Jimmy Carter’s Legacy of Moral Clarity

Fo President Jimmy Cartermorality was a personal obligation that became a national vocation. A deeply religious man, he taught Sunday school for most of his adult life until the point in 2020 when he physically could no longer, and he projected the same moral leadership from his entry into politics through his ascent to the presidency. Once there, he realized in a deeply personal way that he was spreading values ​​- of decency, morality and human rights – to a Cold War world that needed hope.

This is the underrated cornerstone of Carter’s legacy. He took America’s moral leadership seriously and tried to use it to improve our country and our world. After the Realpolitik relativism of Vietnam and the Nixon era, Carter committed himself to diplomacy, deferred to international norms and raised human rights in a priority of American foreign policy. This vision of America’s role in the world offers hope even today. Despite cynicism and performative politics, it is more important than ever to recognize that moral leadership is not out of style. Indeed, it is essential.

Carter’s conviction was his most impressive quality, and it might also be his most infuriating. He was incredibly stubborn about doing the right thing, and refused to give up long past the point when others would have thrown up their hands. A great example was the negotiations for what has become the Camp David Accordsthe historic agreement that led to the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty – refused to let Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin walk away, and moved between cabins at Camp David, probing and cajoling until the agreement was made.

And he was perfectly willing to pick up the bruising domestic political battles for the love of what he felt was right. He called the debate over the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panamanian authorities “the most difficult political struggle I have ever faced”, but he also believed that the continued control of the United States over a band of the Panamanian territory was a lasting injustice, and one that diminished the United States in the country. eyes of the world. “This problem,” he then he wrote“it had become a litmus test, indicating how the United States, as a superpower, treats a small and relatively defenseless nation that had always been a close partner and supporter.” In the end, he was able to get two new US-Panama treaties through the Senate with the necessary (and bipartisan) two-thirds majority, plus one extra vote.

Carter is also rightly praised for his post-presidency successes, from conflict mediation to the eradication of Guinea worm in Africa to Habitat for Humanity. But his global morality came from his personality, and I saw this up close: he supported the careers of many who worked for him, including mine. For my first run for Congress, Carter sent me a personal check for $500, with a handwritten note that said, “We love you and wish you well. Represent not only California, but the Carter family.” It now hangs on the wall in my office.

This personal commitment to values ​​is evident in his vision explained in an inaugural speech in the first year of his presidency: “a policy based on constant decency in its values ​​and on optimism in our historical vision”. Carter made his call for moral clarity amid a post-Vietnam crisis of confidence that he said was “made even worse by the secret pessimism of some of our leaders.” He urged Americans to have confidence in the country’s animating values, especially as democracy gained ground in India, Portugal, Spain and Greece, proving its appeal.

It is understated that this vision did not end with Carter. In fact, it became a central issue among his successors, not least the man who defeated him for the presidency in 1980. Reagan made freedom a cornerstone of his foreign policy when he stood at the Gate of Brandenburg and urged Soviet President Gorbachev to “tear down. this wall.”

Tragically, Carter leaves us during another crisis of confidence, when most of the progress from his presidency seems to be falling away. House of Liberty recently documented a global decrease in freedom for the 18th consecutive year. A nostalgic Soviet Russian leader is attempting a land violence in Europe; the Israel-Hamas war continues to defy a negotiated solution at a horrific human cost. Carter’s example should teach us that it is precisely times like these that call for the courage to not give up the search for freedom and peace.

We recognize, as Carter did, that “it is a new world – but America should not fear it. It is a new world – and we must help shape it.” To achieve this goal requires vision and stubbornness.

Jane Harman was Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the Carter administration. He later served nine terms in Congress from California and is co-chair of Freedom House.