The Reason Why Jimmy Carter Was So Unpopular with the US Electorate - Essay Example

Introduction Jimmy Carter served as 39th President of US during 1977-1981 and became the first US President to receive the Noble Peace Prize after leaving the office. A peanut farmer and a Naval Officer, Carter also served as Senator as well as Governor of Georgia during 1970s. His rise to the power is considered as one of the most critical because he rose from the gross roots and served at many different positions before marching his way towards the Presidency. He was largely instrumental behind the standardization of the education across US and created a new department with the name of Department of Education. Besides, he also created a department of energy to conserve energy besides ensuring price controls. His tenure was during the period when Arab countries put oil embargo on US and resultantly a new energy policy was devised to ensure the development of alternative energy sources besides conserving and price controls. He was also a very strong follower of human rights and was the main personality behind the Egypt-Israel peace deal. Despite his achievement, however, during the end of his period, he fell out of the favor of US electorate for different reasons. There are four important incidents which resulted into a gradual decline in his popularity and resultantly he was unable to get elected for the second time. This paper will therefore explore and assess the reasons behind his unpopularity with the US electorate and how US public actually responded to his overall tenure as President of the Country. Jimmy Carter- a Political history Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of US and served as President of United States of America from 1977 to 1981. Prior to becoming president, he also served as a Senator and Governor of Georgia. His tenure was remarkable for the reasons that he was instrumental behind the creation of department of education and department of energy- two departments which became responsible for education and energy in the country. (Brinkley and Dyer, 2004)  Department of Education was formulated in order to standardize the education across the whole country and ensure that each citizen of the State receives same education regardless of the differences in the social and economic standing of the family. Apart from this, the department of energy was formulated to not only device policies for the conservation of the energy but also ensure price controls besides developing the sources for alternative energy. Starting from such a humble beginning, the tenure of Carter may be considered as a mix bag. At one hand he was successful in ensuring peace deals between Egypt and Israel while on the other hand, he was unable to control the damage done by few events at the end of his tenure. He gradually started to lose popularity as different events witnessed his grip on power loosening. Events such as energy crisis, Russian crisis, Arab Israel conflict, returning of Panama Canal zone back to the Panama etc. were some of the reasons which created strong dissent about him in the American Electorate. Why he become unpopular? As discussed above that there were series of different events which took place especially at the end of his tenure which greatly affected his overall popularity. Some of the reasons for this change in popularity are: Energy Crisis During 1979, in the wake of Iranian revolution, US faced its second energy crisis due to the upheaval in Iran. During 1979, Reza Shah Pehlvi, the King of Iran fled the country and resultantly, energy shortage was created in the country. The reduction in the oil output and the strikes in Iran created strong upward pressure on the oil prices in the international market. As a result of this pressure, the domestic prices of oil started to increase too besides creating shortages. As a result of these crisis, Carter Administration put price controls besides taking other measures to ensure that the energy crisis do not affect the country harshly. However, as a result of these changes by the administration, large lines started to formulate at the gas stations. The shortages of the fuel therefore created strong social resentment against the administration. People started to view these constraints as something which ultimately restricted their freedom besides considering as an inefficiency of the administration to control the prices. The long lines at the gas stations not only resulted into the wastage of the oil but also created social pressure on people. Besides, American automobile industry also started to lose its competitiveness due to sudden increase in the prices at international level. Iran Hostage Crisis Probably one of the worst events in the history of Carter’s administration was the Iran hostage issue which not only exposed the might of American military at the international level but also exposed Carter’s administration of the mishandling of the issue. During 1979 Iranian revolution, students captured the American Embassy in Tehran and held the American staff as hostages for 444 days. This event created strong diplomatic crisis between the two countries as Iran refused to release the hostages considering them as enemy. Carter Administration has largely been considered as the responsible for mishandling of the overall incident because it not only failed to create a diplomatic solution but its military efforts failed too. When the diplomatic efforts failed to secure the release of the hostages, US made a failed military attempt to rescue the hostages. Unfortunately, same also failed as not only American aircraft was destroyed but eight Americans lost their lives too. This failure therefore has resulted into strong domestic resentment against Carter as people start to believe that the administration was not competent enough to rule the country. Not only a sever backlash against Iranians occurred within US but media also started to consider it as a war on diplomacy. The increasing unrest at the domestic front therefore has created greater challenges for the Carter administration to control the damage both at the domestic as well as international level. The failure of the military mission further fuelled the sentiments against Carter which resulted into his failure at the elections. Economic Situation The whole tenure of Carter can be divided into two economic eras as till 1978, American economy witnessed growth however, as a result of the energy crisis, economy started to witness strong economic pressures to keep its current pace. As the economic progress slowed down, interest rates sharply increased in the economy besides putting strong pressures on the price level. The dual increase in interest rates as well as inflation therefore further created pressures on the employment level. (Biven, 2002). The overall employment level therefore started to decline putting extra burden on the State to actually foot the extra burden. The rationing and conservation of energy as well as the price controls on the energy products therefore further put pressure on the economy. In order to reduce the inflation, FED increased the interest rates thus effectively making it difficult for the consumers to borrow at low rates. Though the steps were taken in order to bring down the inflation however, the temporary impact of such actions created strong political resentment against Carter. Increase in the gasoline prices coupled with its shortage visibly shaken the consumer confidence and people started to lose hope in the ability of the administration to provide any kind of relief. The shaken consumer confidence therefore further culminated into the political resentment against Carter’s administration. There were other minor events too which basically ensured that Carter find himself out of favor from the US electorate and thus was unable to win the subsequent election. Conclusion Jimmy Carter was 39th President of US and ruled the country during late 1970s and early 1980s. Earlier he also served as the Senator and Governor of the Georgia state before making his march towards the presidency. During his era, he remained one of the strongest voices to ensure that human rights are protected and it was because of his track record that he was given Noble Price for Peace. He also went on to standardize the education across the country besides creating department of energy to reshape the energy policy of the country. However, despite such steps he could not find the favor of the US electorate as some events specially at the end of his tenure resulted into sharp decline in his popularity. Most of these events took place almost during the same period and therefore created strong socio-political resentment against the Carter’s administration. First there was energy crisis as a result of the revolution in Iran resulting into sharp decline in the global production of oil. Due to this shortage, the oil prices increased at the domestic as well as international level causing long lines at the gas stations. Due to increase in oil prices, economy of the country also started to witness pressure as not only inflation increased but the interest rates were raised too. Unemployment gap started to widen thus creating more economic pressures on the people to cope wit the difficult situation. Apart from this, the Iranian hostage issue as well as Russian Afghanistan conflict also resulted into the decline in his popularity. References Brinkley, A. and Dyer, D. (2004) The American presidency, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p.455-462. Biven, W. (2002) Jimmy Carters economy: policy in an age of limits, New York: UNC Press Books, p.123-132.Book Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More