During the mid-1970s people felt a lack of trust towards the government because of the watergate scandal that removed president Nixon from his post and the high inflation and high unemployment that was occurring across the nation. Many Americans were losing a sense of national purpose and were turing back to an individualistic perspective due to all of these problems. Jimmy Carter saw this unrest in the American people as an opportunity to run for the presidency. He built his campaign on the fact that he was honest and his government would be too. He was a peanut farmer, highly educated, and represented traditional values that seemed to be appealing to a broader audience in this era. He didn't seem like the typical politician of the time and because of these reasons he was appealing to the public. He was a very popular candidate and won the 1977 presidency, making him the 39th President of the United States.
Carter had a great start to his presidency, but how his presidency ended overshadowed this and many of his accomplishments in the role. Carter gave a famous speech, the "malaise speech", which was meant to be about taking responsibility of the problems occurring in the country after talking to regular citizens about what they considered to be issues with America. Shortly after that speech Carter fired his entire cabinet and this seems to show a lack of confidence in his message and his own government. It also made his speech seem like he was blaming others, the country, and Americans for the current state of the economy and the other issues surrounding the time. This message upset many Americans.
Another thing that lowered his standing in the American people's opinion was the Iran Hostage Crisis. Because Carter was not able to get the hostages out of the situation without threatening war with the Soviet Union he appeared weak on both accounts. When an attempt to save the hostages ended poorly and due to what appeared an embarrassing and fatal failure he seemed even more of a weak leader to the American people and to other foreign leaders. The final blemish on his reputation was the years of the declining economy and lost hope of the American people. When election season was near, many Americans were ready for a change from the Carter Administrations and the state of the economy so when Ronald Reagan ran, seeming like that voice of change, Carter had very little chance of convincing the American people that he was the best choice for the new term.
The second and third paragraph summarize the negatives during President Carter's term. I know you were just summarizing the rise and fall of President Carter, but do you personally believe that he lived up to the expectations that he set for himself?
ReplyDeleteDo you think Carter could have done something other than fire his entire cabinet? That seemed like an extreme response to address a "lack of confidence" among the American people. Also, I feel like what Carter did simply backfired on himself because it showed the people that he was not confident enough to improve his cabinet, so he just threw everyone off board instead of putting in the effort to work and communicate with them.
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