Jimmy Carter on the American oligarchy
He was a truth-teller. We should remember what he said — and act on it.
Friends,
Today is a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at 100 years old. His funeral will take place at the Washington National Cathedral.
In a proclamation after Carter’s death, President Biden called him “a man of character, courage, and compassion.”
He was also a man of truth. One of his many remarkable abilities was a willingness to state truths about America that the public needed to hear, without regard for whom he might offend by doing so.
I came across an interview he did with Thom Hartmann on July 30, 2015. In response to Hartmann’s noting that the Supreme Court now allows “unlimited money in politics,” Carter said this:
“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.”
May we remember the truths that Jimmy Carter told us — and act to remedy them.
May we get big money out of politics.
May we end the gross inequalities of wealth and political bribery that lie at the center of America’s oligarchy.
And may former President Jimmy Carter rest in peace.
When we needed the Supreme Court to restrain the Legislative and Executive from creating a government for sale, they failed. And why is that? (Please check the vote tally by the SCOTUS on Citizens United, OK?) It's not that "Democrats and Republicans" simply found campaign finance norms to their favor. It's because REPUBLICANS game planned their oligarchic takeover of the country as far back as Lewis Powell, in bed with the billionaire class who have funded the destruction of Labor and the privatization/deregulation of America. I'm sick and tired of Democrats being given a disproportionate share of the blame for the catastrophic future we've created. They've made grave mistakes, and they've been seduced by power, but it was never their intention to distort and pervert our country's democratic tradition. But the Reaganites and their MAGA offspring have always been devoted to enriching the wealthy and polarizing the country into political dysfunction.
Thank you for Professor for memorializing President Jimmy Carter, the most decent president in American history. His legacy is even more important now in that America’s soul is under attack.