Jimmy Carter on Power

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- [Carter] The fact that a person

has deep religious convictions
doesn't necessarily mean

that person always
thinks that he's right,

that God's ordained him to
take a dominant position.

Although I have prayed a good bit, and do,

I've never asked God
to let me be President.

- [Moyers] Just to win
the nomination? (laughter)

- [Carter] I've never asked God to let me

win a single nomination.

Never.

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- [Moyers] Why not be
a pastor or a bishop,

and not a President?

- [Carter] (laughs) You've read my book.

This came up early in my life.

You know, I got home from the Navy,

and I was thinking about
running for the Georgia Senate.

We had a visiting pastor,
and he was giving me

a hard time about going into politics.

He said, "It's a disgraceful
profession, stay out of it."

I got angry, and I turned to
him and kind of lashed back.

I said, "How would you like to be a pastor

"of a church with 80,000 members?"

Because there were 80,000 people

in this state Senate district.

I don't look on the
Presidency as a pastorate.

- [Moyer] I was going to
ask you if the President

was a pastor of 230 million.

- [Carter] No, although
Teddy Roosevelt said

that it's a bully-pulpit.

But, no, I don't look on it
with religious connotations.

But it gives me a chance to serve,

and it also gives me a chance to magnify

whatever influence I have,
either for good or bad,

and I hope it will be for the good.

- [Moyer] Gives you power, too.

- [Carter] And power.

- [Moyer] You have been
searching for power

for the last ten years.

- [Carter] Well, I can't deny it.

- [Moyer] Do you need power?

- [Carter] Well, I think so.

Not as an unfulfilled,
all-obsessive hunger, no.

I feel powerful enough
now, and secure enough now,

wealthy enough now.

I have a good family life now.

But I like to have a chance to

change things that I don't like,

and to correct inequities
as I discern them,

and to be a strong spokesman
for those that are not strong.

So, I can't deny that one of the purposes

that I want to be President
is to have power, yes.

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I remember that when I was a small child,

my life was spent in
a fairly isolated way,

out in the woods and in the
streams and swamps and fields.

Plains was the nearest
town, population of 600.

We didn't have electricity
or running water,

but we didn't suffer.

I led a sheltered life.

My mom and my daddy were always there.

Home was always a haven.

I didn't have but one desire,

or aspiration that I can remember,

and that is going to the Naval Academy.

Nobody in my father's family had ever

finished high school before I did.

I put into commission, as a
pre-commission crew chief,

the first ship the Navy
built after the Second War

and then I went in the first
nuclear submarine program.

You know, the choice
jobs in the whole Navy.

Then my father had terminal cancer,

and I had to go home to be with him

about the last month of his life.

I hadn't seen him since
I was about 17 years old.

This was ten, twelve years later.

- [Moyer] Did you regret
that those last eleven years

of your father's life you had really

not been in close touch with him?

- [Carter] Well, I would like,
obviously, in retrospect,

to have been more with my father.

I never thought he would die so young,

but I've never regretted a
day that I served in the Navy.

That was an opportunity
for me that paid off

and I had a chance to travel extensively.

I read and studied everything

from music, drama, art, and so forth.

I stretched my mind,
had a great challenge,

and I never had any regret.

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- [Moyer] Do you think
this is a just society?

- [Carter] No, no, I don't.

I think one of the major
responsibilities I have

as a leader and as a potential leader

is to try to establish justice

and that applies to a
broad gamut of things:

international affairs, peace, equality,

elimination of injustice in tax programs,

in our criminal justice
system and so forth.

It's not a crusade.

It's just common sense.

There's only one person in this nation

that can speak with a clear
voice to the American people.

There's only one person
that can set a standard

of ethics and morality and
excellence and greatness

or call on the American
people to make a sacrifice,

or answer difficult questions,

or propose and carry out bold programs,

or to provide for a defense posture

that would make us feel secure,

a foreign policy that would
make us proud once again,

and that's the President.

In the absence of that leadership,
there is no leadership,

and the country drifts.

So strong President, yes,
but an autocratic President,

or an imperial Presidency, no.

- [Moyer] You think that day's over?

- [Carter] Yes, it's over.

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- [Moyer] What do you
want for your children

that you didn't have?

- [Carter] Well, I have to say that I had

almost everything that
I could have needed.

I worked hard when I was a little child,

but I'm proud of It.

I lived in an isolated area
when I was a little child,

but I’m proud of it.

I had a stability there.

When things started going
wrong in my own life,

my mother and father were there,

and my sisters and brothers were there,

my church was there and
my community was there.

That never did change.

Never has changed, yet.

In the modern day world,
you don't have that.

It's a mobile world and things to cling to

are kind of scarce and
few and far between.

I wouldn't swap the life I had

for the new, modern, fast-moving,

open, non-structured, minimal family life.

Which Is best, I don't know.

We can keep the advantages
of the modern world,

but going back to those
principles that give stability

are things that we're still searching for.

We haven't found them yet.

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