Yes, I know we’re supposed to be on a festive break, but there is no way I could let the passing of one of my political heroes go unremarked. Ed Davey was one of the first to pay tribute to former US President Jimmy Carter:
Jimmy Carter was an inspiration. He led a truly remarkable life dedicated to public service with a genuine care for people. My thoughts are with his family, friends and all those who loved him. He will be remembered for generations.
I was 9 years old when Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election. I remember it for two things. First, his smile. So warm, so positive, so genuine. Second, his daughter Amy is just a few weeks younger than me and I was so excited that there was going to be a little girl in the White House. I had no idea what a goldfish bowl nightmare it would be for any family to be under that kind of constant attention. I remember also being very proud of her when she was arrested as a student in the 80s at a protest against CIA recruitment drives, though she was later acquitted of the charges.
Watergate had been one of the very first news stories I had ever really been aware of. It was such a big story that the news was on at breakfast time on the tv. This was long before the 24 hour news cycle was a thing. Carter seemed an antidote to all of that – he symbolised openness and honesty.
During his actual presidential term, he managed to achieve what had seemed to be impossible. Who would have thought that the leaders of Israel and Egypt would make peace at Camp David. Fifty years on, we can see how much there still has to be done in the Middle East, but this was huge at the time.
The economy was an absolute bin fire at that time with high inflation and unemployment though. Had that not been the case, he might have had a chance against super-communicator Ronald Reagan in 1980. Had a rescue mission for US hostages held in the US Embassy in Tehran been successful, he would have been a hero. There was a particular cruelty to the Iranians waiting till the second he left office to release those hostages.
For Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, his presidency was only part of their public service. He could have gone back to his Georgia peanut farm in the huff in 1981, but he spent decades doing his best to improve human rights and gender equality across the world. I was always amazed how, well into their 90s, they spent a week a year helping build homes for those who needed them with Habitat for Humanity.
Since 1984, President and Mrs. Carter were champions and groundbreaking voices for affordable, decent housing for all, donating their time and leadership each year to build and improve homes through Habitat’s Carter Work Project.
Over the course of more than 35 years, they worked alongside nearly 104,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,390 homes.
They inspired millions across the globe with their dedication and rallied thousands of volunteers and celebrities to take part in our mission, helping Habitat for Humanity become internationally recognized for our work to build decent and affordable housing.
I mean, this wasn’t just going along and cutting a ribbon, shaking a few hands and moving on. This was actually getting their hands dirty, as Rosalynn described:
I told Jimmy that I would help with the food, that I was not going to do hammering,” she says.
But that’s not what the day had in store for her. “Jimmy asked me and some other women to pry up some linoleum from the floor,” she says. “Just before we finished, somebody brought some boards for us to nail down. The first day, I was hammering.”
He also showed a commitment to gender equality. As President, in July 1980, he signed the US up to the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, which the US Senate has to this day failed to ratify. Two years earlier, he had signed legislation outlawing pregnancy discrimination.
To this day, his Carter Center runs campaigns to support women environmental campaigners and to ensure that women are informed about services that could improve their lives.
It wasn’t until 2002 that Jimmy Carter was finally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:
for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development
Back in 2020, the film Jimmy Carter: the rock and roll President showed another side to him – how his love of music, and often the music of protest, influenced him and his politics and political career. It is such a fascinating watch and it’s clear, even in his 90s, how much music meant to him. The trailer features Willie Nelson, Bono and Bob Dylan.
His brand of public service will be talked about a great deal in the run-up to his state funeral. It will be a reminder of how things should be for Americans as they prepare to witness the transfer of power in a very different direction. Maybe they will start to demand better.
Jimmy Carter’s legacy will not die with him. We can all be inspired by his dedication to human rights and his generous-spirited, infectious compassion. The best thing we can do to honour his passing is to follow his example. We should all try to be more like Jimmy every day.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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13 Comments
Lovely post Caron, just brilliant. He’s an excellent example of using your experience for good after departing a leadership role (in his case a very big biggy). We do a decent line in that here – May, Major, Miliband, Hague, Kinnock and several of our own treasures, especially Paddy. May we have more like that when they depart a role, a fewer like Truss and Johnson .
This is a wonderful, full tribute.
It is amazing that he had the strength of moral character to be able to boast of his time in office:
“We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war”
It might be over 13 years old, but this interview really gives an insight into his humanity and real greatness https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/11/president-jimmy-carter-interview
I note even Trump had something nice to say about him.
