Carter often described himself as a “conservative progressive,” which he defined as being “a fiscal conservative, but quite liberal on such issues as civil rights, environmental quality, and helping people overcome handicaps to lead fruitful lives.” Carter’s fiscal conservatism was perhaps natural for a successful, sophisticated agribusinessman.
During his 1976 presidential campaign, Carter stumped on the proposition that Washington was a “confused, bloated bureaucratic mess.” If elected, he pledged to streamline government agencies and reduce spending just as he had as governor of Georgia. This was not mere campaign rhetoric that disappeared once Carter entered office. In his 1978 State of the Union address, Carter said, “Government cannot solve our problems …[or] eliminate poverty, or provide a bountiful economy, or reduce inflation, or save our cities, or cure illiteracy, or provide energy.” It was an applause line one might have expected from a stalwart conservative Republican, not a Democratic president.
Unsurprisingly, Carter’s conservatism alienated much of the Democratic left. Looking back on his presidency in 1982, one union leader remarked, “As presidents go, he [Carter] was on par with Calvin Coolidge.” It was a fitting comparison for a president who once bragged that his policies represented “the greatest change in the relationship between business and government since the New Deal.”
Carter’s conservatism ran deeper than mere rhetoric. He transformed government regulation of the economy more than any other modern president. It was Carter, not Reagan, who was the true “Great Deregulator.” Carter viewed deregulation as the solution to stagflation, the unprecedented economic challenge confronting America in the 1970s. During his presidency, inflation rose from 6.5% to 13.5%, even as unemployment reached eight percent by the time he left office. And Carter blamed excessive regulation for these economic headwinds.
Not all of his deregulatory push generated opposition from the left. Deregulation of certain industries, especially trucking and airlines, even garnered support from Carter’s most prominent liberal critic and 1980 primary challenger, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). At the 1980 Democratic Convention, Kennedy bragged that his party had “ended excessive regulation … and we restored competition to the marketplace.” Kennedy’s views angered the labor unions who had long backed him in Massachusetts, but he believed that making himself the congressional face of deregulation would improve his national, presidential appeal.
That calculus explained why Kennedy and Carter joined forces to unshackle the airline industry. Carter appointed the economist and deregulatory hawk Alfred Kahn to the Civil Aeronautics Board, which created pressure on Congress to pass Kennedy’s legislation ending government regulation of flight routes and ticket price controls.