Jimmy Carter’s version of being a man should still mean something

It sounds like the plot of an adventure movie: an elite trained military unit is sent on a convoluted, critical and dangerous mission. But the story was real.

Long before he was president of the United States, Jimmy Carter was one of the heroes of this particular operation, one that required intelligence, bravery, and a kind of manliness, very different from the cocky MMA, “your body, my choice version.” is so on display these days.

Masculinity of a certain type seems to be in fashion, with an emphasis on anger.

As a new, or slightly used, president prepares to take the oath of office with half the country who didn’t vote for him hoping he means it this time, most of the nation and much of the world mourns the death of a former president whose reputation continues to grow.

This isn’t exactly a column about politics. History is already being written and discussed when it comes to Carter’s presidency. It’s about character and what people mean when they say of a person, “He was a real man.”

Devotion over domination

It’s a confusing time to evaluate how to define masculinity, when “Me Too” seems so passé, when a federal appeals court confirms the jury’s conclusion in a civil case in which President-elect Donald Trump sexually abused a woman in the 1990s, when the so-called “broligarchy” tech billionaires who loom over every decision of the incoming administration see belligerence as a virtue: being “based,” they call it, without recognizing how ridiculous a grown man looks when he proudly wears such an unserious label.

Then there was Carter, who said rosalynn Saying “yes” was the The most “exciting” that has ever happened in your life. The couple shared 77 years of marriage and a life, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, until their death in 2023.

For a potential partner, that devotion, rather than domination, is desired, not derided as soft.

When Carter’s father died, he did what the man of the family is traditionally supposed to do: return home (in his case, to Plains, Georgia) to take over the family business. And he never got or seemed to want bathrooms with chandeliers or buildings emblazoned with his name as a measure to do so.

That’s called taking responsibility, something weak men never do when there’s someone else doing the dirty work or taking the blame.

Of course, Jimmy Carter wanted to be powerful and in charge; Name me a politician who doesn’t long for those things. Humility is not a hallmark of anyone who wants to be leader of the free world. However, President Carter put that family peanut farm and warehouse in a blind trust to avoid legal and ethical concerns. He also released his tax returns, a convention the public hardly expects today.

While some are always looking for that loophole, following tradition because it is the right thing to do is undoubtedly the most difficult, as well as “manly,” option.

Faith in action

The sense of duty must have influenced that dangerous mission, when a young Navy officer and the rest of the team were submerged in a partially melted nuclear reactor to repair it, as the publication relates. The war zone. Although it was an integral part of the Navy’s pioneering nuclear submarine program, chosen by future Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, Carter never considered the exercise, which exposed men to high levels of radiation, as routine.

The false image of a backward Southerner, not a graduate of the US Naval Academy, clung to Carter, who was the butt of too many jokes and the recipient of too little respect. Even those who admired his work once he left the White House rarely used the word “tough” to describe him.

Perhaps we have defined it incorrectly.

A real man can cry when he sees children living on the other side of the world suffering from diseases that few know about. Promising, through the work of the Carter Center, his global health and human rights organization in Atlanta, to do everything in his power to eradicate What’s causing the pain is just a fulfilled promise that earned Carter the Nobel Peace Prize, although I doubt honor was his incentive.

That was faith in action. Carter spoke of Christianity in a way that the Jesus of the Bible would recognize, but he was strong enough in his own beliefs to resist imposing them on others, a task that many of today’s Christian nationalists seem eager to undertake.

Authenticity on display

Carter acknowledged his mistakes, including a personal past that pushed him racial justice aside in search of electoral success, a decision that allowed him to become governor of Georgia on his second attempt.

In a personal evolution, he cultivated a close relationship with Martin Luther King Sr. (the father of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) and sought an integrated church home. As governor and president, Carter assembled a diverse team and appointed Patricia Roberts Harris as the first African-American woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet. “Jimmy Carter became president and was determined to harness the talents of all people, not just some of them,” he said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Believing that this country’s diversity is a positive thing isn’t exactly a sentiment you’d hear from, say, John Wayne, the kind of take-charge big guy for whom Americans have always shown some affection even though he carried their guns. not in war but in movies. When I see Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showing his chest in videos or Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin challenging a trucker to a fight when he’s supposed to be doing people’s business is the opposite of “manliness” on display, no matter how much he flexes his real or imagined muscles.

Jimmy Carter was authentic, a real and good man.

Mary C. Curtis has worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, as a national correspondent for Politics Daily, and is a senior facilitator for The OpEd Project. She is the host of the CQ Roll Call podcast “Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis.” Follow her on X @mcurtisnc3.