The Guardian: 'Decades ahead of his time': history catches up with visionary Jimmy Carter

[kpete]

.........

“Here’s what people get wrong about Carter,” Will Pattiz, one of the film’s directors tells me. “He was not in over his head or ineffective, weak or indecisive – he was a visionary leader, decades ahead of his time trying to pull the country toward renewable energy, climate solutions, social justice for women and minorities, equitable treatment for all nations of the world. He faced nearly impossible economic problems – and at the end of the day came so very close to changing the trajectory of this nation.”

..............

.....Carter was right on asking us to drive less, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to focus on conservation and renewable energy. Not only was Carter’s vision a path not taken, it was a path mocked. Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House, politicized the environmental movement and painted it as a fringe endeavor.

“Carter was our only president who had a visceral environmental and ecological attachment. That was part of his being,” Speth says. “We had an opportunity in 1980 – but we’ve lost 40 years in the pursuit of a climate-safe path. We can no longer avoid serious and destructive changes, period. That didn’t have to happen.”

.............
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/03/jimmy-carter-climate-change-carterland-film-biography

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[redqueen]

2. This is so bittersweet

Glad he's getting this recognition, but damn... all we lost.

K&R

[NJCher]

32. glad he gets to see it

too often they pass on before they get see their influence.

[Bayard]

3. So many, What Could Have Been's....

Gore, Kerry, Clinton. Would not have had the horror of the past 4 years.

[halfulglas]

4. I voted for him twice and have no regrets.

A true "good man." He was even vilified for conceding too soon supposedly discouraging the voting on the West Coast. Ironically the residents of states that should be most attuned to his message, the farming states with big ag and big fertilizer have turned against his environmental message of respect for the environment. Reagan, like Trump, showed a disrespect and downright meanness for those who came before him.

[Stuart G]

5. Carter's Sec of Transportation ordered "seat belts in all cars" & saved tens of thousands of lives.

..Most people don't know that..and that is another "great contribution of President Jimmy Carter"
But Brock Adams...ordered that into the future..1979 the order was made for 1984.. (originally for front seat passengers only) now all seats have them, and we all use them.)

Guess what...with other safety devises, deaths have gone down on the highways.
.................from 55,000 in 1979, to about 36,000 last year....in spite of the fact that we have...
.
...double the cars....and one hundred million more people... (40 percent less people killed)
....................................Carter was partially responsible for that...........................................

[ColinC]

18. I think it would be hard to agregate exactly how many lives were saved

But up to this point, is millions really too far fetched?

[pandr32]

6. Sadly, true

This made me sigh heavily and I recognized that deep pain of regret. He should have had a second term and by then Reagan would have been too obviously demented to win. Things sure would be different.

[BadgerMom]

7. K & R & Amen!

[Rural_Progressive]

8. So glad this is finally being done

I was in graduate school after Reagan cheated Carter out of another term. My PhD research was in Aquatic Toxicology funded by the Superfund program Carter signed into law. There were literally railroad cars amounts of research papers funded by money made available during Carter's four years. Of course by the time I got into the program during Reagan's tenure that money was drying up faster than a desert rainstorm in August.

Had we had the will and courage to follow Carter's vision the world would be such a different place today. He certainly wasn't perfect but he truly is the finest human being to hold the office in my lifetime and well beyond. So pleased the Biden's showed their respect by taking the time to visit the Carters.

[mainer]

9. We turned from such a decent man ... and went to Trump

Unfortunately it speaks to the character of the nation.

[appmanga]

19. Jimmy Carter:

A nuclear engineer.

Donald Trump: a fucking moron.

I apologize if my language offends.

[mainer]

21. your language is appropriate

I never used to use the F word. Now I feel like I use it all the time when it comes to politics.

[AZ8theist]

27. NO OFFENSE TAKEN.

I use the "F" bomb all the time. Read just about any of my posts.

I only wish there was another adjective WORSE than that to describe Doturd. It is necessary....

[roamer65]

34. FUCK TRUMP.

FUCK TRUMP.
FUCK TRUMP.
FUCK TRUMP.




Boy that felt good.

[burrowowl]

37. Fuck Raygun! Fuck him and BushI

[lpbk2713]

25. Hate radio has done its job effectively.

May Rupert Murdoch burn in a fiery pit from now to the end of time.

[Ford_Prefect]

26. Not quite. It speaks as it did then to the effectiveness of the RW propaganda machine

and the Oil, Gas industries and MIC who worked so hard and spent so many millions to undermine him.
If you look at the congressional record there were solid establishment Dems in Congress and the Senate who voted against his plans courtesy of the thousands of campaign dollars blandished upon them by their patrons listed above. The excuse was always that he was "weak". I found it fascinating reading to look back at the names of those who did so.

Arms for Hostages was the closer to that deal. We only heard small parts of it in the Iran-Contra hearings.

Sadly the MSM at the time liked the idea of false equivalency between conservative and "liberal" views and often left context on the floor of the editing room rather than explore the darker questions.

[2Gingersnaps]

28. Carter and tRump are the difference between actual faith and religiosity.

The keen intellect of a humble and decent man, and the braggadocio of an ignorant vulgarian buffoon.

[SergeStorms]

10. Even my Republican mother said...

"Jimmy Carter is too good for this country". I damned near fainted when I heard that come from her mouth. Jimmy Carter had 20/20 vision and 99% of us needed bifocals. He was too good for this country at that time, and probably is today as well.

[Boomerproud]

14. Too good for his time and now...

Yes!

[Caliman73]

11. I agree.

If I could boil it down to one phrase, Carter basically was saying this to America:

We have the potential to really be the best country on earth and lead the way into a new sustainable future but we have to grow up and make the choice to be responsible citizens of the world and lead by example. Are we going to address our problems of social inequality, environmental degradation, and justice for all OR are we going to just sink into consumerism, selfishness, and hedonism?

