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."
I still don’t understand how lobbying is legal. Like, it’s straight up bribery.
Because the people who decide what is legal are the people who benefit from it.
The lobbying is not the problem. The donations that sway opinions are the problem. If it was entirely unrelated to donations and the congress person was just hearing out all sides of an issue, that's a good thing.
Donations aren't to sway opinion they're to maintain a stock of dependent politicians who already agree with your position but who also need your funding to stay in office
Which will happen when hell freezes over
Edit- not saying you're not wrong though
If you ever called or wrote a letter to your congress person about an issue you cared about you were a lobbyist when you did that.
The problem is not lobbying, the problem is pay-for-play. Something like 80%-90% of candidates who spend the most money end up winning their election. Our politicians are owned by wealthy corporate interests who fund their elections. The solution is to get money — especially corporate money — out of politics.
There are a number of policy proposals that might limit the power of money in our politics, federally funded elections, regulations for how much air time each candidate gets, perhaps bring back the fairness doctrine, just to name a few.
The "tea party"/freedom caucus are literally groups funded by the Koch brothers. The entire "movement" existed because they willed it to be with their money.
"Americans for prosperity" is Koch manipulating politics through who they fund to run.
In theory, it's partially meant to educate politicians who cannot be experts on everything in a world where information exponentially grows, but this system has clearly been intentionally used to abuse power.
I think politician should be under 24 hour stream.
id love to see them all going to the bathroom 😁
Read about Citizens United please
If lobbying were illegal, that would mean all of the organizations that fight for justice lose their voices too.
Lobbying isn't bribery, it's persuasion
Money ≠ speech. Now go back to bed, Mr. McConnell
No it just means they use their voices not money
Its extremely obvious. "Oh, these? These aren't bribes. They're uh, free speech! Yeah! And companies speak in money so this is their free-"
Shut the fuck up.What are bribes? You mean lobbying? Totally different thing, look, the words have totally different letters!
Citizens United is one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Its absolute evil. I can't believe us citizens haven't burned it to the ground in a fit of rage. Its blatant fucking bribery. I'm seein' red just typing this post.
"Why are there bribes coming out of your Congress and Supreme Court, Seymour?"
"Uh! ...Ohh, those aren't bribes! It's speech! Speech from the free speech we're having. Mmmm, free speech!"
door slams "Phew"...🏃♂️🎼🎵🎵🎵🎶
We didn’t deserve Carter. We still don’t. He’s a better category of human than nearly all of the politicians we have at the moment.
That is why the Democratic party drastically changed its primary rules after Carter was elected (to make them less democratic, and to give establishment elite party members more power).
They tried to tighten the collar on the public even more when Occasio-Cortez primaried an establishment Democrat.
The left-wing of the Democratic Party, including President Jimmy Carter, are the red-haired stepchildren of the party, and they'll never let us forget it.
There are more secret fascists than it appears who will Hail Hydra when Secret Hitler makes his appearance.
clearly he's old enough to run again.
I agree with what is being said in the article. However, I have seen an uptick of articles older than 2 years being posted as "recent news" or "breaking news". This article is from 2015 and while it is pretty accurate, especially in these times, something from 8 years ago should be noted as such.
Seriously. This is political discussion, but not news (current events).
Man. The guy can grow peanuts, build thousands of houses, kick cancer's ass, and is brilliantly insightful.
No wonder he lost reelection. He's competent. I'm kinda shocked he won in the first place. We didn't deserve him, and we still don't.
Well, between that and Reagan and Iran Hostage Crisis.
That and his own party turned against him when it became apparent he cared more about the country than their profits
Carter put solar panels on the White House roof. Reagan took them off because he was beholden to the fossil fuel industry. And now look at the planet.
Pretty much everything Regan touched turned to shit
It's a feudal system of corporate lords with a priesthood of economists, politicians, and lawyers.
We know.
Jimmy Carter is a fucking legend
Looking at Russia, I can approximate that in next 20 years more yong people will participate in politics and get elected.
Boy I hope so
And yet people will still get upset at you, if you express any viewpoint not in line with a party line. Guess the oligarchs are winning.
true OG
Too bad this guy wasn't in a position to do anything about that back when that started happening.
That was sarcasm
I think people really overestimate the power that the president has, realistically when it comes to these sweeping systematic changes the only thing the president has is veto power. Otherwise you just have to hope that everyone else in congress and the supreme court do what you want them to do
I think people really overestimate the power that the president has
Yeah, the billionaires are the ones who really run everything
It's hard to change a system when everybody else in that system wants you gone.
That was sarcasm
You can use
/s
Yeah, that's true. I also remember a time when the CIA was doing their dirty work down in South America while Jimmy Carter was in office. Dude isn't as great as everybody thinks he is
Pretty sure the CIA will CIA no matter who is in the White House.
Perfection is the enemy of good
Dude sold his company before becoming president. More ethics to this one than you've given credit.
Jimmy Carter may have not have been a great president and the US government may have sone some shitty things while he was in charge, but he is probably the most upstanding American president of the last half century. Pretty much everyone after (with maaaybe the exception of Obama) has been of lesser character.
Which, now that I’ve written it out, sounds really sad. The best the country could do was Jimmy Carter, who … wasn’t great.
I'd love to know which president had the CIA stop everything they were doing.
What was his name... I can't think of it...
The president doesn't control every government branch like a marionette puppeteer 😅
I'm an idiot, so I don't know if this is a sensible take. However, coming from a place of political strategy, I'm not sure a lot of presidents can out-maneuver military much. Presidents have term limits and military personnel don't. Both for understandable reasons to be clear. However, it sets up a dynamic where one knows the ins and outs like the back of their hand and the other is like a substitute teacher with a class full of CIA operatives.
Seems reasonable