4 ms·

Most US presidents (with a few conspicuous exceptions) experience post-presidential "glow": they become folksy pater familarum in the public's eye. Carter has e

Most US presidents (with a few conspicuous exceptions) experience post-presidential "glow": they become folksy pater familarum in the public's eye. Carter has experienced this more than most, in parts because (1) he's lived longer than every other president to have left office, and (2) he was widely perceived as being kind and genteel, too kind and genteel, while in office. Carter seems to be a genuinely good and kind human being, but his actual domestic legacy is mostly mediocre. His greatest achievement on the domestic side is probably establishing the Department of Education (no mean feat!).

mikeyouse 4y ago
Meh.. the majority of the deregulation that Reagan is credited with actually happened under Carter (craft beer, trucking, airlines, oil, nuclear, natural gas), he appointed Volcker specifically to beat inflation who then spiked rates to 17% which caused the slowdown that likely contributed to Carter's reelection loss.. Noah Smith has a good post on the topic: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-about-carter https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-a...
- woodruffw 4y ago
  Yep. Carter's folksy image obscures a lot of his domestic agenda in the American memory, but he was an economically conservative Democrat.
  - quercusa 4y ago
    Are there any current national Democrats who would be to the right of Carter?
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      Economically, most national Democrats are about as conservative as Carter, if not further right. Carter is in many ways the progenitor of the neoliberal wing of the DNC; he brought back Progressive Era views that had previously been sidelined by the New Deal. Socially, Carter is some probably slightly left of the DNC’s national position.
      - calgarymicro 4y ago
        This doesn't sound right to me. The modern Democratic party isn't very fond of mass deregulation, balanced budget drives, or quantitative tightening, which is pretty much Carter's economic legacy. And while Carter's very socially left wing now, I doubt he supported, say, gay marriage, when he was president.
        mikeyouse 4y ago
        The difference is modern democrats are living in a world after 40 years of deregulation so it’s much less obvious whether further mass deregulation would be beneficial, Carter’s balanced budget emphasis was borne out of the mistaken idea that inflation was being caused by Federal deficits, and there’s no exceptional Left resistance to JPow’s rate hikes and tightening. His other policies were largely in line with center-left policies of today, mediating conflicts, reducing dependency on foreign oil, renewables investments, expansion of federal health care support, massive expansion of parks and conservation land, established Superfund, supporting marijuana decriminalization. On gay rights, he was the first president to meet with any gay marriage proponents and he worked (with Reagan) to defeat the proposed California law that would ban gay people from teaching positions (history doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes).
  - UncleOxidant 4y ago
    Definitely was an economically conservative Democrat - he really did try to push for a balanced budget, but couldn't convince his own party on that issue. The reason Ted Kennedy primaried him in 1980 was because Kennedy considered Carter too fiscally conservative.
- starkd 4y ago
  he appointed Volcker towards the end of his term. Inflation had been a growing problem throughout all of the 70s. Read about Nixon's diastrous attempt at price controls. Ford had his WIP ("Whip Inflation Now") campaign. Inflation was not fixed with just the hike in rates. It took well over a decade for it to come down to near zero rates. The hike in the fed fund rates sent the economy into stagflation. The economy was also aided by Reagan's tax cut package. It was passed by a Democrat House.
  - mikeyouse 4y ago
    Reagan's tax cuts were passed in late 1986 and didn't fully come into effect until 1988.. here's the chart of Real GDP from before Carter to early Bush I: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=10d3t https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=10d3t The tax cuts were incidental to the better economy in the 1980s, and couldn't have caused it since they weren't in effect until well after things had recovered.
    - starkd 4y ago
      That is flat out wrong. There were two bills. The first was in 1981, where the major adjustments were made. However, revisions were made in 1986. Most of a president's agenda is enacted in the first year of their adminstration. https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_taxes/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_t... "Soon after taking office in 1981, Reagan signed into law one of the largest tax cuts in the postwar period"
ren_engineer 4y ago
>is greatest achievement on the domestic side is probably establishing the Department of Education (no mean feat!) going by pretty much every objective metric this has been a disaster for the US school system with how it changed teaching to be about hitting certain federally defined goals rather than actually teaching students
- starkd 4y ago
  Dept. of Education was mostly a payoff to the unions.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
UncleOxidant 4y ago
> Carter has experienced this more than most, in parts because 3) He worked to eradicate guinea worm (which has almost been achieved), helped build a lot of houses for Habitat for Humanity and also participated in election monitoring around the world.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  I don’t doubt Carter’s bona fides as a human being! The question is why Carter’s reputation as a president has steadily improved.

