5 ms·

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

metabagel 2y ago
Stagflation was a result of the guns and butter policies of the Vietnam war and the oil crisis. Carter wasn’t responsible for the Iran hostage crisis.
bwanab 2y ago
While I disagree with your verdict, those are all valid points. I don't think stagflation can really be pinned on him, though.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- notthemessiah 2y ago
  Yes. Stagflation originated with the Nixon Shock, when he ended the Bretton Woods system and US Dollar-gold convertibility, because France and other countries wanted to pull their gold out of Fort Knox because we had the exorbitant privilege to finance the Vietnam War as well as Great Society programs.
macrocosmos 2y ago
Most people I’ve spoken to about Jimmy Carter who were alive at the time seem to say the same as you. I’ve heard that living in America at the time was depressing and embarrassing. I have a feeling a lot of the praise for the man is from people who weren’t even around when he was president but have been fed some story about how he was great. I see a lot of praise for him online yet it’s very hard to find from the lips of American who lived through it.
- bluGill 2y ago
  I know a far number who have come around on the republican side - but most of them were just barely old enough to vote.
- rawgabbit 2y ago
  I was a kid when Carter was president. In the late 70s, the US was undergoing a series of shocks. An oil crisis where many gas stations ran out of gas. High inflation and high unemployment. People were literally talking about the biblical end times. They saw Israel fighting for its life. They saw the Iran-Iraq war (the US supported Saddam Hussein as payback against the new Iran government). Carter was a good man. But he seemed to have no answers for a people who were desperate for leadership like FDR’s during the Great Depression.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  Probably because he was the most humanitarian president post-campaign. His accomplishments done after presidency could be its own Wikipedia entry. That gives me the impression that the 70's was simply a bad time with a good man in charge, when in those times people more or less want to be told "it's okay I'll fix it" with no plan in sight. we're living through THAT in real time, so I guess history rhymes.
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
He appointed Volcker, who ended stagflation eventually. And his predecessor was appointed by Nixon so it’s hard to blame Carter for this.
- notthemessiah 2y ago
  He ended inflation by causing a brutal recession through extreme interest rate hikes, which resulted in an irreversible shift in economic paradigms which caused the US to abandon its industrial lead as we faced recession, idle capital accumulation, and mass unemployment. The US became a deficit economy after that point. Nixon, though he caused the original shock, originally wanted to keep the Bretton Woods system intact, but that was impossible after what he did.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >He ended inflation by causing a brutal recession through extreme interest rate hikes, which resulted in an irreversible shift in economic paradigms which caused the US to abandon its industrial lead as we faced recession, idle capital accumulation, and mass unemployment Neat. I'm born just in time for the sequel. I wonder how insulting it was back then to be told "we're doing fine" by the feds moments before disaster (that's where we are now). wonder what we're moving to after the deficit economy. Can we do Coke bottle caps?
BenFranklin100 2y ago
“He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president’ sums up Carter perfectly. - Someone who lived through his administration.
matthewbauer 2y ago
Had never heard of “mayaguez” until now. It actually happened under President Ford not Carter.
mmooss 2y ago
Did he create those problems or inherit them? The situations in Iran, OPEC, etc. long pre-dated Carter. Another problem was a military that was ruined in terms of morale and probably in wear-and-tear by Vietnam.
- bluGill 2y ago
  Mostly inherit them. However it is an open qusetion on if he handled them well. Would some other policy (that you get to think of in retospect and of course handwave away any bad parts that might happen with them) have done better?
  - mmooss 2y ago
    Agreed, and that's always a problem when evaluating political (and some other) performance. It's easy to say 'they could have done better'; it's easy to say 'they couldn't have done more in the circumstances'.
- genman 2y ago
  Some problems he inherited. But Iranian crisis was his own making. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khomeini-jimmy-carter-administration-iran-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khom...
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    There was that coup Eisenhower OK'd in 1953. I can see how Carter not supporting another coup would be taken poorly.
    - genman 2y ago
      And yet he supported a coup. He was just too "blind" to see which one. And it's a little far fetched to call an armies call to take over the unstable situation a coup when the current head of the state is incapable to take any action because of a serious illness.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
johnnyanmac 2y ago
All I get from this is that Amiercan doesn't want "good men" as president and crumble everytime their personal economy feels bad, clearly caused by whoever is currently sitting.

