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Ok_Ninja_1602 t1_j96csot wrote

Reply to comment by WaterChi in Naval Academy Renames Building After Jimmy Carter by langis_on

One of the smartest and humble Presidents we've had, the guy is a national treasure.

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mces97 t1_j970h8t wrote

He practically got rid of guinea worm. Saved so many lives.

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Ok_Ninja_1602 t1_j97ms69 wrote

Right, Carter saved millions who don't know him, and he's not asking for anything from anyone , an incredible hero for all people.

I'll add that I'm glad you mentioned this because he's helped a continent and peoples that pretty much is all but forgotten, one of the few Presidents that solved problems affecting all of humanity. He's lived a long life but it will still be a great loss to everyone that this one man is gone.

One of the the greatest Presidents of our time was a peanut farmer and I'm ok with that, he's probably the most relatable presidential figure even now.

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davidreiss666 t1_j9986fw wrote

He was even a good President back in the day. He took a lot of shit because the economy took a nose dive and then the Iran Hostage crisis happened. But those responsible for the economy were Nixon and Ford. And when it came to Iran, Carter basically waited the Iranians out. He wanted the Hostages released. if he has nuked Tehran, he would have become super popular. But instead he waited them out and let the Iranians release the hostages eventually. Because he just waited them out, a lot of Americans thought that made the US look week. But the hostages came home. Which is what Carter wanted.

If Carter had killed five million Iranians with nuclear attacks and gotten all the hostages killed, people would have thought that looked strong and reelected him in 1980 by a giant landslide. Thank god Carter didn't do that.

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drawkbox t1_j99gn3f wrote

Really the Soviet Invasion of the Middle East in Afghanistan, Iran and Syria in 1979 using fronts started terrorism. The Iran hostage crisis was literally the first Soviet active measure after they pushed the revolution there.

The Carter Doctrine, harkening back to the Truman Doctrine, those got both of those guys heavily attacked but needed to be done.

Carter has been a soldier for Western liberalized democratic republics with open fair markets, personal freedoms and fair elections.

After the Carter Doctrine they pushed inflation, energy cartels, espionage, all sorts of asymmetric weaponry at Carter and he was unfazed (sound familiar to today?).

Imagine how different the world would be if Carter had a second term. Biden has some parallels to Carter in a good way.

Underneath it all, Jimmy Carter was just a good human. He strived to make make a better quality of life for those around him and afar.

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Ok_Ninja_1602 t1_j9afeqt wrote

Thanks for this, I didn't know, I too thought Carter played from a weak position but this is what we do now in diplomacy, I guess dept of State learned something from Carter.

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Last_third_1966 t1_j99ajqr wrote

No. Those responsible for the bad economy were Kennedy and Johnson for plunging us into the Vietnam war.

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golamas1999 t1_j9bi2y5 wrote

He also got peace in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt.

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Ok_Ninja_1602 t1_j9br5jv wrote

When you think of it, he continued to be Presidential even after his Presidency!!! baller

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Ut_Prosim t1_j981db6 wrote

It's a real shame that he'll probably pass before the worm is eradicated.

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anamoirae t1_j98dfxm wrote

At the time he was president he got a lot of crap thrown at him. Mainly the reason why he was a one term president was because Reagan projected him as weak. I never saw him as weak I saw him as a man of conviction, something so very rare in politics. I am so glad to see him finally get the respect he always deserved.

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Kahzootoh t1_j99kugv wrote

Carter’s sin was that he told the American people that they couldn’t have their cake and eat it too. He told people the plain truth, and they didn’t want to hear it.

He won election because the American people were disgusted by all of the lies, deceptions, hypocrisy, and criminal behavior that had characterized at least the past decade of American government before Carter- with the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal looming large in the public consciousness.

The problem was that many people who objected to the breaking of eggs still wanted to eat an omelette, and Carter was telling them that omelettes were off the menu. The unchecked consumerism of the 1960s couldn’t be maintained without a host of unpleasant practices that Carter was specifically elected to oppose- which was something that a relatively politically naive public didn’t want to understand. These weren’t the generation which had lived through the depression as teenagers and adults, these were people who’d come of age through the post-WW2 prosperity and never bothered to wonder what ugly things were required to maintain their prosperous lives.

