Jimmy Carter Is Correct: The U.S. Is No Longer a Democracy
On July 28th,
Thom Hartmann interviewed former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and, at
the very end of his show (as if this massive question were merely an
aftethought), asked him his opinion of the 2010 Citizens United decision
and the 2014 McCutcheon decision, both decisions by the five Republican
judges on the U.S. Supreme Court. These two historic decisions enable
unlimited secret money (including foreign money) now to pour into U.S.
political and judicial campaigns. Carter answered:
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 being elected President. And the same thing applies to
governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members. So, now we’ve just
seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major
contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for
themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the
incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as
a great benefit to themselves. Somebody that is already in Congress has
a great deal more to sell.
He was then cut off by the program, though that statement by Carter should have been the start of the program, not its end.
(And the program didn’t end with an invitation for him to return to
discuss this crucial matter in depth — something for which he’s
qualified.)
So: was this former President’s provocative allegation merely his opinion? Or was it actually lots more than that? It was lots more than that.
Only a single empirical study has actually been done in the social
sciences regarding whether the historical record shows that the United
States has been, during the survey’s period, which in that case was
between 1981 and 2002, a democracy (a nation whose leaders represent the
public-at-large), or instead an aristocracy (or ‘oligarchy’) — a nation
in which only the desires of the richest citizens end up being
reflected in governmental actions.
This study was titled “Testing Theories of American Politics,” and it was published by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page in the journal Perspectives on Politics,
issued by the American Political Science Association in September 2014.
I had summarized it earlier, on 14 April 2014, while the article was
still awaiting its publication.
The headline of my summary-article was “U.S. Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy Says Scientific Study.” I reported:
“The clear finding is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, no
democratic country, at all. American democracy is a sham, no matter how
much it’s pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control
the nation’s ‘news’ media).”