mikeyouse 4y ago

Meh.. the majority of the deregulation that Reagan is credited with actually happened under Carter (craft beer, trucking, airlines, oil, nuclear, natural gas), he appointed Volcker specifically to beat inflation who then spiked rates to 17% which caused the slowdown that likely contributed to Carter's reelection loss.. Noah Smith has a good post on the topic: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-about-carter https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-a...

woodruffw 4y ago
Yep. Carter's folksy image obscures a lot of his domestic agenda in the American memory, but he was an economically conservative Democrat.
- quercusa 4y ago
  Are there any current national Democrats who would be to the right of Carter?
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    Economically, most national Democrats are about as conservative as Carter, if not further right. Carter is in many ways the progenitor of the neoliberal wing of the DNC; he brought back Progressive Era views that had previously been sidelined by the New Deal. Socially, Carter is some probably slightly left of the DNC’s national position.
    - calgarymicro 4y ago
      This doesn't sound right to me. The modern Democratic party isn't very fond of mass deregulation, balanced budget drives, or quantitative tightening, which is pretty much Carter's economic legacy. And while Carter's very socially left wing now, I doubt he supported, say, gay marriage, when he was president.
      - mikeyouse 4y ago
        The difference is modern democrats are living in a world after 40 years of deregulation so it’s much less obvious whether further mass deregulation would be beneficial, Carter’s balanced budget emphasis was borne out of the mistaken idea that inflation was being caused by Federal deficits, and there’s no exceptional Left resistance to JPow’s rate hikes and tightening. His other policies were largely in line with center-left policies of today, mediating conflicts, reducing dependency on foreign oil, renewables investments, expansion of federal health care support, massive expansion of parks and conservation land, established Superfund, supporting marijuana decriminalization. On gay rights, he was the first president to meet with any gay marriage proponents and he worked (with Reagan) to defeat the proposed California law that would ban gay people from teaching positions (history doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes).
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  Definitely was an economically conservative Democrat - he really did try to push for a balanced budget, but couldn't convince his own party on that issue. The reason Ted Kennedy primaried him in 1980 was because Kennedy considered Carter too fiscally conservative.
starkd 4y ago
he appointed Volcker towards the end of his term. Inflation had been a growing problem throughout all of the 70s. Read about Nixon's diastrous attempt at price controls. Ford had his WIP ("Whip Inflation Now") campaign. Inflation was not fixed with just the hike in rates. It took well over a decade for it to come down to near zero rates. The hike in the fed fund rates sent the economy into stagflation. The economy was also aided by Reagan's tax cut package. It was passed by a Democrat House.
- mikeyouse 4y ago
  Reagan's tax cuts were passed in late 1986 and didn't fully come into effect until 1988.. here's the chart of Real GDP from before Carter to early Bush I: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=10d3t https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=10d3t The tax cuts were incidental to the better economy in the 1980s, and couldn't have caused it since they weren't in effect until well after things had recovered.
  - starkd 4y ago
    That is flat out wrong. There were two bills. The first was in 1981, where the major adjustments were made. However, revisions were made in 1986. Most of a president's agenda is enacted in the first year of their adminstration. https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_taxes/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_t... "Soon after taking office in 1981, Reagan signed into law one of the largest tax cuts in the postwar period"

ren_engineer 4y ago

>is greatest achievement on the domestic side is probably establishing the Department of Education (no mean feat!) going by pretty much every objective metric this has been a disaster for the US school system with how it changed teaching to be about hitting certain federally defined goals rather than actually teaching students

starkd 4y ago
Dept. of Education was mostly a payoff to the unions.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

UncleOxidant 4y ago

> Carter has experienced this more than most, in parts because 3) He worked to eradicate guinea worm (which has almost been achieved), helped build a lot of houses for Habitat for Humanity and also participated in election monitoring around the world.

woodruffw 4y ago
I don’t doubt Carter’s bona fides as a human being! The question is why Carter’s reputation as a president has steadily improved.