Longevity is no particular virtue, although healthy habits enhance its prospect. What matters more is what people make of the time allotted to them. Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived U.S. president, reached the end of his journey at the age of 100.
Like all Democratic Party presidents since 1900, with the exception of Joe Biden, Carter earned his party’s nomination on his first try in 1976 at the age of 51. Besides Biden, Carter was the only Democratic president, over this period, who served a single term (other than John F. Kennedy, whose thousand-day presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet).
Measuring his presidency
An objective assessment of Carter’s presidency includes successes (notably the Camp David Accords, which have contributed to peace between Israel and Egypt for more than four and a half decades) and failures (two years of back-to-back double-digit inflation in 1979 and 1980).
All Democratic presidents in the past century and a quarter have come into office with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Since 1966, only Jimmy Carter retained those majorities after the first midterm election.
Our paths first crossed during the White House transition in 1976. He struck me as earnest, meticulous and eager to learn. He was unaccustomed to the ways of Washington and had a limited appetite for the give and take of the legislative process.
His style was to immerse himself in the details of an issue, apply the principles in which he believed, explore the range of viable options and reach a decision. He often assumed Congress and the country would follow his carefully drawn conclusions.
President Carter’s desire for change on scores of public policy issues caused him to struggle with establishing priorities. After leaving office, he recognized that, by trying to move simultaneously on a host of fronts, he accomplished less than he might have by focusing his energies and political capital.
Among his most notable institutional accomplishments was enhancing the role of the vice president. This was a deliberate effort on his part and did not flow merely from needing the assistance of a partner, Walter Mondale, who understood the levers of power in the federal government and the ways of Congress. The vice president acquired an office in the West Wing, a practice followed by each of his successors.
President Carter initially sought to streamline the federal government as he had tackled the bureaucracy while governor of Georgia. In the end, he added two new cabinet-level departments — Education and Energy — that remain nearly a half-century later.
An exemplary post-presidency
We remember Jimmy Carter as much or more for his contributions since 1981 as we do for his single-term presidency. His record for living the longest after leaving the presidency — nearly 44 years — is a stunning accomplishment that may never be matched.
After departing the White House, he only infrequently consulted with his successors. One occasion was with President George H.W. Bush. Carter sought the President’s support for a domestic policy project he was preparing to launch. President Bush asked me to join them in the Oval Office. At the beginning of the meeting, the small pool of press reporters asked President Bush about a statement he had made about preferring foreign policy to domestic policy.
Bush responded that he considered both foreign and domestic policy important and gave each of them the attention it deserved. After the reporters left, Bush asked Carter what he thought of that answer. Carter smiled and observed, “Anyone who has not been president has little idea what the job involves. My experience was similar to yours.â€
Jimmy Carter’s post-presidential years illuminate the power of his legacy and example.
His character was relatively unaffected by his time in Washington. Having reached the pinnacle of political power, he remained who he was — a product of his upbringing in the rural South. After his defeat in 1980, he returned to the modest home he and his wife, Rosalynn, had acquired in the 1960s in Plains, Georgia. He did not seek to parlay his time in Washington to amass or accumulate wealth. Although he left the presidency in his mid-fifties, he never again sought elective office.
Instead, he turned his energies to worthy causes and built one of the most consequential post-presidencies in our nation’s history, establishing the Carter Center in Atlanta to enhance the prospects for peace and democracy at home and abroad, as well as working tirelessly to benefit those who had little or were suffering.
Carter’s visible and sustained support for Habitat for Humanity helped establish that organization in its mission of providing housing for those with great need and limited prospects. His frequent trips abroad sought to ensure the integrity of elections and to strengthen democracy and human rights in 39 countries, facilitating peace and prosperity in troubled places across the globe.
At the center of his life was faith. Well into his nineties, he taught Sunday School at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. Many of the more than two dozen books he wrote extolled peace and civility, encouraging a virtuous life. In a century filled with conflict and contention, technological change and an expansion of material prosperity, Jimmy Carter lived a simple, disciplined, resilient life — hard-working, compassionate and filled with hope. His example is worth celebrating during these challenging times.