“It felt like we’re going to be all right again”: The truth of Jimmy Carter

It’s not that I think that everyone isn’t entitled to their own opinion, it’s just that I think that those who haven’t a clue about things on which they speak should not be paid to spew their ignorance just because they have an ability to “go viral.” Case in point in this seemingly endless parade of stupidity are those who weren’t alive or were barely out of diapers telling me about former President Jimmy Carter. Carter’s legacy has undergone a tremendous re-evaluation since he left the presidency after one term – with many now saying he wasn’t nearly as bad as he was first thought to be, some saying he’s the best “former president” that’s ever been and some, like the inerudite, moronic Scott Jennings on CNN, who said that Carter “was never suited for the office in the first place,” “cuddled up” to dictators and undermined U.S. interests. For those of us who became adults during that time, the Carter years embraced an end to racism, a belief in empowerment and, as a friend of mine constantly reminded me, “It felt like we’re going to be all right again.” He came to us following a decade of tumult and despair, or as he told us, “We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. “Undoubtedly, future generations will look upon him more kindly than his contemporaries do.” Donaldson agreed and also said in 1987, “History, I’m sure will treat Carter than did the voters in 1980. My guy always tried to sell us “Billy Beer” brewed locally by the Falls City Brewing company, sold nationally and named after President Carter’s erstwhile brother.