Of course Reagan came along and basically said, "Fuck that! America is the best and we don't have to do anything cause, America! Hells Yeah!" Then basically tore down a significant portion of the New Deal policies that made America a decent country.

[milestogo]

12. Gore had it.

I always thought he should have been top of the ticket in 1992.

We were robbed in 2000.

[niyad]

13. KNR. I keep dreading the headline I know is coming.

[CaptainTruth]

15. Me too. When I saw the Bidens visited the Carters a week or 2 ago...

...it made me wonder if something was up, if maybe it was a goodbye visit.

[niyad]

22. Exactly what I thought.

[Baltimike]

16. krb

[seta1950]

17. Exactly

I have always hated the fact that , reagan and ruined a lot of good things for this country, yet some people think very highly of him, can’t account for taste😤

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. If we'd gone to renewable energy, then not so many Wars For Oil and dead people. . . . nt

[bluestateboomer]

23. YES!!

So much yes!

[BobTheSubgenius]

24. Not only have I always thought that JEC was a severely underrated President,

but I've also believed deeply in the notion that most of his ambitions that came up short, including reelection largely came about by enemy action within his own country.

A quick and telling example of this is the Iranian hostage crisis. That the helicopter rescue failed fairly miserably was not his fault. Mechanical fitness of war machines and the flawless operation of them is hardly the direct province of the President, but that's still beside the point.

Look at the day they were "released." Reagan's inauguration. Surely a coincidence.

[lookyhereyou]

39. coincidence. Not

the deal was for after the election but they waited
because they didn't trust us.

[PhylliPretzel]

42. Raygun made a deal

with the Iranians to hold the hostages until his inauguration. In exchange, he sold replacement parts for the aging military equipment which the USA had sold to the Shah. Those monies funded the Contras in Central America. Ergo: The Iran-Contra Affair

[BobTheSubgenius]

45. In a long and horrible history of sleazy moves, this one is a show-stopper.

Not only did they do their best (worst) to scuttle President Carter, they were playing with the lives of American citizens. They were putting political ambition ahead of their countrymen. They should have been dragged into the public square and flogged.

[malaise]

29. Of course he wasright

Rec

[heckles65]

31. The hostage rescue

could have been handled better in the aftermath - Defense Secy. Brown should have resigned, at the least - but it was mostly due to "gotta have my finger in that pie" attitude of the U.S. military services suffered from and continue to suffer from. The rescue mission used Marine helicopter pilots even though that service's helicopter pilots have very limited military experience. Then as now you want the Army's.

Carter can boast of three solid accomplishments: the Camp David Accords, which have kept the general peace in the Mideast to the present; the Panama Canal Treaty, disparaged by people who learned nothing from Britain's experience with Suez 1956; and appointing Paul Volcker to head the Federal Reserve. It's Volcker, not Reagan, who ended stagflation, even though his 'medicine' contributed to Carter's defeat.

[roamer65]

35. Volcker singlehandedly killed off American manufacturing.

The sky high interest rates drove the dollar way too high against foreign currencies, in particular the Japanese yen. The result was waves of factory closures and jobs leaving America.

While President Carter did well on most other issues, I still take issue with his appointment of Volcker as Fed chair.

[rickyhall]

33. 1980 brought us Con Man #1, 2016 brought us Con Man #2

Ever notice how much #2 ripped off #1?

[NJCher]

36. I always wondered what the hell we were doing

because after Carter came the big onslaught of SUVs. This is the exact opposite of what should have been.

I wrote a business plan based on the energy shortage. My plan was to bring Vespa, a maker of mopeds, into the country. But when I saw what the country was doing, I thought there was no way it would succeed like I'd projected.

Now there are Vespa dealerships (a little over 100) around the country. Not a lot of them but certainly some. One is only about 8 miles from where I live.

[NNadir]

38. Fact check.

Jimmy Carter's energy ideas included FT gasoline. (Fischer-Tropsch = FT) This is a coal to liquids process and was based on the idea that the US had vast reserves of coal. At the time these processes were operating in Apartheid South Africa after having been industrialized in Nazi Germany. There have been no other industrial energy operations quite as dirty as FT "coal to liquids." Humanity is quite fortunate that effort failed.

He also shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing.

The latter choice was nowhere as disastrous as the former would have been, but neither the proposal nor the policy were good for the environment.

The idea that energy conservation would save the world was frankly contemptuous of the billions of non-Americans who lacked access to energy. It is unsurprising that Chinese and Indians did not agree to remain desperately impoverished so Americans could feel secure in their lifestyle while gasification/liquefaction of coal went industrial. The death toll associated with air pollution and climate change would have been even worse than the appalling numbers we are now seeing, most of which can be attributed to the demonization of nuclear energy.

Jimmy Carter is an outstanding human being for whom I voted twice. I cannot however characterize these primitive energy ideas, which might be excused in his time because we lacked enough insight to understand why they were bad ideas, as "visionary."

We are lucky they didn't come to pass.

[Drum]

40. Couldn't agree more!

[Ferrets are Cool]

41. "Carter was our only president who had a visceral environmental and ecological attachment. "

Al would/should have been the second.

[RicROC]

43. a true Commander in Chief, too

There were only 12 deaths of soldiers due to hostile actions, while Jimmy was President. Sure, there were training accidents, suicides, etc, but very few due to military intervention. He was a C-in-C who was concerned about life- on both sides.

[Snackshack]

44. President Carter.

Is by far one of the finest Presidents we have ever had in this country. It is a shame how he has been treated by the GOP for decades now.