Natrually, the 1% and Status Quo can't acknowledge his accomplishments.
My father's 1st Cousin was the Secretary of Treasury for President Carter. I followed him closely and really respect his as an individual and US President. President Carter followed President JFK in his total mistrust of the Banking Cartel (a.k.a. Federal Reserve). He put a comission together to find the most Honest Banker in the country. We haven't seen those kind of standards in the White House since then.
The Federal Reserve defended their position and raised interest rates to where home loans were 16% plus during his Administration. There are many cases where they appeared to many of us to directly destroy this reputation via economic policy. Once, the Sec of Treasury was asked if his department would address interest rates. William B. Miller spoke honestly and said the Treasury no longer determined the USD money supply, that power was given to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 1% without warning. It was very much a point of "shut up" to the President's Administration.
How did this radical get elected in the first place? Many News stories from National Public Radio to the CATO Institute covered the Jimmy Carter event at the National Democratic Convention. He was not backed by the 1% wealthy or the insiders. Jimmy Carter was a Naval Nuclear Engineer. He is one of the very few US Presidents who had a B.S. (degree in engineering or science). The media liked to make out how he was just some peanut gardner. Farming in the US is big business that requires a college degree to be successful.
Jimmy Carter found a method to get support from the average person and surprised everyone at the National Democratic Convention. The news stories covered this fantastic accomplishment. The Democrat Party got busy and changed the National Convention Rules to "make sure a Jimmy Carter never happens again". It appears to that point, they were successful. Many of us feel the vacancy of honesty and representation of the working class.
How did President Carter provide the members of this forum and others with opportunity? Here is another person of interest I use to follow:
Mark S. Fowler, born in Canada, served as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was "officially" appointed by President Reagan. But, President Carter put him in position of influence. Mark Fowler was a Libertarian speaker that promoted Free Markets in the communication industry. Let me take you back in history. The FCC (a.k.a. Federal Censorship Comission) gave monolopy status to telephone, TV, Radio and other communications. The government had seized over 90% of the airwave bandwidth preventing the public use. Using a phone with a digital MODEM was strictly forbidden for example. If any of you young ones don't understand that, look up a comedy movie about Pirate Radio out of England. Some of us will deny being part of that here in the US.
So, the Democrats told President Carter that his first order of business was to get rid of this published Libertarian who promoted anarchy against the chosen monolopies. Imagine the lobby money the Democrats received! I am just paraphrasing 2nd, 3rd degree conversations over beers here as a strong supporter of Freedom of Speech.
So, Mark gets called to see President Carter. Everyone knew what it was about. He said his goodby at his office to everyone.
President Carter brings him into the office. They both acknowledge what is going on, it is a formality. In technology and engineering, Mark Fowler was well respected by the technical nerds of the industry. So, President Carter, being an engineer himself ask Mark. Explain to me what exactly you had planned. From here, the minutes turned into hours.
Mark Fowler explained the plan to open up the airwaves to the public and increase competition. First, allow more TV Stations than the 12 on our TV's by introducing a band known as UHF. Then expand the right for independent operators to string Cable for TV. Also expand the use of satellite TV. Satellite TV was limited to 4 channels because the FCC forbid the use of digital compression, this would open up many new channels. Digital compression was forbid on the AT&T monolopy phone systems. This change would allow digital communications. Mark was also the promoter of what we now call the cellular frequencies. These frequencies would be open to the public and be able to use digital compression. This of course would require the breakup of the monolopies such as AT&T.
Just imagine how the media monolopies (NBC, CBS, ABC) reacted to competition. From that point, the media was not a fan of President Jimmy Carter.
Those of you over 50 got to live and see all of these changes. What would our lives be like today?
Ater this, President Carter told Mark that he thought he would be the best person for this position. That he thought this would be the best thing for Americans.
Jimmy Carter supported the Habitat for Humanity. This is a non-government funded training program for youth who want to exchange time to learn trade skills. Ex-President Jimmy Carter put on blue jeans and used a hammer to build homes for those who had no homes. This has changed so many lives. His values support the working class and small business.
Now, we see the Bank Cartel and Media monolopies are against President Carter. That is why most of you read that he owned a peanut garden. Just some hick in overalls with a pitchfork.
How did Jimmy Carter end the Cold War?
Jimmy Carter supported the program for minorities (a.k.a 8A) to compete in federal government contracts. Where did the 8A Minority Owned Contractors really get its start? At the Navy Weapons Center in China Lake. Thank you President Carter, I was one of the first employees to work for that historical company.
The NAVY research and support had becomed gridlocked with absolutly huge federal contractors. Nothing was being developed. Lobbist and contract gridlock were ruling.
President Jimmy Carter was Naval Engineer and understood this well. The 8A Minority Contractor was placed in this facility. Let me tell you, we were not liked at all, in the beginning. After our CEO made two Harvard Business covers with both President Carter and later President Reagan, this program has become commonplace. It broke up the system and allowed competition. The avalanch of advancements from the NAVAL NWC (in California) lead to rapid developoment of many advanced systems. China Lake for example had the largest laser research lab that lead to what was dubbed Star Wars. To the rapid advancement of what is called the Smart Bomb. It made the US Navy 2nd to none in the world over the next decade. The former USSR could not keep pace with the advancements in technology. Sure, President Reagan got all the credit. But the ball was rolling into his election. Highly classified projects became knownn to the public.
Sorry for the Missive. I remind myself of an old WWII vetern telling my 1960's self how we hippies had no idea about the sacrifice. He was absolutely right that I couldn't understand, but probably never understood my respect for him. Please accept my lenghty missive of an alternative history from someone who was there, close to people around President Carter, around the world as part of the change, and part of the technical / communications revolution. The history of President Jimmy Carter will be written by those 1% wealthy who won. Of course his term will go down as "unpopular" for the masses.
I could only wish for another candidate like him on my ballot nowdays.
It reminds me of the summary of Earth in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. "Mostly Harmless".