Could Joe Biden become the worst Democratic president since Jimmy Carter, as his detractors suggest?
Or can I suggest that being as good as Jimmy Carter wouldn’t be a bad thing either.
Biden declared yesterday: “This is the time to heal in America”. He has said all along that his main goal would be “to restore basic decency and honesty”.
The best precedent for that is indeed president Carter.
On election eve, I watched a wonderful new documentary, Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, which showed an unknown side to the much maligned but thoroughly decent 39th president.
Contrary to his Bible-bashing image, Carter was actually a funky dude who harnessed popular music and was close friends with leading “radicals” of his time, from Bob Dylan to Hunter S. Thompson.
But what strikes a chord today was how this man of integrity was elected to heal a nation still reeling from the Watergate scandal only two years before.
Then, as now, Americans went to the polls disgusted by the corruption, dishonesty and turmoil of the previous Republican administration.
They were so disgusted that they elected a little-known peanut farmer from the South who had been a considered a rank outsider at best, a joke at worst. (The fact he was also a nuclear engineer and former governor of Georgia was often lost in the “Mr Carter Goes To Washington” narrative).
There are plenty of parallels with Joe Biden — not least being both have a warm wide smile and an image of being hardworking and honest, which is crucial at a time of widespread cynicism and despair.
Both appealed to voters in large part because it seemed they might restore some dignity to the office after years of trauma.
They also both faced voters at a time of economic upheaval. In Carter’s case it was exacerbated by the Middle East oil shock during his term. In Biden’s case it’s the shock of a pandemic.
International relations were also in turmoil in the 1970s, but Carter had plenty of wins, from the Panama Canal treaties to the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Yet his failure to deal with the collapse of the Shah’s regime in Iran and subsequent hostage crisis is seen as his greatest failure.
Carter’s outsider status was seen as his downfall. Nearly half a century later it was considered a plus for Donald Trump.
Still, Biden’s “insider” status will give him advantages Carter never had, including the ability to negotiate with Congress and prior experience in the White House. It has been noted already that Biden will surround himself with Very Serious People, which will be a relief after the cabal of corrupt incompetents we’ve endured of late.
Carter of course never had to put up with social media or the formidable opposition of the right-wing media led by the odious Fox Network. Any honeymoon that Biden gets will be tempered by the continued insurgence of Fox.
In the end, it could be to Biden’s advantage to start with such low expectations. After all, any functioning adult is an improvement on his predecessor.
“Or can I suggest that being as good as Jimmy Carter wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”
Absolutely. Amen to that.
Carter may have been the last president to give the Office of the President any thought at all, Keith, but that, I suggest (with evidence on request) is where it ends.
Carter continued to exceed expectations long after leaving office.
And is still doing so.
I wonder to which charity or good, selfless cause Trump will dedicate himself as he contemplates being a stone cold loser, on-termer like Bush Snr & Carter?
I attended one of his many seminars etc. when last in Georgia. Perhaps it was the composition of the audience but it was clear that Jimmy had seen better days.
Agreed : his heart is in the right place but such is seldom sufficient.
I have also visited Jimmy’s museum in Atlanta.
Some insight called reality (written by Noami CKlein via AOC);
Democratic establishment, as it seeks once again to abdicate all responsibility for ending us in the mess that we are in, is really its own kind of a crime. People should not have to be fighting off these attacks. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should not have to be on Twitter all day, making the point that it is not the fault of democratic socialists that the Democratic party has underperformed in the way that it has.
I think an awful lot of people underestimate Biden, and he also reminds me of Carter.
Despite its “soft” take, this portrait piece is well worth a read.
https://www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-presidential-campaign-2016-2013
People would be well served not to underestimate Biden…..
“Mr. Biden started his political career opposing school busing to make sure that rich, White children received better funded educations than poor, Black children. From there, he launched xenophobic rants while building out the largest carceral system in world history. After destroying the lives of few million Black and Brown people with the 1994 Crime Bill, Mr. Biden went on to ‘write,’ meaning sponsor the writing of, the Patriot Act. And from there, he provided ‘bi-partisan’ cover for the Iraq War in which a million Brown people were pointlessly and gratuitously killed, and an entire region of the world was set on fire.”
Rob Urie, Counterpunchdotorg, Nov 6 – “Two Capitalist Parties Compete, Humanity Loses”.
I am reminded of another comparison with Carter, one that was published a week ago.
2 or 3 weeks back, ‘the former Fairfax’ deigned to publish Brian Toohey, once again. That piece framed Pezzullo for what he is, and what he does. A typically fine take by Toohey (and, highlighted in the ‘Worm’, IIRC).
Toohey penned another piece shortly after, but it was obviously a bridge too far for his former publisher, given their Yank election schtik.
So, Michael West published it, and it was/is headed;
“One Good Thing: Trump first president since Carter not to drag America into foreign wars”
Here’s one likely reason the former Fairfax said; ‘Thanks, but no thanks’;
“Jimmy Carter is the only other president since 1950 who didn’t go to war. The rest have all embraced a bi-partisan doctrine of American “exceptionalism” that lets them unleash horrendous destruction.
The Congressional Research Service calculates that the US has used military force overseas 240 times since 1950. While most weren’t major wars, no other country has used military power on remotely this scale.
Moreover, between 37 million and 59 million people have fled their homes in the eight most violent wars the US military has launched or participated in since 2001, including the war on terror. The figures are contained in a detailed report called “Creating Refugees” released on 21 September by Brown University in America.”
These are the section headings in Toohey’s piece. Which do you think the former Fairfax would have had the greatest problem with?
“Iraq war based on ‘concocted rubbish’
Intelligence as propaganda
Corrupt government in Kabul
Permanent militarism
The ‘American war’
War-monger Hillary Clinton”
No brainer, eh?
I shall have to skip over to Michael West to take a look at that, David.
I hope you’re correct Janine but his record to date doesn’t give me much hope. All I can see from him and his ‘Very Serious People’ is more war and more corruption while still letting the 0.0001% take all the lolly while letting the poor, the downtrodden and refugees from their own economic system sleep in the streets as this appears to be as much a Democrat policy as a Republican one given past administrations.
I won’t take a bet from you as I truly want you to be on the money. I’d hate to be correct for if I were, then our interesting times become even more scarier.