By Jon Schwarz
\nInformation Clearing House<\/p>\n
(The Intercept) — Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the United States is now an \u201coligarchy\u201d in which \u201cunlimited political bribery\u201d has created \u201ca complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.\u201d Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, \u201clook upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter was responding to a question from Hartmann about recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign financing like Citizens United.<\/p>\n
Transcript:<\/p>\n
HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, \u201cunlimited money in politics.\u201d It seems like a violation of principles of democracy. \u2026 Your thoughts on that?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s over. \u2026 The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody\u2019s who\u2019s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who\u2019s just a challenger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n