Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”
Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”
According to the former president, Americans are now experiencing "a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors."
So what? It's not like things has turned around these last 8 years.
Narrator: "and it worked".
Every time I see a Jimmy Carter headline my heart skips… may he live forever!
correct and idc but he was the last decent american president
He was the last 100% decent US president, there has been a few mostly decent IMO. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I guess Joe Biden is mostly decent too.
I don't know about Clinton. Guy was a sex pest who hung out with Epstein.
Obama and Biden are probably decent by politician standards, with both of them earning most of their money through books, salaries, and government bonds. Biden was famously poor for a Senator. While they themselves aren't directly invested in big business and got most of their money from Labor rather than capital, they were still at the mercy of wealthy interests.
They wouldn't have been able to raise money for their campaigns or had influence in Washington without their moderate views. They overall want to support the welfare state and regulate the worst effects of capitalism, but they're pragmatic to a fault, stuck in the neoliberal mindset of the 80s and 90s, where welfare was a dirty word. They fully buy into the American mythos of hardwork paying off and meritocracy. They believe capitalism serves Americans best, but fail to realize just how much of that service was thanks to unions and limits on business.
Of course they support the American nationalism and imperialism that has contributed to many of our current problems, but they are better than Republicans. Most of their decisions are cold and evil, favoring selfish US interests, but Republicans are on a different level. They do unnecessarily cruel shit, even when it isn't the most prudent thing for America. They fuck over everybody, including Americans, so long as it helps right wingers gain power. By the time Trump came along, they weren't even serving the interests of the businesses that support them. They favor ludicrous ideas like blanket import tariffs or wars with Mexico that hurt regular people and business alike, but cynically help the party. Thanks to the leftward shift of Democratic fiscal policy from neoliberalism to standard liberalism, the don't need to work as hard to be preferable to Democrats for rich people. They can make a few shitty economic decisions so long as they deregulate and privatize hard enough.
Fuck, another essay. Oh well. Biden and Obama believe they're doing right by their country, even if they're wrong, while Republicans only want to benefit themselves, and Trump only cares for Trump.
Don't be a boot licker.
If by decent you mean "person" then dammit he's been one of the greatest presidents/people. If you mean politically, I don't think he was meant for that game. I think you need a certain level of narcissism and desire to F over regular people for the benefit of the elites. He was lacking that. What he DID do, that no one can take away from his accomplishments, is he legalized home brewing which is why American beer is now good and not crap like it was before. These home brewers became the microbrewers, which is why we have what we have now. That God for Jimmy Carter.
Man expanded parks and increased EPA (I think, on that second one, not positive), and gave the office and the position of retired president the most prestige and honor through his actions and commitment to the people of this country than it's seen in some time.
Jimmy is a role model. I pray his life is as wholesome as we believe because if that man is secretly corrupt then I may lose a lion's share of my hope.
Doesn't really matter if he was decent or not, doesn't it? If we give him the benefit of the doubt (which I don't - Carter is a war criminal just like the rest of them), it means he spent eight years in the Waffle House without being able to fix any of it. That speaks volumes as to how the political establishment in the US actually works.
Based peanut farmer.
That's one rustled Jimmy.
And Carter shares an enormous amount of blame. His deregulation of the airlines was one the single greatest catalysts for our financialized system that underpines this entire shit show.
Don't treat him as anything other than another cog in the very machine he denounces now, when it doesn't actually matter.
Fuck him.
Yup. He was the first neoliberal democrat president and his presidency was pretty shitty. On the other hand his post presidential time has been spent well, and his willingness to speak openly about this country is appreciated.
Willingness to talk truth to power only matters if you've had no power. Not when you had all the power, choose to use it to advance the goals of elites and the powerful, and screw over an entire nation.
Him regaining his "voice" now is worth nothing and people pretending otherwise is the same type of logic that allowed Dubya to be rehabilitated in the eye of public opinion.
Yes, his Habit for Humanity has helped thousands. His role as president hurt hundreds of millions. How do you justify those scales as anywhere close to being balanced, much less even being worthy of note?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.”
Carter was responding to a question from Hartmann about recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign financing like Citizens United.
Transcript:
I’ve added Carter’s statement to this list of politicians acknowledging that money controls politics.
Please let me know if you have other good examples.
(Thanks to Sam Sacks for pointing this out.)
The original article contains 104 words, the summary contains 104 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Toss in insider trading and we're pretty much screwed. We the people can't compete.
Toss in insider trading and we're pretty much screwed. We the people can't compete.
Carter, correct as usual. I am surprised to hear this though, if only because the last I heard Carter was in hospice. And that was months ago. Dude just survives.
This is an article from 8 years ago (2015)
He is, however, still alive despite being in hospice for months.
And didn't this come from research conducted at a major university, studying what bills are passed/ enacted, and which ones fail?
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B : Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens 18 September 2014
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746 Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy 17 April 2014
https://act.represent.us/sign/usa-oligarchy-research-explained/ : The US is an Oligarchy? The research Explained -
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-study : Remember that study saying America is an oligarchy? 3 rebuttals say it's wrong. 9 May 2016
"There's only one problem: Research published since then has raised serious questions about this paper, both its finding and its analysis. This is, of course, how normal science works; some academics put a finding out there, and their peers pick it apart.
But the study has become a frequently invoked piece of evidence in debates about money in politics, and the public and political debate has not kept up with the scholarly one. And the latest scholarly critiques suggest that while the rich certainly have more political influence than the middle class, ordinary Americans still win a substantial share of the time, even when the affluent oppose them."
I'm glad to see some rebuttals, AND our democracy is definitely flawed.
Ah, that makes more sense. I just skipped right over the date at the top of the article. Thanks.
This is an old article, but Carter did recently visit a peanut festival or parade of some sort. I was surprised someone in hospice was well enough to go out for a drive. The people I knew that entered hospice weren't well enough for that kind of outing except maybe the first week or so after they switched to hospice care from the regular prolong your life kind of treatment.
Hospice care just means you're expected to die within six months the last time you were evaluated.
It also means you no longer get any kind of medication or treatment meant to prolong your life, not even IVs for the last relative of mine who went through hospice. He pretty much just got pain pills and some vitamins for the last few months until his organs finally gave out on him.