Carter had principles. He was honest with the country- if they weren’t willing to do all the ugly things their predecessors had done to maintain their standard of living (such as maintain American international credibility by going to war on behalf of beleaguered nations like we’d done in Korea and Vietnam), then the country had to live more modestly.

Nobody wants to be told to put on a sweater instead of turning on their heater.

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mak_and_cheese t1_j98fx2o wrote

No - the main reason he was not re-elected was the crazy inflation that occurred during his presidency. There is a reason you keep hearing that the inflation/gas prices/ etc are things we have not seen since the 70s. It was all under Carter. Great guy - but his convictions created economic turmoil for many people.

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anamoirae t1_j98it4f wrote

No that was part of it but mostly because of the hostage crisis in Iran. Reagan painted him as weak and unable to force Iran into turning over the hostages. He had lots of issues but one of the big things that Reagan pushed as a narrative was his weakness and Ol' Ronnie was a cowboy that was going to ride in a save everyone. I remember it well.

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gumiiiiiiiii t1_j98r06g wrote

And the huge fuckup in the desert with the helicopters

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Rooboy66 t1_j98i0dm wrote

He was actually a very conservative Democrat. A large part of the reason he lost re-election is that he lost most progressive/liberal Democrats. Among other fallings-out, with regard to abortion he wanted to leave it to the states. There were other issues that he didn’t align with the Democratic leadership at the time

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Khiva t1_j98rl1c wrote

There's going to be a huge amount of revisionism regarding Carter's presidency when the time comes and the misinformation is going to be exhausting.

A great man. Absolutely fantastic human being. Lot of self inflicted wounds as a president.

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SeaBass1898 t1_j9923jb wrote

Did he really create that economic turmoil? Or did it just happen under him?

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Notanidiot67 t1_j9959fz wrote

It mostly happened under him. In the middle east you had the 6 day war, forming of OPEC, 76 oil crisis, new space competition with Russia, fall of the Shah of Iran, and there's more but it's wild time in history, especially middle eastern politics. People waited in line for gas, they attributed a lot of that fault to Carter. These "brown people" in the desert are holding back our gas, we built most of that infrastructure.. That was a lot of the attitude. And with higher fuel costs, rationing and all everything gets more expensive.

Carter also tried to put us on good footing internationally by being fair and honest. Hw tried to work for everyone's mutual benefit. Reagan fucked him over with that sentiment. He also backdoor negotiated with the allatoyah to hold the hostages until after the election and used it against Carter. Reagan was an asshole. Trump aspires to be 10% as horrible as he was to this country.

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creamonyourcrop t1_j9b1bih wrote

He took the hit to improve the economy long term. With Paul Volker, they raised interest to cool the economy and stop inflation. It was the responsible thing to do, but that let Ronald Reagan to run on fixing the economy, which is what Carter was doing.
Reagan comes in, gives everyone a free lunch tax break and has the biggest recessions since the depression while exploding the debt and losing a half a million manufacturing jobs that never came back

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openmindedskeptic t1_j9mc2db wrote

So I’m an economist and can tell you that Carter and Paul Volcker did the right thing in battling inflation. It gave him a bad name unfortunately for those who did not understand (such as yourself) but it was the whole reason why the US economy succeeded in the years after his presidency.

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OHMG69420 t1_j96ogy8 wrote

Yeah? 45 had an uncle who was a nuclear physicist and second smartest in the family after 🍊/s

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Astavri t1_j97hkmc wrote

Why bring anyone else into this? What not just celebrate accomplishments of those that have done good without bringing other folks into it? You have just taken away the attention from the deserving and given it to someone else, even if it's negative attention.

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wordsonascreen t1_j97imhf wrote

Thanks for saying this. So often these discussions devolve into the same stupid one-liners. Carter was a great man and a criminally under appreciated President. Let’s keep focus on him.

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