The Nation: Jimmy Carter: Not Just Peanuts

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Cities, not states should receive revenue-sharing money, he believes, and cities should also be relieved of the costs of welfare. He says that all able-bodied people who are on welfare should be removed from the rolls and, if necessary, trained by the Labor Department for a job they can handle in the private sector. But he estimates that only 10% of relief recipients fall into that category. The rest, he believes, are unemployable and must be treated with "all the love, respect, compassion and understanding that they deserve."

A strong advocate of civil rights, Carter often says that "the passage of the civil rights acts during the 1960s was the greatest thing to happen to the South in my lifetime. It lifted a burden from the whites as well as the blacks."

Even so, Carter is opposed to "forced busing." He acknowledges that it is necessary in some cases because blacks may have no better way of establishing their right to attend all-white public schools. Once that right is affirmed, however, he thinks blacks themselves will begin to lead a movement for a voluntary busing plan similar to the one adopted in Atlanta while he was Governor. The Atlanta plan provides that any child who wants to be bused may be, so long as it does not lead to greater segregation. At the same time, no child may be bused against his will, and—most important of all—blacks must be involved at all levels of the decision-making process in the school system.

Though Carter was accused of waffling on abortion in Iowa before the first caucuses, his position is clear, if complicated. He opposes abortion and would use the bully pulpit of the presidency to discourage it. Rather generally, he says he favors federal programs that would emphasize birth control and easier adoption procedures. But, because he believes that a woman has a legal right to decide for herself, he does not favor a constitutional amendment to ban abortions. Feminists would be happier with his stand on the Equal Rights Amendment; he supports it wholeheartedly.

Foreign policy is not Carter's strong suit. A New Hampshire speech that was billed as a "major address" was largely platitudinous: if the U.S. loves the rest of the world, he seemed to say, the rest of the world will love the U.S. He supports détente in principle but echoes the complaint of many conservatives that the Soviet Union is taking advantage of it. He criticizes Henry Kissinger's penchant for secrecy, which clashes with Carter's notion of a government open to inspection by the people. He favors withdrawing American troops from Korea within the next five years and reducing U.S. forces in Western Europe.