A thoroughly decent person.
Well said, Caron. Jimmy Carter has long been a hero of mine and it’s good to see so many people who value what he stood for.
A shrewd analysis, Karen, of a very special man whom I had the pleasure of meeting when he was in Edinburgh in 1978. We could certainly do at all levels of government with many more people with his kind of unassuming and dedicated public service with a passion for the common good
Who is this “Karen” of whom you speak, Graham?:-).
How wonderful to get to meet him, too! I get the impression that what you saw was what you got with him too. Not much in the way of heirs and graces.
Jimmy Carter came out of a southern small town conservative religious background. I always felt that his deep faith, sheer humanity and strong convictions transcended the shackles of his religious upbringing. One of the glories of political activism in democracies is that a commitment shared within a political party can expose you to a human diversity which expands other parts of who you are and what you might become. During his presidency Carter felt to me like a good Democrat in the White House making a good fist of holding together political and religious convictions. The problems of 1977-81 and the 1980 election became clearer as time past but as the decades rolled on we came to recognise a giant on the world stage – a description which he would have regarded as totally improper!
Oops sorry, Caron
I think we both had a wee name blip–“Airs and Graces” ? Either spelling he had none Happy New year !
Jimmy Carter was right about Israel
In 2009, Carter’s three hours of talks with senior Hamas officials, including Ismail Haniyeh, then its leader in Gaza but assassinated by Israel this year, were devoted to trying to tease out potential common ground between Hamas and the international community, including a concerted effort to persuade Hamas to accept the three conditions for ending the boycott: recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence, and accepting previous agreements, including the Oslo accords.
Hamas had indicated that it would accept a Palestinian state on 1967 borders if it was backed in a referendum, and this was a high point for the more political elements in Hamas seeking international recognition.
Had the Carter initiative been more energetically followed up by Western governments, it’s just possible that Hamas leadership would not have much later passed to a more militarist tendency; its October 2023 attack on Israel and the devastating retaliation by Israel still going on after 14 months might not have happened.
Carter remained highly critical of Israel’s present prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for having “no intention at all for a two-state solution”. And he was scathing about Donald Trump’s plan in his first term for a “Deal of the Century”, saying he saw little or no hope of it bringing “justice for the Palestinians”.
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/jimmy-carter-was-right-about-israel-3455521?ico=best_of_opinion
He was indeed a very fine man. His commitment to peace in the Middle East was undoubted and his orchestrating of the Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt that Caron refers to was a significant achievement. The “i” newspaper today https://inews.co.uk/opinion/jimmy-carter-was-right-about-israel-3455521 and the Guardian yesterday carried fulsome tributes to his continuing work to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In 2006 he was roundly criticised for publishing Palestine: Peace not Apartheid in which he argued that Israel was heading towards a system of Apartheid with the Palestinians. How prescient that was and his fear was realised and confirmed by, among others, B’Tselem the leading Israelis human rights NGO in 2021. Carter met Hamas leaders in 2009 and expressed optimism that there was a basis for negotiation. Sadly his initiative was not followed up by western leaders. One can’t help feeling that, if he had been US President for the last four years rather than Joe Biden, we would all be in a very different place.
A great and humble man. We need many more like him. @JohnKelly the only problem is that he would have been 96 at the start of his term and he simply wouldn’t have been elected. He would actually been too old
We perhaps shouldn’t be too hasty in canonising “St Jimmy”
There are some questionable items in his Presidential record. Such as:
“One surprise was his support for the Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia fighting against Vietnam’s invasion, despite its terrible human rights record.”
“Despite human rights concerns, Carter continued U.S. support for Joseph Mobutu of Zaire. His administration also generally refrained from criticizing human rights abuses in the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and North Yemen.”
“Carter’s support for Chun (South Korean military dictator) gave him the much needed legitimacy and support he needed to crush the Gwangju Uprising, which led to the deaths and disappearances of hundreds. Even decades after the Gwangju massacre, Carter never publicly commented on his role in assisting Chun to crush the pro-democracy uprising.”
” Andrew Young (US black leader) advocated comprehensive economic sanctions on South Africa after the murder of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in 1977, but Carter refused and only imposed a limited arms embargo.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_Jimmy_Carter_administration