Jimmy Carter and the Post-Presidency
John S. Gardner at The Guardian:The Founders never planned for a post-Presidency. Or if they did, they thought of Cincinnatus returning to the plow, his civic duties done, as President Washington retired to Mount Vernon in 1797 when his term ended.
In Washington’s final illness, doctors applied leeches. Modern medicine –including the innovative and successful treatment for brain cancer that Jimmy Carter received in 2015 – has invented a post-Presidency, and the question is how to occupy it.
Truman and Eisenhower resumed private lives, Kennedy assassinated, LBJ left office in poor health, Nixon resigned, Ford wrote memoirs and dabbled in the corporate world. Just as Carter reinvented the Vice Presidency by giving large roles and a West Wing office to Walter Mondale, Carter had a chance to reinvent the post-Presidency, and he did. The Carter Center, the focus of his efforts, served as a platform for his many interests, including human rights, democracy promotion, conflict resolution, and health – all concentrated around the “alleviation of human suffering”.
Most Americans, on right and left, believe that Jimmy Carter used this influence overwhelmingly for good. If an enduring image of work for Ronald Reagan is cutting brush on his ranch, that for Carter is a few extra nails in his mouth as he strikes a hammer to another nail on one of his numerous house building projects for Habitat for Humanity (an organization founded in nearby Americus, Georgia, by a longtime friend of Carter’s), which eventually garnered the name “Jimmy Carter Work Project”. There have been 36 of them over the years, many abroad, including in Mexico (Carter read the Bible in Spanish as part of his daily devotions), with over 4,000 houses built and over 100,000 volunteers.
