"Surely this is why Jimmy Carter remains the most puzzling American President in recent times. We have too often insisted on trying to understand him using the default modes of identity politics: as a white, Southern born-again Christian. But Carter was by profession and training an engineer—a disciple of the greatest and most influential engineer in the history of the U.S. Navy, Admiral Hyman Rickover. Rickover, Carter once said, had more influence on him than anyone except his parents. In his literalness, his relentless candor, his practicality, Carter was the Toyota engineer by the side of the road doggedly lecturing us on how to drive the car. Carter’s true nature is puzzling only if we remain rooted in the fantasy that the world we inherit somehow matters more than the world that we chose for ourselves—and that surrounds us, from nine to five, every working day of our adult lives."