lpetrich
Contributor
Jimmy Carter seems very decent. But he was a sort of end-of-an-era President - 
Cyclical theory (United States history)
Arthur Schlesingers Sr. and Jr. proposed that US history follows a cycle, alternating between liberal and conservative, public purpose and private interest, increasing democracy and containing democracy, concern with the wrongs of the many and concern with the rights of the few, and concern with human rights and concern with property rights.
Liberal periods usually have lots of reforms, and they end because of society-scale activism burnout. Conservative periods end because of the accumulation of social problems that society's elites are unwilling to do very much to solve, if they think that those problems are real problems.
Liberal: revolution and adoption of Constitution // Conservative: Hamilton Era (G Washington, J Adams) // Lib: Jefferson Era // Con: Era of Good Feelings // Lib: Jackson Era // Con: Slaveowner dominance // Lib: Civil War, Abolition of Slavery, Reconstruction // Con: The Gilded Age (only golden on the outside) // Lib: The Progressive Era // Con: The Roaring Twenties // Lib: The New Deal Era // Con: The Fifties Era // Lib: The Sixties Era // Con: The Reagan Era, Gilded Age II (where we are now)
Jimmy Carter was President on the tail end of the Sixties Era, and he tried some reforms, like supporting renewable energy and adoption of the metric system of units. But he was not very successful, and his successor Ronald Reagan undid some of those efforts.
In fairness to him, unfinished business is a common feature of ends of liberal periods. The Civil War Era ended because Southern black people were unable to consolidate their social gains well enough to resist an onslaught of white-supremacist politicians and terrorists. The Progressive Era ended with women getting the vote, but women did not make much further social progress until the Sixties Era. Late in the New Deal Era, Harry Truman proposed national health insurance, but his proposal failed. The Sixties Era had some additional unfinished business besides Jimmy Carter's efforts, like the Equal Rights Amendment almost but not quite being ratified, and abortion becoming a major culture-war issue.
Cyclical theory (United States history)Arthur Schlesingers Sr. and Jr. proposed that US history follows a cycle, alternating between liberal and conservative, public purpose and private interest, increasing democracy and containing democracy, concern with the wrongs of the many and concern with the rights of the few, and concern with human rights and concern with property rights.
Liberal periods usually have lots of reforms, and they end because of society-scale activism burnout. Conservative periods end because of the accumulation of social problems that society's elites are unwilling to do very much to solve, if they think that those problems are real problems.
Liberal: revolution and adoption of Constitution // Conservative: Hamilton Era (G Washington, J Adams) // Lib: Jefferson Era // Con: Era of Good Feelings // Lib: Jackson Era // Con: Slaveowner dominance // Lib: Civil War, Abolition of Slavery, Reconstruction // Con: The Gilded Age (only golden on the outside) // Lib: The Progressive Era // Con: The Roaring Twenties // Lib: The New Deal Era // Con: The Fifties Era // Lib: The Sixties Era // Con: The Reagan Era, Gilded Age II (where we are now)
Jimmy Carter was President on the tail end of the Sixties Era, and he tried some reforms, like supporting renewable energy and adoption of the metric system of units. But he was not very successful, and his successor Ronald Reagan undid some of those efforts.
In fairness to him, unfinished business is a common feature of ends of liberal periods. The Civil War Era ended because Southern black people were unable to consolidate their social gains well enough to resist an onslaught of white-supremacist politicians and terrorists. The Progressive Era ended with women getting the vote, but women did not make much further social progress until the Sixties Era. Late in the New Deal Era, Harry Truman proposed national health insurance, but his proposal failed. The Sixties Era had some additional unfinished business besides Jimmy Carter's efforts, like the Equal Rights Amendment almost but not quite being ratified, and abortion becoming a major culture-war issue.
