Jimmy Carter was my last president. I believe that is true for progressive civic groups, too. He actively opened up the federal government to engagement and participation from long politically excluded American activists.
When he was campaigning in 1976, he would say that he wanted to be more of a consumer advocate than I am, that he would take seriously my recommendations for his nominations to head federal regulatory agencies. Pleasing rhetoric, I thought.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Then, in August 1976, after his nomination, he invited me to Plains, Georgia, for talks and an overnight stay at his modest home. Together with his wife Rosalynn, we talked over a simple supper of black-eyed peas. The next day, I spent several hours with Carter in his study, going over what policies the civic community wanted him to pursue, what he was likely to confront in Washington and responding to his searching questions. He was taking copious notes — a good sign, I mused.
He punctuated the importance of the visit by introducing me to the attending members of the national press corps and promptly had me umpire part of the daily softball game between Carter’s campaign aides and the reporters. I left Plains with his phone number and a matter-of-fact assurance of more receptivity to come.
After his election victory over President Gerald Ford, I invited him to address a special gathering of citizen advocates in a large hotel ballroom near the White House. To my surprise, he accepted. There must have been nearly 1,000 people in the room with a dozen civic leaders on the dais. I introduced them to president-elect Carter, who then delivered remarks we all were pleased to hear.
This signal gathering, never again repeated by any president elect, did not get much media for the simple reason that reporters saw it as public relations around popular policies.
Not so. Once in office, he chose numerous civic leaders and other solid progressives to head regulatory agencies such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, among other important positions in the White House and other departments.
Furthermore, Carter took a stand behind probably the most widely opposed legislation ever by corporate lobbyists: the creation of a consumer protection agency with the authority to intervene before federal agencies and departments to champion consumer interests and, if their arguments were arbitrarily rejected, to take these agencies to court. That agency would upset the cushy, often secret relationship between federal agencies and the companies they were supposed to regulate.
The corporatists went into a frenzy of lobbying, meeting regularly in the Madison Hotel to plan each week’s anti-consumer tactics. We had the votes to create the consumer agency in the Senate, but, unfortunately, the House voted first on Feb. 7, 1978, and narrowly defeated the bill despite our efforts and those of Carter’s formidable Esther Peterson, the special White House assistant for consumer protection.
No president since has made any mention of resurrecting this vital objective of the consumer movement to institutionalize consumers’ well-being and set an example for the states to do the same. Needless to say, President Ronald Reagan shut down Carter’s consumer presence, replacing his appointments, deregulating the health, safety and economic justice agencies, and inviting a rapacious “wish list” from commercial and industrial interests. He even took down Carter’s 32 solar panels from the White House roof, reflecting his support for the fossil fuel companies.
Unfortunately, the last 18 months of Carter’s presidency witnessed punishing inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s sky-high interest rates to stop spiraling prices and increasing conservative rebellions from his own Democrats in Congress. The pressure from all these quarters and the preoccupation with the lengthy Iranian hostage crisis drained his energy from consumer protection issues.
Still, no other president since has taken our calls, met with us for serious discussions in the White House and provided more government action and information stressing that the economy, after all, must be heavily judged by its defense and advance of consumer welfare.
The expectations of the current generation of consumer advocates has never come close to expecting a president like Jimmy Carter. He gave the leadership of the Federal Trade Commission to Michael Pertschuk — the very successful staff architect for Sen. Warren Magnuson’s championing of consumer protection legislation. He placed Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook in charge of the auto safety agency, made Eula Bingham the head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Donald Kennedy head of the Food and Drug Administration, Douglas Costle the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Gus Speth to head the new Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President.
Today, consumer leaders rarely get their calls returned by the White House or the agencies, whether under Democratic or Republican control.
In all the obituaries and articles, written about the death of Jimmy Carter, there was almost no mention of his pioneering work in consumer protection. His performance needs to be front and center for both his legacy and to provide standards for both presidential campaigns that ignore consumer issues and, for sitting presidents. Presidents need to realize, as did Jimmy Carter, that “consumers” are just another name for all the American people.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and frequent candidate for president.
About the Author
