Jimmy Carter died Sunday at 100 years old. He has been noted as an exceptional ex-president, including his comments regarding how the U.S. is now “just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery,” his denunciations of Israeli apartheid and his observation that Hamas was seeking a political settlement while Israel was refusing. He met with the group in 2009.
However, in-depth researchers also note that his presidency actually sowed the seeds of some of the problems he would later deride.
DAVID GIBBS, dgibbs@arizona.edu
Gibbs is professor of history at the University of Arizona, as well as affiliated faculty in Africana Studies there. He is the author of the recently published Revolt of the Rich: How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America’s Class Divide (Columbia University Press).
Gibbs, who has been studying the Carter presidency for the past 15 years, said today: “My research has found that Carter was far more conservative than previously recognized. Evidence from newly opened archives shows that Carter initiated the deregulation of U.S. industry and finance, reduced the power of organized labor, lowered taxes on business, and imposed austerity measures that intentionally raised unemployment among working people. Carter also augmented military spending for the first time in a decade, diverting resources from domestic programs, while increasing U.S. interventions overseas. Carter provoked the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, greatly escalating international tensions, as former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski later boasted. He reoriented the Democratic Party in a free market direction, a change that endured for the long term. America’s right turn in domestic and foreign policy really began during the Carter presidency, not — as is widely believed — during that of his successor, Ronald Reagan. Carter should also be remembered for his support of racial justice and his many impressive achievements after he left the presidency. But we must not whitewash his central role in overturning FDR’s New Deal and concentrating wealth among the top 1 percent of the U.S. population.”
See also from Sam Husseini, a summary of aspects of Carter’s foreign policy: “When Jimmy Carter Lied to Me (Twice) and the Weaponization of Most Everything,” which among other things draws on the insights of the late Patrick Seale and Eqbal Ahmad. They argue for example that the acclaimed Camp David “peace accords,” by removing Egypt from its Arab milieu, actually accelerated violence in the Mideast.