I must say, the Democrats’ choice of former President Jimmy Carter to address their convention gives me hope.
Hope for what, you ask?
For one thing, hope that the Republicans aren’t the only political party that can circle the wagons and open fire.
I feel a certain connection with Jimmy Carter. He was the first president I was able to vote for. I was in the military, and it was a reaction to those around me who said, “You can’t be serious – you’re not going to vote for him!”
So much for protest votes. I was stationed overseas, and every time “my” president made a pronouncement in the media, it riled the currency markets, and the rent for my small house off base fluctuated wildly. Perhaps the Democrats have always been the party of “hope and change,” and we just didn’t know it.
When I returned to the U.S., I bought my first bit of real estate using the GI Bill: a small condo in the suburbs. The interest rate on that first mortgage was about 17 percent, as I recall. Carter and Reagan passed each other at the door to the Oval Office, and the U.S. hostages the Iranians had been holding all those months in our occupied embassy came home.
Given the perspective of time, I’d have to say that this voting episode alone is a solid argument for raising the voting age to, say, 35 or so. Fifty would be better.
OK, so much for the first era of hope and spare change. The economy recovered rapidly under Reagan, who had the odd view (at least in Potomac-fever land) that government shouldn’t do everything. To add to this heresy, he thought private industry did things better and would lead the recovery. Former President Carter went on to write books, lecture Israel on human rights, and insure free and fair elections worldwide (except here in the U.S., where the Black Panthers have been engaged by the Justice Department to handle that role).
Back to the convention: I note with interest that Jimmy Carter is going to address the Democratic convention on two issues: Energy policy and the economy. Wow! Wagons circled. Ready, aim, fire!
Anyone who can implement policies to drive up interest rates to 17 percent on a loan secured by real estate and guaranteed by the government must know a thing or two about the economy! I can’t wait to relive the Carter version of hope and change, re-branded under Obama.
Energy policy should be a good listen, too. As I recall, Jimmy Carter’s main energy initiative was to turn down the temperature in the Oval Office and wear a sweater. I wonder if he will wear a sweater for the convention speech. It’s probably cold in front of all those government-subsidized windmills, turning at full-tilt with all the hot air that only a political convention can generate.
Godspeed, Mr. Former President. You may yet have an important contribution to make to America.
