Jimmy Carter — Morality and the Crisis of Confidence

Abstract

Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States largely because he was a Washington outsider, untainted by the years of torment surrounding Vietnam and Watergate. Indeed, before he sought the Democratic nomination for presidential candidate, few people outside his native Georgia had heard of this former naval officer, nuclear engineer, and peanut farmer. Carter made it clear in his election campaign that he understood and shared the people’s pain, doubt and failing confidence following the defeat in Vietnam and the Watergate scandals. He believed America’s moral compass had been lost, that traditional beliefs at the very heart of what it meant to be an American had been thrown into question by years of government lies, failure and corruption. Carter, though, was not about to give up on those beliefs. He was confident that by rededicating the nation to the principles upon which it was founded, Americans could once again believe in themselves and the special role their nation had to play in human history.