EDITORIAL: Jimmy Carter stood for integrity and compassion

Jimmy Carter burst on to the national political scene during difficult times. The previous years had been marked by the turbulent 1960s and Vietnam. Watergate followed and a fraught nation watched as a president was forced to resign for the first time in United States history.

Trust in institutions and politicians was greatly diminished, a condition with which Americans a half-century later are all too familiar.

Mr. Carter was an obscure Democratic governor of Georgia when he announced his presidential run in late 1974. He was one of 16 hopefuls in his party’s primary field. Few observers gave him a chance.

But the former U.S. Navy officer and devout Baptist had a tireless work ethic and a comforting demeanor that exuded respect and integrity. He painted himself as a moderate and a political outsider, an alternative to establishment Washington. In early 1976, he won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, which propelled him to the nomination. In November he narrowly defeated Gerald Ford, who was elevated to the Oval Office two years previous after Richard Nixon stepped down in disgrace.

Americans craved something other than politics as usual — and they got precisely that in Mr. Carter.

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at age 100, having lived longer than any other president. His passing was met with praise for a man whom one former aide wrote “never stopped trying to make America, and the world, a better place.”

There’s no escaping the fact that difficult times characterized Mr. Carter’s lone term in the White House. Inflation climbed into double digits, and the unemployment rate hovered around 8 percent. Interest rates soared, with mortgage rates hitting an unfathomable 16 percent. Americans suffered regular lines at the gasoline pump thanks to shortages. Islamic radicals in Iran seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages. A subsequent covert rescue attempt ended in disaster in the desert, symbolizing what many considered the impotency of the Carter presidency.

In 1980, he lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan.

But the traditional recitation of Carter administration woes doesn’t do the man justice. He indeed carried out many accomplishments, particularly when it came to deregulation. It was under Mr. Carter that legislation passed to end price controls on natural gas and crude oil. He also successfully pushed to deregulate the telecommunication, airline and trucking industries, all of which has paid massive dividends for American consumers ever since.

Mr. Carter also left a lasting legacy with his charitable endeavors after he left office. He was deeply involved with Habitat for Humanity and other causes, and kept his hand in American diplomatic efforts throughout the world in an effort to promote peace and stability. His was a life well lived. The nation is poorer with his passing.