It’s been mentioned in several threads, but a former US President deserves his own thread. So let’s talk about Jimmy Carter. Naval Academy graduate, submariner, peanut farmer, school board member, state senator, governor, President, Nobel Laureate, Habitat for Humanity volunteer.
I mentioned in another thread:
Random Trivia: Jimmy Carter has been married 76 years 227 days as of today, which is longer than any other President. The Carters surpassed George & Barbara Bush a year & a half after Mrs. Bush’s death. (The Bushes were married January 6, 1945 and the Carters on July 7, 1946. Barbara Bush died on April 17, 2018.)
And now…
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- In 1976, as a presidential candidate, Carter said he would sign a gay rights bill.
- During his presidency in 1977, the first gay and lesbian delegation visited the White House to discuss policy issues with administration officials.
- On a visit to California in 1978, Carter urged voters to defeat Proposition 6, also know as the Briggs Initiative, which would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in the state’s public schools. Voters rejected the anti-gay and lesbian measure by more than 1 million votes.
- When Carter ran for reelection in 1980, he was the first Democrat to endorse a gay rights plank in the party’s platform.
- In 1980, Carter approved the first wreath to honor LGBTQ war dead at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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Jimmy was also the brother of Billy who was a memorable individual.
The only president I can think of where my opinion of them grew by what they did after they left office.
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That will probably be true for many years to come.
TIL, thank you for posting!
Unlike Reagan who doomed millions of gays to die of AIDS.
Carter was an above-average yet tepid President while in office. I’m no historian, but post-Presidency he’s the best former President I could name. That includes Washington. Probably somebody was “better” in at least some ways before my life, nonetheless.
I think Carter has a bit of a mixed Presidential record, but no question a genuinely good human and American.
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Um, what? He was alive for two years.
Fun fact: today is GW’s birthday.
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I’m aware. As far as people who enslaved people before and after their Presidencies, he wasn’t the worst of them.
Anybody have examples of a better post-Presidency legacy than Carter? I’m fully open to there being examples, there’s so many of them over time.
I think you’d have a hard time coming up with a more impactful President with their post-president legacy. The only one that might come to mind is William Howard Taft who was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Harding and served in that capacity for 10 years. But how you view Taft post presidency legacy might depend a bit more on your political leanings where as I think most people will agree that Carter’s post presidential work was good whether you are a liberal or conservative.
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Potential candidates off the top of my head:
WH Taft went on to be a Supreme Court Justice.
JQ Adams went on to serve in the House of Representatives
I’m not sure that’s “better” but certainly men who didn’t rest on his laurels post-Presidency.
TR??? Besides running as a 3rd party candidate and splitting the GOP vote, did he do anything noteworthy post-Presidency?
A good candidate for worst post-Presidency is surely John Tyler, who served in the Confederate Congress. That said, Trump is going to give him a run for his money.
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Went on a trip to find the source of the Amazon.
Went on Safari, killed a lot of animals, had them stuffed and sent to the National Museum. Tried to enlist in WWI.
Hmmm… lower than Taft, JQA, and Carter then.
I didn’t research all post-Presidencies though. I thought of TR mainly because he was so young that he had more time to do something afterwards.
TR caught some kind of virus or bacteria or poison on that Amazon trip and was never the same.
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Interesting story on possible sabotage affecting Carter. Almost as bad as Nixon’s efforts with the South Vietnam government before his election.
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I thought this was common knowledge.
I guess the stories didn’t know about Connally’s efforts as well.
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