‘Good man’ of US politics Jimmy Carter stands out

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be… but in the case of American politics, the circus that is the current presidential race makes us yearn for the simpler – and, dare we say, more honest times of Jimmy Carter.

The peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, served just a single term as Democratic Party president, from 1977 to 1981.

A disciplined man and committed Christian, he was never the flash politician and always emblematic of honest, hard-working “Middle America”.

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He will be remembered for being a global mediator, rights activist and elder statesman, founding the well-respected Carter Centre in 1982, to pursue his vision of world diplomacy.

His presidency included the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

He was never tainted by scandal and was only parted from his wife, Rosalynn, last year, when she died at 96.

Carter was a man of modesty and decency – traits often conspicuous by their absence in the toxic mess of our modern tech-driven world.

He was that increasingly rare “good man”.