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If nothing else, 2024 was a year filled with mind-blowing, first-of-its-kind events: for the first time ever, a former president appeared in a courtroom charged with crimes; a sitting president suddenly dropped out of the race for re- election and endorsed his vice president; a former president was convicted on 34 counts and yet easily re- elected.

So it’s fitting that we end the year like this: mourning the death of a good man who won the presidency by promising never to tell a lie – just one month after re-electing a despicable man who never tells the truth. Go figure.

Jimmy Carter was a good man, a decent man, a man of character, a man of deep faith, a man you could trust to keep his word. In other words, Jimmy Carter was everything Donald Trump is not. He’s been called many things, but nobody ever called Trump a “good man.”

History’s been unkind to Carter. He’s generally dismissed as a country bumpkin from Georgia who, having been accidentally elected president, was clearly in over his head and sent home to pick peanuts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Carter was a man of many talents and many accomplishments. As Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told me on my podcast, he’s the closest we’ve had to a Renaissance man since Thomas Jefferson.

In fact, it’s hard to pigeonhole Carter. He was a trained engineer who, as a young Navy lieutenant, worked alongside the great Admiral Hyman Rickover, credited with developing America’s fleet of nuclear submarines. But Carter also was a successful businessman and prolific writer, publishing more than 30 books, including a novel, a children’s book, and a book of poetry. He was a global diplomat, responsible for the historic Camp David A ccords. But he also built by hand all the furniture in his two homes in Plains, Georgia, and he and former first lady, Rosalyn, personally helped Habitat for Humanity build or renovate 4,400 homes for the poor. For four years, as president, he commanded the most powerful bully pulpit in the world. But, on Sunday mornings, as president, he also taught Sunday school at Washington’s First Baptist Church – a practice he continued in Plains after his presidency for 25 years.

One thing nobody disputes: Carter was the model former president. Unlike others, he didn’t see his ex-presidency as a chance to line his own pockets, but as an opportunity for more public service. Through the Carter Center, he monitored elections in more than 100 countries and won praise for preventing wars in Haiti and North Korea. Working with the World Health Organization, the Carter Center has practically eliminated Guinea worm disease as a global health crisis.

But Carter was also much more effective in the White House than he’s given credit for, on both the domestic and foreign fronts. He negotiated the Panama Canal treaties, signed the Salt II nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev, forged a strong bilateral relationship with China, and planted himself at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for 13 days until they hammered out a peace accord – the most enduring peace treaty since World War II.

As Alter has written, President Carter also led the federal government “from tokenism to real diversity.” He was the first president to invite LGBTQ leaders to the White House to discuss employment discrimination. He globalized the civil rights movement with his human rights policy, and appointed more women to the federal bench than all his predecessors combined. He was also the first president to recognize climate change, installing solar panels on the roof of the White House (which Ronald Reagan removed). In 1980, he signed the Alaska Lands Bill, which doubled the size of our national parks. In terms of major legislation, Carter accomplished more in four years than Bill Clinton or Barack Obama did in eight, becoming America’s most effective one-term president – until Joe Biden.

It's sad that so many Evangelicals, who condemned Jimmy Carter for “lusting in his heart,” later turned around and voted for a man accused of sexual assault by more than 25 women and found liable for sexual assault by a jury of his peers. But, in the end, Carter may have the last laugh.

President Biden’s order that flags be lowered for 30 days after Carter’s death means American flags over the Capitol and White House will be at half-staff on January 20 for Trump’s inaugural. In memory of Jimmy Carter. In mourning for Donald Trump. How appropriate!

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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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