If you were around for his presidency and the aftermath, like I was, the viral phenomenon from a new generation is especially interesting, because the memories of lots of liberals with enormous dislike of him and his presidency are still strong.

Now here's a current liberal lefty:

His Why is this not the first sentence of every history book? is a very good and revealing question!

I would first answer: in the Carter era, northern liberal types hated the military, hated white southerners and their culture, hated Christianity of exactly the type Carter practiced, and hated nuclear energy, so a nuclear engineer would not be a great resume.

And then there was a general dislike of exactly the kind of disciplined personality like Carter had. No fun, a ramrod spine type.

Furthermore, NOBODY LIBERAL LIKED SUPERHEROS! They would be ashamed to admit they liked them in comics as a kid. This brings out that the adult superhero fan is a strikingly new thing! Back then if you were a cool adult, the only comics you liked were counterculture by Robert Crumb types!

Many not present as adults then don't seem to realize that Jimmy Carter was picked as a presidential candidate because he attracted the swing voter of the day: southern, conservative, pro-military. It was actually a very shocking thing at the time to have such a southern type head the Democratic party, and he was certainly not considered "liberal".

So in a way HE WAS the first sentence of the history books at the time, he was picked exactly because he had that appeal: a southern "down home" folks person, not liberal, and an American military superhero type.