In Atlanta, on my way to the airport for my flight home, a friend really, really wanted to stop at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. (Yes, that’s the sort of friends I keep: A chance to see one thing in Atlanta, and it’s not the Coke factory.)
At the Jimmy Carter Library, I learned a ton of shit about Jimmy Carter. I mean, I really feel like I understand this man’s soul. He seems like one of the nicest, most genuine American Presidents (and reportedly one of the smartest), but his reign was short and sorta sad. The Library didn’t dwell on Jimmy’s failures, but rather aggrandized his accomplishments: the Camp David Accords, his national energy policy, and… well, hey, Carter is probably the only American President to have this:
Due to his scant list of Presidential achievements, the Library made much of Carter’s admirable post-Presidential work for clean elections, human rights, and global health — and deservedly so. Still, for me, the highlight of the Jimmy Carter library was a replica of his Oval Office. I’m pretty primitive like that.
The Library was too classy to mention that Carter’s greatest historical failure was losing re-election and allowing Ronald Reagan — whom I epicly loath — to turn America into a bastion for greedy brainless hate-mongers. The dawn of the Reagan Revolution, and that poor earnest peanut farmer blathering about nationalized health insurance from Georgia didn’t stand a chance.
