One of the legs on this year’s summer vacation was a trip to Andersonville prisoner of war camp. I happened to notice Plains, GA was a short jaunt away, so I decided to add it to my itinerary which happened to be on the 4th of July.
When driving to Plains, one cannot help but notice that this town is a deeply rural area; it reminded me a lot ot where I grew up, but this place was smaller. My town at least had a 7-Eleven. The only gas station I saw was Billy Carter’s and that’s a museum. I mean this place is small. I stood in the middle of road on the 4th of July and had no worries about someone running me over. Here are some pictures.
I also visited Jimmy Carter’s boyhood home and the graves of his mother, Miss Lillian and his brother Billy, who was a memorable character. They rest in a cemetery down the road.
I was a kid when Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. That was a memorable time in more ways than one. We celebrated the bicentennial around that period. We also had rampant unemployment, inflation and an energy crisis which entailed gas shortages and lines. And who can forget the “malaise” speech and lecture about lowering thermostats and wearing sweaters? But hey, we had great music back in those days and people were patriotic. You can’t deny that.
I didn’t care much for President Carter’s policies. The Panama Canal was particularly irksome. To this day, I still don’t understand why he and the Democratic controlled Senate gave it away. Twice, I’ve watched a documentary about this debacle and I’m still not satisfied.
I was a kid when Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. That was a memorable time in more ways than one. We celebrated the bicentennial around that period. We also had rampant unemployment, inflation and an energy crisis which entailed gas shortages and lines. And who can forget the “malaise” speech and lecture about lowering thermostats and wearing sweaters? But hey, we had great music back in those days and people were patriotic. You can’t deny that.
I didn’t care much for President Carter’s policies. The Panama Canal was particularly irksome. To this day, I still don’t understand why he and the Democratic controlled Senate gave it away. Twice, I’ve watched a documentary about this debacle and I’m still not satisfied.
While I visited the old high school/museum, I bought his book, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.” I checked to make sure the Panama Canal was indexed and have added it to my reading list. I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, but I will.
The reason why I’m writing about President Carter is The Abbeville Institute recently published an article about his legacy. I don’t agree with their policy analysis, but I do on President Carter’s character. Here is an excerpt:
Certainly Carter had his problems as president, but most of this involved perception not policy. Carter can be credited with beginning the deregulation of the Ronald Reagan era and with installing Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve chairman, a move that helped end the destructive inflation of the 1970s. He also pushed for American energy independence long before it was trendy. Carter’s record on taxation and foreign policy are mixed at best, and no one would credit him with doing anything to end the Cold War, but he was as interested in negotiation and diplomacy as Reagan but without a willing partner in Moscow. Carter’s insistence that people put on a sweater when it was cold and turn down the thermostat rubbed the consumerist American culture the wrong way, but that was the Southern man in him. “Environmentalism” was in fact just a Northern distortion of Southern agrarian. Carter could eloquently discuss Civil Rights and race because unlike most men who lived at Pennsylvania Ave., he had been around African-Americans his entire life. He was a reconciliationist in Washington, something most ideologues could not and cannot understand.
I believe the CATO Institute published something similar awhile back particularly about the Federal Reserve and Paul Volcker. This is an argument that should be studied further. I believe this president deserves that much.
What I learned on my visit is that Jimmy Carter was the consummate outsider not only in Washington D.C. but in the capitol of Georgia. Anyone who participates in the political process has to deal with an entrenched machine. The Georgia clique tried to deny the man from Plains the governorship. Carter fought back and won; that takes character.
Here is another excerpt from the Abbeville Institute.:
It’s fitting that Carter never profited from his time as president. His books don’t sell much. He scribbles, paints, and makes furniture, teaches a bi-monthly Sunday school class, works with charity and humanitarian organizations, and walks around town with Rosalynn. They have been married for seventy-two years, and she is as Southern as Jimmy. Their house is unremarkable, and his “museum” is nothing more than the former Plains public school. He flies coach and the American taxpayer spends the less on Carter’s retirement than any other living president. Carter is just another citizen of his home town, just as Jefferson became just another citizen of Charlottesville.
If you visit Plains, Georgia, you can’t help but admire our 39th president and his little town who’s only gas station is his brother’s museum.
Source:
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/the-last-republican-president/?mc_cid=0e05a34310&mc_eid=daea235a8f
The reason why I’m writing about President Carter is The Abbeville Institute recently published an article about his legacy. I don’t agree with their policy analysis, but I do on President Carter’s character. Here is an excerpt:
Certainly Carter had his problems as president, but most of this involved perception not policy. Carter can be credited with beginning the deregulation of the Ronald Reagan era and with installing Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve chairman, a move that helped end the destructive inflation of the 1970s. He also pushed for American energy independence long before it was trendy. Carter’s record on taxation and foreign policy are mixed at best, and no one would credit him with doing anything to end the Cold War, but he was as interested in negotiation and diplomacy as Reagan but without a willing partner in Moscow. Carter’s insistence that people put on a sweater when it was cold and turn down the thermostat rubbed the consumerist American culture the wrong way, but that was the Southern man in him. “Environmentalism” was in fact just a Northern distortion of Southern agrarian. Carter could eloquently discuss Civil Rights and race because unlike most men who lived at Pennsylvania Ave., he had been around African-Americans his entire life. He was a reconciliationist in Washington, something most ideologues could not and cannot understand.
I believe the CATO Institute published something similar awhile back particularly about the Federal Reserve and Paul Volcker. This is an argument that should be studied further. I believe this president deserves that much.
What I learned on my visit is that Jimmy Carter was the consummate outsider not only in Washington D.C. but in the capitol of Georgia. Anyone who participates in the political process has to deal with an entrenched machine. The Georgia clique tried to deny the man from Plains the governorship. Carter fought back and won; that takes character.
Here is another excerpt from the Abbeville Institute.:
It’s fitting that Carter never profited from his time as president. His books don’t sell much. He scribbles, paints, and makes furniture, teaches a bi-monthly Sunday school class, works with charity and humanitarian organizations, and walks around town with Rosalynn. They have been married for seventy-two years, and she is as Southern as Jimmy. Their house is unremarkable, and his “museum” is nothing more than the former Plains public school. He flies coach and the American taxpayer spends the less on Carter’s retirement than any other living president. Carter is just another citizen of his home town, just as Jefferson became just another citizen of Charlottesville.
If you visit Plains, Georgia, you can’t help but admire our 39th president and his little town who’s only gas station is his brother’s museum.
Source:
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/the-last-republican-president/?mc_cid=0e05a34310&mc_eid=daea235a8f
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