(BrightPress.org) – Former President Jimmy Carter has opted for at-home hospice care as he nears the end of his long life. At 98, he’s the oldest living former president as well as the record holder for living the longest after leaving the White House. His legacy was marred by a combination of bad timing and being ahead of the curve when it came to things like environmental protection.
His legacy is being re-examined by many writers who believe Carter got a bad reputation following his landslide defeat by Ronald Regan in 1980. While he only had a single term, he was aided by the fact that the Democrats also controlled congress at the time, allowing him to pass more legislation than many of his predecessors and antecedents.
Carter had visionary ideas about electric vehicles, which he planned to promote had he achieved reelection. He was also responsible for establishing FEMA, as well as the Departments of Education and Energy.
He’s often credited with deregulating several industries, an atypical move for a Democrat, which reduced costs across the board for Americans. Specifically, his policies lowered the costs of consumer air travel, trucking, and electric energy. He also fought against redlining, a racist discriminatory policy that made it much more difficult for black Americans to purchase real estate.
He was the first president to push for and achieve fuel-economy standards, as well as pollution controls on automobiles and industrial waste. He created the Superfund, which was charged with identifying and cleaning up toxic waste sites all over the U.S. He also doubled the area covered by the national park system with the passage of the Alaska Lands Act. He was big on environmental protections, a consistent theme of the age; though, unlike the modern era, his focus was on pollutants and toxic chemicals rather than carbon dioxide.
A major factor in his 1980 loss was the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which had a positive resolution with no loss of life shortly after he left office. It went on for over a year and ended on the day Reagan was inaugurated. The economy was also in a rough spot, which naturally didn’t help matters. As much as folks love to rip on Jimmy Carter, the positive impacts he had can’t be ignored.
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