Why the GOP should love Jimmy Carter

Steve Gillespie Guest Commentary

I was just 13 years old when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, but I can tell you there were a lot of adults worn out and fed up with the national political environment by that time after dealing with assassinations, social upheaval, Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal.

Carter, Georgia’s governor, campaigned for president as a Washington outsider. It got him elected, but it didn’t help him after he was in office. Carter defeated Republican President Gerald Ford with 55.2 percent of the electoral vote and almost 51 percent of the popular vote.

Despite being villainized by my Republican friends all these years, I believe Carter did some things that Republicans today should applaud:

Republicans love pardons (at least they don’t mind when Republicans do it and many GOP staffers and lawmakers asked for one after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol): Carter posthumously pardoned Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He might have pardoned Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, too, but his Republican predecessor did that, as well as giving a full and unconditional pardon for anything former Republican President Richard Nixon might have done. His predecessor also gave conditional amnesty to Vietnam War draft-dodgers in 1974 – provided they had not left the country and would work in a public service job for two years. Carter made the amnesty unconditional on his first full day in office.

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Republicans love less government (unless it has to do with our personal lives – like sex, reproduction, how we dress or what we read): Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, ending the Civil Aeronautics Board’s control over air travel. According to Norman Singleton, founding member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, the result was new airlines entering the market offering lower prices and expanded routes. He states less than 30 percent of the public had flown commercially in 1976, but 60 percent of Americans were booking at least one round trip flight per year by the turn of the century. Carter also deregulated trucking and railroads with the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, which Singleton writes, allowed railroads to compete on price, and it strengthened the industry while benefiting consumers.

His celebrity friends

Republicans love celebrities.

Our last Republican president had a TV show, and President Ronald Reagan, who defeated Carter in 1980, was an actor before politics: Carter has had a bunch of celebrity friends and supporters, too, including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and The Allman Brothers.

Probably the biggest Republican star ever was on Carter’s side at a particularly divisive time. John Wayne supported Carter and his Panama Canal treaty, which ultimately returned the canal, built by the U.S., to Panama. Wayne even chastised Reagan for spreading untruths about the treaty in a letter to his supporters in 1977 and copied President Carter on it. Wayne wrote: “Now I have taken your letter, and I’ll show you point by (expletive removed) point in the Treaty where you are misinforming people. If you continue these erroneous remarks, someone will publicize your letter to prove that you are not as thorough in your reviewing of this Treaty as you say or are (expletive removed) obtuse when it comes to reading the English language.” Wayne had disagreements with Carter, too, at times, but back to pardons – Wayne also sent a telegram to Carter asking him to grant “a full pardon for brainwashed Miss Patricia Hearst” – which Carter did.

His hard work

Republicans hate it when anyone who isn’t a Republican is just sitting around not working: No one can deny that Jimmy Carter has always been a hard worker. He worked tirelessly as president. Whitehouse. gov points out that at the end of his administration he could claim an increase of nearly eight million jobs and a decrease in the budget deficit – that’s certainly something that Republicans say they value. He worked tirelessly for peace, too, at home and with other nations. On his last day in office he continued to negotiate the release of 52 American hostages from Iran where they had been held for 444 days, and he still managed to make it to Reagan’s inauguration, knowing Iran was deliberately waiting until that time to let the hostages go in an attempt to humiliate Carter.

In his book “White House Diary,” Carter wrote: “Reagan was very generous, in my opinion, in asking me if I would go to Wiesbaden, Germany to meet the hostages and to greet them when they finally reached freedom.”

Carter has worked since leaving the White House, too.

He’s written some 30 books, he’s continued to help mediate disputes among countries, and he’s helped build about 4,000 houses with Habitat for Humanity International.

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A devout Christian, Carter has been a Sunday School teacher most of his life, and according to a Christianity Today interview from 40 years ago, he spent more time praying while he was president than at any other time in his life. “My decisions affected many other people and involved life or death, war or peace. The decisions I had to make were presented to me in terms of conflict. The decisions that have to be made by the President are ones that are too complicated, too far reaching, too difficult, and too controversial to be made by anyone else,” Carter said.

“The most vivid memory I have of being President in difficult times was the loneliness of making a final decision. I invariably turned to God in prayer and asked him to give me guidance and wisdom and sound judgment. I also prayed that my actions and statements would be compatible with God’s will.”

Republicans have never talked more about the importance of Christian values than they do now – including among our leaders. They should be impressed by Carter’s example. Shouldn’t they?

Steve Gillespie is the editor of the Paragould Press. This column was first published in February 2023. President Jimmy Carter died Dec. 29, 2024.