End Citizens United (ECU) President Tiffany Muller issued the following statement on the passing of President Jimmy Carter:
“We are deeply saddened by the news of President Jimmy Carter’s passing.
“President Carter was the embodiment of a true American patriot. His rise from humble beginnings as the son of a peanut farmer, to his selfless service in the Navy, to becoming the 39th President of the United States, was a national inspiration. He challenged us to do better, and he led by example.
“President Carter made tremendous progress for the nation. Whether it was his opposition to racial segregation or support for the Civil Rights movement, he always strived to make our nation more just and equal. Even after his decorated career, he spoke out against the dangers of corruption and the rise of Big Money in politics. He knew that the disastrous Citizens United decision moved us further away from the ideals of our founders and the foundation of our democracy.
“President Carter’s commitment to service extended far beyond his time in office. After leaving the White House, he dedicated his life to humanitarian causes––volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for families in need and establishing the Carter Center to advance peace, health, and democracy across the world.
“President Carter left a changed country because of his life’s work, and his legacy will stand the test of time. Our thoughts are with the Carter family.”
President Carter’s Comments on Citizens United:
- “I think the most stupid decision that the Supreme Court ever made and one of the most damaging was to rule that corporations are people and that major corporations now can give unlimited supplies of money to candidates.”
- “The erroneous ruling of the supreme court, where millionaires, billionaires, can put in unlimited amounts of money, give legal bribery the chance to prevail, because all the candidates, whether they are honest or not, or whether they are Democratic or Republican, depend on these massive infusions of money from very rich people in order to have money to campaign.”
- “As the rich people finance the campaigns, when candidates get in office they do what the rich people want. And that’s to let the rich people get richer and richer and the middle class get left out. All the statistics show that the middle class are stagnant or going down in their income for the work that they do.”
- “There was a spirit of harmony there, friendship … All of these things are gone, primarily due to a stupid decision that the Supreme Court made on Citizens United and that they exacerbated this past week with another ruling … And this massive infusion of almost unrestricted money going into the political campaign, a lot of it is spent just on negative commercials to tear down the reputation of your opponent and that polarization that occurs, that didn’t exist when I ran for office.”
- “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.”
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