Indiana Bicentennial 12.1: Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

Indiana Bicentennial 12 (1981 – 2016)

This, my friends, is the home stretch. We have one month until Indiana’s Bicentennial, and one year since I started writing this series. I’m a little off track on the national scene history versus the Indiana history. Because he had two terms, Governor Bowen jumped ahead of my traditional 16 year blocks. So, we left out President Carter. I’ll say a little about him, and then probably not have too much to say about our more recent Presidents and governors because we all lived through those years. Even though the heading says 1981 – 2016, I’ll have to back up and discuss the Carter era nationally. The years for my governors and Presidents got off track.

Jimmy Carter (1977 – 1981)

James Earl “Jimmy” Carter is, by most accounts, one of our best ex-Presidents. His record of compassion, dignity, and public giving is truly remarkable. His record as President, during his term in office from 1977 – 1981, is less glowing. His term in office is fading into the mists of the past, but I’ll still occasionally hear Republicans making sneering remarks about his Presidency. I don’t have scientific data for this, but I expect such folks still think Chappaquiddick remains politically relevant.

Carter was born in 1927 to a family who had lived in the South for a long, long time. Thomas Carter had immigrated from England to Virginia in 1635. Jimmy’s father was a successful local businessman in Plains Georgia, and his mother was a nurse. Jimmy was allowed to use a section of his dad’s farmland to grow, package and sell peanuts. The Depression hit the region hard, but the family benefited from New Deal programs, and his father became a local leader.

Carter obtained a spot in the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and graduated 60th out of a class of 820. Among other posts, he became a submarine officer; including service on a nuclear submarine. In 1952, Carter was involved with efforts to clean up an experimental nuclear reactor that partially melted down. That experience “shaped his views on atomic energy and led him to cease development of a neutron bomb.”

In 1953, Carter’s father passed away, and the family business became his. Carter was honorably discharged from the navy and returned to Plains. While his father had died relatively wealthy, after payment of debts, taxes, and division among heirs, Jimmy was left with comparatively little. Still, with his scientific and technical background, he was able to improve and expand the peanut business. Eventually it became quite successful.

The Warren Court’s decisions in Brown v. Bd. of Education and Baker v. Carr, proved to be influential in Carter’s political life. The former inflamed racial tensions in Georgia with school desegregation and the latter changed the Georgia political districting system and opened up a state senate seat that Carter won. Carter was a staunch supporter of JFK but was relatively quiet about civil rights issues at first. But, as time wore on, he spoke somewhat more in favor of them. Still, in 1970, as he was running for Governor, Carter courted both the black vote and the George Wallace vote. “He implied support or dislike of private schools depending on the audience. The appeal to racism became more blatant over time; Carter’s senior campaign aides handed out a photograph of his opponent Sanders celebrating with black basketball players.”  After using racism to win the election, he began speaking against Georgia’s racist politics. He declared in his inaugural speech that ‘the time of racial segregation was over. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever again have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job, or simple justice.’”

His style as governor was indicative of problems he would have as President. His reluctance to engage in backslapping or trade political favors caused the Georgia legislature to find him difficult to work with. He remained tough to read on civil rights: on the one hand,  expanding the number of black state employees, judges, and board members as well as hanging portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr. and two other prominent black Georgians in the capitol building even while co-sponsoring an anti-busing resolution with George Wallace at the National Governor’s Conference.

Carter pretty immediately began working toward the Presidency – engaging in some ultimately unsuccessful maneuvers during the 1972 Democratic Convention and then, following McGovern’s loss, seeking out positions that would give him more national exposure. Carter started as a darkhorse, but with Watergate, his position as an outsider became an asset. He became a front runner after winning the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. He was well positioned to pick up the South when George Wallace proved to be a spent force.

In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and rural voters; he had little chance of winning a majority in most states. He won several Northern states by building the largest single bloc. Carter’s strategy involved reaching a region before another candidate could extend influence there. He had traveled over 50,000 miles, visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other candidates announced that they were in the race.

He had favorite son status in the South, was a workhorse in the North, and garnered media approval early, leading to a victory in the Democratic primary. He chose Walter Mondale as his running mate, and ran against Gerald Ford in the general election.

As I mentioned in the last installment, I’m surprised Ford did as well as he did with Watergate, the pardon of Richard Nixon, high unemployment, and high inflation. Carter won by 2% of the popular vote and 57 electoral votes.