Ever Meet a Jimmy Carter Republican?

Carter's presidency was an instance of uniform partisan swing: attitudes about him were negative among just about every group.

A recent assessment of the Carter Presidency by Tyler Cowen reminded me that, in 1980, I and just about all my friends hated Jimmy Carter.  Most of us much preferred him to Reagan but still hated Carter.  I wouldn't associate this with any particular ideological feeling--it's not that we thought he was too liberal, or too conservative.  He just seemed completely ineffectual.  I remember feeling at the time that he had no principles, that he'd do anything to get elected.

In retrospect, I think of this as an instance of uniform partisan swing:  the president was unpopular nationally, and attitudes about him were negative, relatively speaking, among just about every group.

My other Carter story comes from a conversation I had a couple years ago with an economist who's about my age, a man who said that one reason he and his family moved from town A to town B in his metropolitan area was that, in town B, they didn't feel like they were the only Republicans on their block.

Anyway, this guy described himself as a "Jimmy Carter Republican."

Me:  You mean you liked Carter's policies on deregulation?

Him:  No.  I mean that Jimmy Carter made me a Republican.