metabagel 2y ago

Stagflation was a result of the guns and butter policies of the Vietnam war and the oil crisis. Carter wasn’t responsible for the Iran hostage crisis.

bwanab 2y ago

While I disagree with your verdict, those are all valid points. I don't think stagflation can really be pinned on him, though.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
notthemessiah 2y ago
Yes. Stagflation originated with the Nixon Shock, when he ended the Bretton Woods system and US Dollar-gold convertibility, because France and other countries wanted to pull their gold out of Fort Knox because we had the exorbitant privilege to finance the Vietnam War as well as Great Society programs.

macrocosmos 2y ago

Most people I’ve spoken to about Jimmy Carter who were alive at the time seem to say the same as you. I’ve heard that living in America at the time was depressing and embarrassing. I have a feeling a lot of the praise for the man is from people who weren’t even around when he was president but have been fed some story about how he was great. I see a lot of praise for him online yet it’s very hard to find from the lips of American who lived through it.

bluGill 2y ago
I know a far number who have come around on the republican side - but most of them were just barely old enough to vote.
rawgabbit 2y ago
I was a kid when Carter was president. In the late 70s, the US was undergoing a series of shocks. An oil crisis where many gas stations ran out of gas. High inflation and high unemployment. People were literally talking about the biblical end times. They saw Israel fighting for its life. They saw the Iran-Iraq war (the US supported Saddam Hussein as payback against the new Iran government). Carter was a good man. But he seemed to have no answers for a people who were desperate for leadership like FDR’s during the Great Depression.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
Probably because he was the most humanitarian president post-campaign. His accomplishments done after presidency could be its own Wikipedia entry. That gives me the impression that the 70's was simply a bad time with a good man in charge, when in those times people more or less want to be told "it's okay I'll fix it" with no plan in sight. we're living through THAT in real time, so I guess history rhymes.

zeroonetwothree 2y ago

He appointed Volcker, who ended stagflation eventually. And his predecessor was appointed by Nixon so it’s hard to blame Carter for this.

notthemessiah 2y ago
He ended inflation by causing a brutal recession through extreme interest rate hikes, which resulted in an irreversible shift in economic paradigms which caused the US to abandon its industrial lead as we faced recession, idle capital accumulation, and mass unemployment. The US became a deficit economy after that point. Nixon, though he caused the original shock, originally wanted to keep the Bretton Woods system intact, but that was impossible after what he did.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >He ended inflation by causing a brutal recession through extreme interest rate hikes, which resulted in an irreversible shift in economic paradigms which caused the US to abandon its industrial lead as we faced recession, idle capital accumulation, and mass unemployment Neat. I'm born just in time for the sequel. I wonder how insulting it was back then to be told "we're doing fine" by the feds moments before disaster (that's where we are now). wonder what we're moving to after the deficit economy. Can we do Coke bottle caps?

BenFranklin100 2y ago

“He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president’ sums up Carter perfectly. - Someone who lived through his administration.

matthewbauer 2y ago

Had never heard of “mayaguez” until now. It actually happened under President Ford not Carter.

mmooss 2y ago

Did he create those problems or inherit them? The situations in Iran, OPEC, etc. long pre-dated Carter. Another problem was a military that was ruined in terms of morale and probably in wear-and-tear by Vietnam.

bluGill 2y ago
Mostly inherit them. However it is an open qusetion on if he handled them well. Would some other policy (that you get to think of in retospect and of course handwave away any bad parts that might happen with them) have done better?
- mmooss 2y ago
  Agreed, and that's always a problem when evaluating political (and some other) performance. It's easy to say 'they could have done better'; it's easy to say 'they couldn't have done more in the circumstances'.
genman 2y ago
Some problems he inherited. But Iranian crisis was his own making. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khomeini-jimmy-carter-administration-iran-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khom...
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  There was that coup Eisenhower OK'd in 1953. I can see how Carter not supporting another coup would be taken poorly.
  - genman 2y ago
    And yet he supported a coup. He was just too "blind" to see which one. And it's a little far fetched to call an armies call to take over the unstable situation a coup when the current head of the state is incapable to take any action because of a serious illness.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

johnnyanmac 2y ago

All I get from this is that Amiercan doesn't want "good men" as president and crumble everytime their personal economy feels bad, clearly caused by whoever is currently sitting.