Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS, Dec. 29, 2024
“For all of the applause he has received for his life as an ex-president, Carter’s animus against the Jewish state and willingness to use his moral standing and influence to besmirch it and aid the efforts of antisemitic hate-mongers and terrorists to undermine its existence is also part of his legacy.”
The stock of historical figures rises and falls with the changing times that follow them. That is especially true for American presidents. Admirers of former President Jimmy Carter are hoping that posterity will give him in a similar treatment.
The 39th president went into hospice at his Georgia home in February 2023. But remarkably, he lived for another 22 months with his wife, Rosalynn, dying in the interim. He even had the opportunity to cast one last vote for a successor (for Vice President Kamala Harris), dying this weekend at the age of 100. That makes him the longest-living president in U.S. history. And since he left office nearly 44 years ago, his was the longest post-presidency as well. More than one out of five Americans were born after he left the White House in 1981. In the intervening decades, the memories of those who were alive then may have dimmed.
That is part of the reason why the campaign to revive his reputation has already had such success. It was already in full swing when he went into hospice as articles and opinion pieces boosting him and attempting to depict his single term in office as both underappreciated and unfairly attacked proliferated. …SOURCE