Former President Jimmy Carter made an important statement on the Thom Hartmann radio program July 27. Asked about the effects of the Citizens United and McCutcheon Supreme Court decisions that have opened the political process up to unlimited secret campaign contributions, Carter said the United States is becoming an oligarchy. Hear his comments here.
Here is the text of the exigent part of the interview.
HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, “unlimited
money in politics.” It seems like a violation of principles of
democracy. … Your thoughts on that?
CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country
in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited
political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for
president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to
governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen
a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major
contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for
themselves after the election’s over. … The incumbents, Democrats and
Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to
themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell
to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger.
This follows a recent New York Times story
that found more than half the $388 million raised by the Republican
candidates for president in June came from just 130 families and their
businesses.
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