Not Just Peanuts

The elections that follow turbulent periods in the presidency are always interesting. The election of 1976 followed the chaos of the Watergate scandal and the general public had trust issues with the government. The election was between incumbent president Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, governor of Georgia.

Carter had an interesting approach to the election. Before the election process started, including primaries, Carter was virtually unknown outside of Georgia. He didn’t let this stop him though. He aggressively campaigned before the primaries, even before other candidates declared that they were going to run. By the time primaries came around, Carter was easily selected as the Democratic candidate.

Carter’s lack of a name in national politics made him an excellent candidate for presidency because it gave him distance from the Watergate scandal and the conflict in Vietnam. Although Ford was clean of Watergate as well, his name was still connected to Vietnam. Carter provided a clean slate for the government to recover on and heralding the candidate were two slogans: “A Leader, For a Change” and “Not Just Peanuts.”

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“A Leader, For a Change” was a pretty straight forward slogan. The line pretty much told the public that Carter would fix the mess the government had created. There are two basic ways to interpret the slogan. First, Carter is a leader opposed to those who came before him. Second, Carter “when he is president” will bring about changes. This was a unique aspect to Carter’s campaign promises. They began with “when I am president” instead of “if I am elected president.” This combined with the slogan shows that Carter was serious about his bid for presidency.

“Not Just Peanuts” is one of the more memorable presidential slogans. This line is unique to Carter because it links to his farmer origins. Before becoming involved in politics, Carter had grown peanuts, building his farm from nothing. The slogan gives a shout out to his roots (literally… peanuts grow in the ground… not sorry) and depicts him as a common farmer who has worked his way to the national politic scene. But, the slogan also states that he isn’t just peanuts; he has more than farming knowledge. Carter had served in the navy aboard nuclear submarines and in politics as senator and governor for Georgia.

Attempts to market a candidate as being a common man have been used across campaigns beginning in the 1800’s. Famous examples include Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln who used their location of birth (log cabins) as a major selling point. The key behind these successes is that it make the candidate more relatable. The America public continues to look for people who they can trust and this trust is often found amongst peers.

Additionally, a curious possibility that I thought of while looking at this slogan is that it is trying to validate Carter’s pursuit of presidency. If you look closely, the slogan is one syllable off of “not just nuts.” Realistically, Carter’s campaign was a little crazy in the sense that he catapulted himself from being almost unknown in national politics to the presidency.