mikegriffith1
Mike Griffith
About two weeks ago, Time magazine published a good article on Jimmy Carter's presidency titled "Jimmy Carter Was the Most Successful Conservative President of the Last Five Decades." It focuses on Carter's domestic policies.
time.com
A few excerpts:
Carter was neither as ineffective a president as his critics allege, nor as liberal a politician as his new fans believe. Instead, the 39th president scored enormous policy successes—but observers often missed them because they didn’t grasp that Carter was one of the most substantively conservative presidents of the last half-century. In some ways, Carter actually did more to push American economic policy to the right than his Republican successors Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Understanding this reality paints Carter’s presidency in a totally different light.
Carter’s success with airline deregulation in 1978—and Republican pickups in the midterm elections—lowered the political barriers to further deregulation. Carter pounced on the opportunity and went far beyond what liberals found tolerable. The administration worked to free scores of industries, from energy to trucking to rail, in subtle, yet significant ways. For example, after passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980—which allowed trucking companies to choose their own routes—500,000 new truckers flooded the market. The new efficiencies and additional competition ultimately reduced carriage costs by a third, benefiting every category of good produced or sold in America.
Yet, perhaps the most underrated front in Carter’s war on regulation reshaped broadcasting, politics, and entertainment. Charles Ferris, Carter’s Federal Communications Commission Chair, was a zealous deregulator, who called the FCC’s thicket of regulations “ossified” and a “dead shell.” He repealed regulations that had stunted cable television’s growth, and acquiesced to the courts limiting FCC oversight. As a result, cable grew rapidly; by the mid-1980s, the share of households with cable subscriptions had tripled to nearly 60 percent.
Yet, Carter’s conservative victories compare favorably to the accomplishments of his Republican successors. Reagan decreased the power of unionized air traffic controllers; but Carter deregulated the entire airline industry with profound results. Americans today fly four times as many miles at less than half the cost per mile as they did when Carter was president, while as many Americans now fly each year (an average of 49% from 2015-2019) as the percentage in 1971 who had ever flown before.
During Trump’s presidency, the federal debt to GDP ratio broke the record previously set during World War II, whereas Carter reduced that ratio to its lowest point since the beginning of the New Deal.
The whole article is worth reading.
I've long been a Carter fan mainly because he was an honorable, decent man. In addition, he pursued many conservative domestic policies and was more fiscally conservative than Reagan, Bush, or Trump. I acknowledge that many of Carter's foreign policy moves were regrettable and misguided, sometimes fatally so. However, we should remember that he did increase defense spending and became rather hawkish after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Jimmy Carter Was a Successful (Conservative) President
Common conceptions of Carter are all wrong because they don’t acknowledge a crucial reality: he was a conservative.
A few excerpts:
Carter was neither as ineffective a president as his critics allege, nor as liberal a politician as his new fans believe. Instead, the 39th president scored enormous policy successes—but observers often missed them because they didn’t grasp that Carter was one of the most substantively conservative presidents of the last half-century. In some ways, Carter actually did more to push American economic policy to the right than his Republican successors Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Understanding this reality paints Carter’s presidency in a totally different light.
Carter’s success with airline deregulation in 1978—and Republican pickups in the midterm elections—lowered the political barriers to further deregulation. Carter pounced on the opportunity and went far beyond what liberals found tolerable. The administration worked to free scores of industries, from energy to trucking to rail, in subtle, yet significant ways. For example, after passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980—which allowed trucking companies to choose their own routes—500,000 new truckers flooded the market. The new efficiencies and additional competition ultimately reduced carriage costs by a third, benefiting every category of good produced or sold in America.
Yet, perhaps the most underrated front in Carter’s war on regulation reshaped broadcasting, politics, and entertainment. Charles Ferris, Carter’s Federal Communications Commission Chair, was a zealous deregulator, who called the FCC’s thicket of regulations “ossified” and a “dead shell.” He repealed regulations that had stunted cable television’s growth, and acquiesced to the courts limiting FCC oversight. As a result, cable grew rapidly; by the mid-1980s, the share of households with cable subscriptions had tripled to nearly 60 percent.
Yet, Carter’s conservative victories compare favorably to the accomplishments of his Republican successors. Reagan decreased the power of unionized air traffic controllers; but Carter deregulated the entire airline industry with profound results. Americans today fly four times as many miles at less than half the cost per mile as they did when Carter was president, while as many Americans now fly each year (an average of 49% from 2015-2019) as the percentage in 1971 who had ever flown before.
During Trump’s presidency, the federal debt to GDP ratio broke the record previously set during World War II, whereas Carter reduced that ratio to its lowest point since the beginning of the New Deal.
The whole article is worth reading.
I've long been a Carter fan mainly because he was an honorable, decent man. In addition, he pursued many conservative domestic policies and was more fiscally conservative than Reagan, Bush, or Trump. I acknowledge that many of Carter's foreign policy moves were regrettable and misguided, sometimes fatally so. However, we should remember that he did increase defense spending and became rather hawkish after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
