Jimmy Carter: A Man Ahead of His Time

“It should be noted, however, that President Carter was not only the Great Humanitarian. He was also the Great Deregulator.”

There is little we can say about former President Jimmy Carter—who will lie in state in Washington, D.C. in the coming days and be honored with a National Day of Mourning on January 9th, after his passing on December 29th—that has not already been said elsewhere. He is widely regarded as a humble (he typically insisted on being called “Jimmy”), deeply humane, and upstanding citizen who was faithfully married to Rosalynn Carter for 77 years; who supported the civil rights movement early in his career; and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts on behalf of the Carter Center to advance the cause of human rights. His humanitarian efforts have won him acclaim during what is widely considered a successful post-presidency.

His presidential term was marked by several controversies and a multitude of history-shaping developments, including the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the beginning of the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the ending of détente, the energy crisis in the aftermath of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo, stagflation, and the Iran hostage crisis. President Carter surely had his hands full. His lower position in presidential rankings, his flagging approval rating in office, and his decisive loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election provide evidence of how presidential scholars and contemporaneous voters regarded his performance.

It should be noted, however, that President Carter was not only the Great Humanitarian. He was also the “Great Deregulator.” Before President Ronald Reagan went on to define his own legacy by claiming that the government was not the solution but, instead, the problem, President Carter was paving the way for a long-lasting era of deregulation, one of three pillars—the others being privatization and free trade—that many associate with a decades-long process of “neoliberalism” that is more closely associated with President Reagan.