The Opposite of Jimmy Carter is...

In a dictionary of opposites, the picture next to Jimmy Carter’s entry is Donald Trump. In the American political pantheon, I cannot posit two presidents with such an inverse correlation of motives . We are not talking dissimilarities—this is a picture what Jimmy Carter would do and Trump will negate it—difference.

Jimmy Carter is in the throes of beatification today, but he was not perfect. After all, he did confess to Playboy that he “committed adultery many times in my heart.” And, he opened his presidency with a helping of new sheriff in town pridefulness, not appreciating the need to let the congressional pigs out to forage in the fields if you need to clean the pen.

While Carter’s accolades are more for his life post-White House, he did have a good presidency, in spite of its bad press. First, he put his peanut farm in a blind trust to avoid any impropriety when he took office—put a pin in this one. No overseas hot conflicts, a first since World War 2, under his watch. The Departments of Energy and Education began and are still with us. (And what is on the Project 2025 to-do list for Trump? Eliminate the Department of Education and strip the Department of Energy down to a fossil fuel lobby shop. Carter must have done something right if fascists are aggrieved) . And then, of course, the Camp David Accords, a peace between Israel and Egypt holding on today.

Carter lost re-election mostly because he was the right president at the wrong time. He was honest when the baby boomers wanted nothing of the sort. Voters grew tired of the chaotic 1970s and boomers sought their 1950’s childhood certainty while avoiding taxes, future generations be damned. This drove Reagan’s victory. Well this and Reagan’s treason in making a deal with Iran to hold the embassy hostages until after the 1980 election. Today, add some Gen X bitterness built by the aforementioned boomers, LBGTQ gains, Black Lives Matter accountability, then swap Putin and Musk for Iran and voilà, Trump 2024.

Jimmy Carter’s instincts were to leave the world better than he found it. A person might not agree with everything Carter ever said or did, but no one could find an ulterior motive for any act. He was just trying to do the right thing while president. No triangulating like Clinton or Obama, more straight ahead like Joe Biden. At the core of what makes Jimmy Carter so beloved today was his unadorned care for people and the world while doing his good works without any the performative vice that vexes progressives today. Just as he descended into the Chalk River reactor to prevent a meltdown in Ottawa—plan, do good work, achieve your goals, pee radioactive urine for six months, then move on to the next service project.

Trump wants to leave our country whiter than he found it and is nothing but ulterior motive to obscure his fascism and brazen kleptocracy. While Carter blind-trusted his farm, Trump seeks his old DC hotel back on returning to the White House. And could you even imagine Trump and his bone spurs descending into anything more radioactive than Jeffrey Epstein’s island to help anyone? No.

So, for all the coverage of President' Carters death, with all the good he did for the world as president and private citizen, there is only one point I see to add. We as a country produce decent, hard-working, committed and caring people like like Jimmy Carter every day. And we, as a country, deserve to have people like Jimmy Carter serve as our president after every election.