While LA burns, a political shift may have begun. Movements start with words, a speech or an article and sometimes at a funeral.
Mark Antony did speak at Julius Caesar’s funeral, but the words are Shakespeare’s. We do know Pericles’ eulogy in 431 BC to the fallenin the Peloponnesian War. It is still a defence of democracy.
“Memorials graven not on stone but in the hearts and minds of men. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.
“We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs, we keep to the law. We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say he has no business here at all.”
America’s most influential speech, the Gettysburg address, was a eulogy.
The test of a good eulogy is one that is about the deceased and not the speaker. The address that helps the family and friends mourn. We learn things about the deceased that we did not know. Great eulogies give life meaning.
They were great eulogies.
I did not rate Jimmy Carter. While visiting Washington during his presidency I discussed politics with my taxi driver. He said he was a life-long Democrat but was now an ABC man.
I asked: “What is an ABC man?’
He replied with great venom: “Anybody but Carter”.
Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and President Carter, Lady Muldoon and First Lady Rosalyn Carter wave from the Truman Balcony at the White House in 1977. Photo / Associated Press
On that visit I met with the diplomat responsible for the New Zealand desk. We discussed the American embassy staff being held hostage in Tehran.
“You are about to do a gung-ho raid to free them,” I said.
The diplomat strongly denied that any raid was about to happen and why a raid would fail.
I was asked to meet the Deputy Secretary, the highest professional diplomat in the State Department, way above my pay grade. He assured me that the State Department had no prior knowledge of the rescue attempt. He wanted to know how a backbench MP from New Zealand knew.
“I listened to what the President was saying.”
People believe politicians will say anything. When it is nonsense, people assume the politician does not mean it. It is scary, but we should always assume politicians do mean what they say.
Trump may not be able to deliver on what he says, but he is going to try.
Politicians do not rate President Carter because he invented the “Rose Garden Strategy”, what not to do in a crisis.
Carter refused to leave the White House to campaign until the hostages were free. Carter was telling the taxi driver his concerns must wait.
The eulogies made me realise Carter was a significant president. Policies that I have credited to Ronald Reagan were Carter’s.
It was Carter who deregulated and created both cheap airfares and craft beer.
Jimmy Carter was the first climate warrior. Photo / AFP
Carter crushed inflation by appointing Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve knowing Volcker would introduce unpopular but necessary high interest rates.
Carter appointed more women and people of colour to be judges than all previous Presidents combined.
Carter was the first climate warrior.
I have revised my assessment of Carter the politician. It is incredible that someone from the Deep South, who grew up in a house without either electricity or running water, from the predominantly poor, black, village of Plains in Georgia, could become President.
Carter personally negotiated the Camp David Peace Accord between Egypt and Israel that is still in place.
Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin attend the formal ceremony for the Camp David Accords in Washington DC in 1979. Photo / AP, File
Every speaker spoke of Carter’s faith and character. His election was a reaction to the sleaze of Watergate.
The contrast with President Trump could not be greater. Trump looked as if he wished he was elsewhere.
This presidential election voters gave the candidates a pass on character. After the next four years of outrageous behaviour, I believe Americans will seek candidates with, as President Biden put it, “Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: Character. Character. Character.”
When, post-presidency, Carter targeted the Guinea worm disease there were 3.5 million cases a year. Last year there were just 14.
You must marvel that a 100-year-old Southern white Baptist had John Lennon’s Imagine sung at his funeral.
