In case you missed it, over the vacation, former US President Jimmy Carter died just before the New Year. A man born in small-town Plains, Georgia over a century ago, who’d served in the US Navy nuclear submarine corps, the Georgia State House, Governorship and US Presidency would already deserve such an honour.
But Jimmy Carter was more than his record: he had an approach to politics, and to life in general, which Oxford’s political scene could take a few lessons from. His was a life well-lived, a man who despite only serving one term will be remembered more kindly and for longer in posterity than some of his two-term predecessors because of his combination of principle and pragmatism.
Carter approached politics with a candour that was both genuine and effective, a style which student politics very rarely sees. It’s hard to imagine any national or student political candidate matching Carter’s pledge to never tell a lie. It’s even harder to imagine them making sacrifices which echo their rhetoric, as Carter did during the 1978-9 Oil Crisis by turning down the White House’s heating, installing solar panels and foregoing suits for jumpers and jeans in order to set a leading example. It’s almost impossible to imagine them attempting to tell the public that sacrifices had to be made to overcome America’s Malaise of 70’s stagflation and cultural shock after Watergate.
Carter lived his political and personal life through a combination of personal sacrifice and honesty. These traits are evident from his giving up of his naval career to help his family after his father’s death all the way through to his work on the 1978 Camp David Accords and his post-presidential work, building homes for Habitat for Humanity. His was an ideal of devotion to communal service that Oxford politicos would do well to learn from. However, pleasing the passing power of certain rungs on the greasy pole, some things – helping others, maintaining truth and decency – matter more than transitory privilege and pomp.
He treated his opponents with respect, something that dutiful hacks sometimes overlook in the heat of the campaign. Despite the fierce competition of the 1976 election, he and Jerry Ford, his predecessor who pardoned Nixon, later collaborated through his Carter Centre to promote democracy and human rights around the world. He helped oversee democratic transitions in Haiti, Panama, Guyana and the Dominican Republic amongst others, aiding the administrations of both parties.
This compassion towards former opponents and unwavering belief in a set of principles, could do wonders to Oxford political society. An infusion of it might install some backbone in the most invertebrate and flexible of Oxford politicos, and drag it from the Georgian-esque personality battles which pollutes it at the present.
Ultimately, Jimmy Carter was a Good Man. Few have merited that title as much as him. He might have been an unpopular President, but Oxford’s aspiring politicos and hacks of tomorrow can still learn from his rich post-presidency and the achievements of his life that there is more to life than simply winning.