A person points upward while members of the public view the flag-draped casket of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as he lies in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, U.S., January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Jon Cherry
Today is a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at 100 years old. His funeral will take place at the Washington National Cathedral.
In a proclamation after Carter’s death, President Biden called him “a man of character, courage, and compassion.”
He was also a man of truth. One of his many remarkable abilities was a willingness to state truths about America that the public needed to hear, without regard for whom he might offend by doing so.
I came across an interview he did with Thom Hartmann on July 30, 2015. In response to Hartmann’s noting that the Supreme Court now allows “unlimited money in politics,” Carter said this:
“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 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. …
The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger.”
May we remember the truths that Jimmy Carter told us — and act to remedy them.
May we get big money out of politics.
May we end the gross inequalities of wealth and political bribery that lie at the center of America’s oligarchy.
And may former President Jimmy Carter rest in peace.
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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