Ronald Regan is considered by many as one of the most influential American presidents in the last four decades. However, Carter was instrumental in how Regan ran his administration. In politics they both sought to exploit the aftermath of the civil right movement that led to "white backlash" and many white Southerners and Northerners to defect from the popular Democrats in order to support George Wallace, a former populist candidate. When his began his general election, he went to Neshoba County in 1980 and declared he believed in states' rights after white supremacists bombed a black church. Jimmy Carter spoke in a similar fashion, trying to fish votes from the "white ethnics" who did not want black people to move into their neighborhoods. In April 1976, Carter made a statement saying he saw nothing wrong with maintaining ethnic purity. From this kind of language, both presidents gained many supporters from the white ethnics and the white southerners. They were also similar when it came to foreign policy. This is because Carter from the right, attacked the Nixon-Ford administration similar to Regan, rejecting Nixon and insisting the basis for foreign policy had to stem from democracy and human rights. Carter also introduced what is called "the religious right" into the nation's politics. Furthermore, it was Carter, not Regan who had pioneered the part of fiscally conservative governor, promising to balance the budget and shrink the bureaucracy. Regan took a page from Carter as he was the one that began what would be seen in...

By the end of Carter's administration, he was able to decrease substantially unemployment. He also managed a partial decrease in the country's deficit and set the stage for the recession to end in 1983. By Carter creating the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Education, he established a country-wide energy policy that ensured development of technology and American citizens in the United States.
Aside from the departments he created, Carter also managed to pursue social security and civil service reform. He believed strongly in inclusion of human rights in foreign policy and initiated the Panama Canal Treaties. Although seen as a weak move at the time, it highlighted the administration's desire to lead versus follow. Lastly, his contributions to healthcare reform helped shape the way healthcare and employer paid insurance continued in the decades following the Carter administration.

Ronald Regan may be considered by many in the United States as an important president because his administration helped end the recession and he was recognized as the first cold war president to have an administration of eight years of continual peace and eventual prosperity. Not only was he the first to reach a deal with the Soviets in terms of arms reduction agreement, he also made it possible…