Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, who served one term, from January 1977 through January 1981, has died at 100. He was the first presidential candidate for whom I ever voted, and I will always be grateful that my vote did not help him win, for he was not a good president. Much of the turmoil that characterizes the world today started with Carter’s presidency.

I grew up in a Democrat household, and we all wanted to like Carter. Nevertheless, by the end of his term, my parents disliked him intensely. They were right to do so because some of his decisions were dreadful at the time, and some had terrible consequences for America:

He pardoned draft evaders, which my father, a veteran of two wars, found unforgivable.

He gave away the Panama Canal. Now that China has a foothold in Latin America, its very presence threatens our trade and our national security.

Image: Jimmy Carter (public domain).

He created the Department of Education, which my father, a teacher, instantly realized was going to be a boondoggle and a disaster that wouldn’t raise up teachers but would bring down education. Dad was right.

He presided over inflation, stagflation, and the energy crisis. The latter was partly a result of his policies, but even if it hadn’t been, these economic crises happened on his watch, and he was stuck with them.

He was a dour, unpleasant person whose very presence was a drag on America. Americans disliked his moralizing from the White House. His very personality defined malaise.

His White House had an air of inefficiency about it. The bit I remember most vividly was the poorly vetted translator during an important conference in Poland, who had Carter “lusting” after the Polish people and “defecting” from America.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Carter’s watch, which my parents believed was a sign of Carter’s weakness. They were probably right. The Soviets wouldn’t have done that had a stronger man been in the White House. In the short term, the war was a tar baby that helped destroy the Soviet Union. In the long-term, though, it gave rise to the Taliban, who have brought so much death and destruction to America.

He presided over the rise of the Ayatollahs in Iran. His perceived weakness led to the attack on the U.S. Embassy, and his actual weakness resulted in a 444-day-long hostage crisis and the disastrous rescue mission. We’ve been plagued by the Mullahs ever since, and they are responsible for the deaths of countless innocents within their borders and in the wider world, including Americans.

Indeed, Carter’s weakness regarding the Ayatollahs unleashed Islamic extremism. Everything we see today out of the Muslim world—Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc.—all matured on Carter’s watch. Again, this wasn’t all his fault, but his weakness was a form of fertilizer.

Carter was generally perceived as a “waffler,” one without vision or firmness. A family friend who was an engineer explained that Carter’s engineering training left him focused on details, while his personality meant he could not see the big picture. Every time a detail changed, he changed his policies to match. That may make for a good engineer, but it’s a disastrous trait in a world leader.

On the plus side, Carter did broker the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which have held up for a long time. However, my Dad (a really smart guy) recognized Carter’s nascent antisemitism, something that came into full flower after he left the White House. Even Jonathan Greenblatt, the leftist leader of the ADL, couldn’t tolerate Carter’s animus toward Israel, something that could only be driven by Jew hatred.

Also, after he left the White House, Carter never met a corrupt election he wasn’t willing to certify. Why? I have no idea. But I dislike him a great deal for that.

Ultimately, Carter was a guy who lived a life of personal rectitude (he had the same wife for almost 80 years, went to church, etc.), but he left the United States and the world in much worse shape than they were when he found them.