Hamilton Jordan can still recall all the subtle details of Jimmy Carter’s inauguration 30 years ago, though the “pleasant memories” he holds of that day have taken on the quality of a dream: “In some ways it seems like it was yesterday; in other ways, like it never happened,” he said.
Hamilton Jordan
There was “the excitement in going to Washington, trying to make a difference,” he recalled. “We worked so long to get there.” Eventually, though, the mystique of the White House wore off a bit. “It eventually began to feel like the place we worked,” he said.
Jordan, who served as Carter’s chief of staff, ran for office himself once (but lost a senatorial race to Wyche Fowler in 1986). After surviving three kinds of cancer—lymphoma, melanoma and prostate cancer—he has invested in, advised and served on boards of several biotech companies.
His bestselling memoir No Such Thing as a Bad Day recounts his personal battles and efforts in promoting the Georgia Cancer Coalition. Recently, he helped form the Unity 08 (www.unity08.com) organization, which calls for a reformation of America’s de facto two-party system.
The belief behind Unity 08 “is that both political parties are dominated by their extreme elements and money, and each election there’s a huge amount of people down the middle who don’t like the choices they have,” Jordan said. “We’re trying to tell them that there’s another way.”
As a Fellow with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Jordan was a driving force in developing the “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century” conference.
Jordan was one of several Georgians Carter brought with him to Washington. At the time, they were nicknamed the “Georgia Mafia,” and it’s often been reported that they were seen as unconventional outsiders.
“Most presidents bring their own teams in,” Jordan countered, noting that Kennedy had his Massachusetts friends and Lyndon Johnson and the Bushes brought their Texans to the White House. “We didn’t feel uncomfortable.”
Jordan said that both the highlight and lowlight of the Carter presidency were rooted in the Middle East: the success of the Carter-mediated Camp David Accords, which brought peace between Egypt and Israel, and the 444-day-long hostage crisis, in which Carter attempted to secure the release of 66 Americans taken captive by Iranian militants.
“People talk about Islamic fundamentalism like it’s a recent phenomenon,” he said. “We experienced it 30 years ago, and it seems like we as a country have learned very little from that experience.”
And that’s the point of the conference—to re-examine the issues that marked the Carter presidency, and how that administration dealt with the problems that still plague the nation. Focusing on Carter’s progressive attitudes about energy policy, Islamic fundamentalism, human rights and the Middle East showcases not only an enlightened approach, but the fact that later administrations often undid those efforts.
“The first thing that Ronald Reagan did when he came into office was remove the solar panels (that Carter had installed),” Jordan said. “It was their way of saying that this environmental business is a bunch of left-wing crap. They undid a lot of things, and we’re still dealing with the problems.”
This conference, he added, has the potential to stir discussion and debate, and possibly lead to solutions.
“A lot of decision makers and press will be there,” he said.
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