....What could be more important in the quest for human rights than free and fair elections by the people? Former president Jimmy Carter agrees. He has put boots on the ground to back up that belief, having monitored 100 elections in 38 different countries during his remarkable post-presidential life of humanitarian service.
From this perspective, President Carter is eminently qualified to say, as he does, that we no longer have free and fair elections here in the United States.
"There is no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million . . . . We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy . . . . the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've seen in my life."
Oprah Winfrey's interview with President Carter will be aired Sunday, Sept. 27th at 7 pm (EST) on the OWN network.
In a different interview with Thom Hartmann in July, Carter expanded on his concern about what's happened in our election system:
"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 nomination 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."
Republicans think the answer to "making America great again" lies in returning to the past. My concept of what's good about the past and how to restore it would have at the top of the list: getting the insane and obscene influence of money out of our politics and governance.
I don't think that's what the Republicans have in mind.
Ralph
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