Since President Jimmy Carter passed away in December, people all over the country and the world have been considering his titanic legacy. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. also passed away last year, and while his passing was not international front-page news, the difference he made in the world has been felt just as strongly. I was a member of Pascrell’s staff at his passing, and I’m also proud to share with Carter the distinction of hailing from Georgia. Because of these connections, I’ve reflected on how people like Pascrell and Carter are essential to American democracy.
Both men exuded a powerful character and a commitment to public virtue. Americans — especially elected officials — can take important lessons from their example. Pascrell and Carter showed virtue in three main ways:
People were a priority
First, Pascrell and Carter made the people they represented their top priority. Pascrell was a high school teacher for 12 years and never forgot the lessons he learned there. In Congress, his legislative agenda put his constituents in New Jersey’s Ninth District first. He supported first responders through the FIRE Act, advanced bills to build the critical transportation infrastructure of the Garden State, and helped to establish the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. Carter knew how foreign policy centering human rights helped improve the lives of both Americans and citizens of other nations. He carried out the return of the Panama Canal and negotiated the Camp David Accords to advance global justice and American society.
Humility was a cheirshed value
Second, Pascrell and Carter showed the importance of humility among public servants. Pascrell lived in the same house in his beloved Paterson for decades. Visitors to Pascrell’s house were sometimes surprised that he hadn’t moved to a fancier abode; those who knew Pascrell’s character were not so surprised. Carter was legendarily so committed to avoiding conflicts of interest that he put his peanut farm in a blind trust before entering office.
When comparing the humility shown by Pascrell and Carter to the shamelessness shown by President-elect Donald Trump, the contrast is so sharp that it can almost go unsaid. Still, they are an important counterpoint to Trump’s narcissism and naked self-interest.
A commitment to civility
Finally, Pascrell and Carter were committed to civil discourse and building bridges between divided groups. On the floor of the House of Representatives, Pascrell was foundational to the famed Pennsylvania Corner, where Democrats and Republicans would sit together to discuss legislative compromises. Carter worked actively to bind up the nation’s racial wounds, calling for an end to “the time for racial discrimination” in his inaugural address as Georgia’s governor.
At the same time, we should not use the banner of civility to paper over the need for bold stances against the politics of cruelty. Justice Neil Gorsuch, for instance, has lamented a “civility crisis,” apparently forgetting that he opposed that goal when placing limits on First Amendment freedoms and abortion rights from the bench.
Pascrell and Carter saw straight through that facade. Pascrell knew how to reject improper consensus when he believed a bill was harmful, standing alone in committee votes as late as June. Pascrell also wasn’t afraid to call out Trump’s corruption, fighting for the release of Trump’s tax returns all the way to the Supreme Court. Carter bravely recognized “apartheid” in Palestine in 2006, years before Israel’s atrocities in the current Gaza war.
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What can we learn from Carter and Pascrell?
I was fortunate enough to meet both Pascrell and Carter. Though I had only been on Pascrell’s staff for a few months before he passed, I will always remember when we were first introduced. His handshake was firm, and I saw the fire still in his eyes. I also attended one of Carter’s legendary Sunday school lessons in 2015. I saw firsthand how both men lived out principled lives.
Beyond their lessons for us as individuals, Pascrell and Carter’s characters have lessons for our society. On one hand, a strong democracy requires a robust rule of law, supported by established institutions and written laws. On the other, it cannot function without individual virtuous leaders who respect unwritten rules and the social contract, instead of running roughshod over them. At our country’s founding, James Madison wrote that “republican government presupposes the existence” of qualities “which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence.” In contrast, Madison warned about qualities of “depravity” inspiring “circumspection and distrust.”
Too many American leaders, especially in the era of Trumpian authoritarianism, inspire circumspection and distrust. Pascrell and Carter, instead, achieved the Madisonian ideal to justify esteem and confidence. For the continued existence of our democracy, we must reject the qualities of depravity in favor of the examples of Pascrell and Carter.
Robbie Ottley, a native of Georgia, was legislative counsel for the late Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., the Paterson Democrat who represented New Jersey in Congress from 1997 until his death in August 2024.
