ArcaMax

Here’s how I’d sum up this week in Washington: I wouldn’t walk across the street to say hello to Donald Trump. But I waited in line for two and a half hours, most of it outside in 29-degree cold and snow, to say goodbye to Jimmy Carter.

And I was hardly alone. Washington’s dignitaries celebrated Carter’s life on Tuesday afternoon. But then doors were open to the public. And Tuesday, Wednesday, and early Thursday morning, thousands braved the winter cold to walk by Carter’s flag-draped casket in the Capitol Rotunda.

I must admit, I was blown away by the public response. Not only by the size of the crowd, but by its make-up. These were no big-shots, just average, working- class Americans of all stripes and sizes: older, younger, Black, white, Asian, families with kids, members of the military, current and former federal employees, a group of Dominican seminarians, many people who weren’t even born yet when Jimmy Carter was president, some sporting “Carter/Mondale” campaign buttons, locals from the D.C. area and some who traveled from far away.

From those I talked to and conversations I overheard while standing in line, they were all there for one reason: out of respect and love for the man Jimmy Carter and the values he brought to the White House. “He was such an inspiration to me when I was just 17,” one man told me. “He was what I thought every president should be like.” “I don’t understand this rap that he wasn’t a good president,” another man argued. “Look at all he got done in four years.”

Capitol Hill reporters reflected comments shared by everyone they interviewed. They said they came to honor Jimmy Carter because he was “a humble man,” “a leader,” “a man of faith,” “a fine person,” “a good, decent man,” “a man known for his civility and humility.” Ironically, those same sentiments were echoed in eulogies delivered by Republican leaders of Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson praised Carter as “a man who modeled the virtues of service and citizenship.” Senate Republican Leader John Thune noted that, unlike other politicians, in coming to Washington, Carter “did not come to serve, but to be served.”

One thing for sure: None of those phrases will ever be uttered to describe Donald Trump, dead or alive. The contrast between the revered former president and the disgraced president-elect could not be greater. Donald Trump is the antithesis of Jimmy Carter: a pathological liar, a convicted felon, a serial sexual abuser, an egomaniac and a man who cares about nobody but himself.

Which he proved once again this week. Trump was so furious that Carter was stealing all the media attention that, at the very moment President Carter’s casket was arriving in the Capitol for the historic trip up Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol, he suddenly staged a news conference at Mar-a-Lago where he condemned Carter for making a historic treaty with Panama over control of the Panama Canal.

Then, the very next day, Trump had the audacity to show up in the Rotunda to walk by Carter’s casket. And Thursday, uninvited by the family, he planted himself in the front pew for Carter’s state funeral in the National Cathedral. For Trump, hypocrisy has no bounds. Just when you think he can sink no lower, he does.

But not even Trump’s unwelcome presence in Washington this week could destroy the air of good feelings about Jimmy Carter. People turned out to honor Carter because he was a president they could relate to. As president, he often ate out at local restaurants (not only at the one restaurant that had his name on it). He sent his daughter to a local public school. He carried his own bags at the airport. He helped build houses on Benning Road in Southeast Washington, still lived in by low-income families. He joined First Baptist Church, just a couple of blocks from the White House, where he and Rosalyn attended services 70 times and where he taught Sunday School for four years as president.

It’s comforting to believe, if only for this moment, that these are values the majority of Americans still believe in. Still the question remains: Why did so many Americans vote for just the opposite?

As I heard more than one person remark about Jimmy Carter, “He’s the type of president we don’t see anymore.” No, and we won’t see one like it for the next four years, either. Sigh!

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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.)