmy Carter, in the wake of Watergate, kept the law. Perhaps it is the duty of all statesman to teach and to prevent preventable evils and perhaps we should judge him by his fruits. Ever the Sunday school teacher, Jimmy Carter would no doubt have realized that the only way we know if a prophet is true or false is where or not his vision comes true.
Let’s consider: In our fight against the petrostates Jimmy Carter gave us the Department of Energy, which in turn gave us the Human Genome Project and provided the initial capital for electric cars. Truly visionary presidency. We weren’t ready but then again we seldom are. As an investor in genetics companies and cofounder of several of them I’ve benefited immensely from the Department of Energy’s forward thinking.
I recently invested in a solar powered electric car and I will be putting more money into the company soon. I invite you to join me, even at a relative meager amount.
Aptera is slated to receive money from the Department of Energy, a department which wouldn’t exist but for Carter’s visionary insight.
No, great artists aren’t really appreciated while they are alive.
Carter was that American of politicians — a dark horse who comes from behind. He was the consummate outsider who couldn’t quite cut it as an insider. He wasn't comfortable in the role and, as a technocrat, he didn't quite understand the Jupiterian power that comes with all who occupy the Oval Office.
Carter built these sort of institutions that have existed long after his presidency and became a key part of the conversation.
The Center has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring at least 113 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989. In perhaps its most widely hailed public health effort, the organization recently announced that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa.
Carlyle private equity boss David Rubenstein served as a deputy domestic policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter. So, too, did James Fallows, now of the Atlantic.
It’s telling that Jimmy Carter repeatedly placed himself in harm’s way in his post-presidency. There were no paintings or chill sessions with . No Netflix docuseries disguised as pay days. But there was a book. Have you read it? You should. It presented a way out of our political stalemate in the Middle East — if we had listened. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006) was a book that came too early and was targeted accordingly.
Ultimately Carter was a builder, who left behind homes and not just houses. President Joe Biden has been following this lead and pushing for new housing and construct. Perhaps tackling housing policy — and permitting reform — could be something that brings everyone together. At the very least we could ban Airbnb.
There was, of course, an element of Southern flimflam to the peanut farmer. A friend told me about how a mutual friend once offered to take Carter’s suit case — only to find out it was entirely empty.
One of the lasting affects of the election of 1980 is the end of October Surprises. This is why vote by mail and rank choice voting has become the go to for the deep state.