Former president Jimmy Carter denounced what he called the  legal bribery afflicting our political system, turning the presidential race into one that is influenced by a few billionaires, lobby groups, and corporate oligarchs who sponsor candidates by giving billions in exchange for influencing the candidates  policy platform. In an interview with the BBC, Carter said: The erroneous ruling of the Supreme Court, where millionaires and billionaires can put in unlimited amounts of money in to the campaign, it gives legal bribery a chance to prevail, because almost all the candidates, whether they are honest or not, Democrat or Republican, rely on these massive amounts of money in order to campaign. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZFc1QqRbbQ] President Carter has a very important point and one that should be taken into account: The democracy of the country is threatened and eroded when an elected official, especially a president, owes a handful of individuals who finance his/her presidential campaign favors.Take for example, the NRA. The NRA is a very well funded and organized lobby group that lobbies Washington officials in favor of lax guns laws. That, in turn, means easier access to guns, which translates into sales. Some people get rich as a result of gun sales, but the country collectively suffers, as has been documented, with record numbers of shootings around the country.Another example is individual donations. Republican candidate Marco Rubio s sponsor, the billionaire Norman Braman, has donated $15-25 million to Rubio s campaign. Braman is staunchly pro-Israel and has financed the building of settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and US policy condemns settlement building in the West Bank. Yet, you can bet that if Rubio should become president, Braman will cash in his chips by ensuring that Rubio goes along with Israel s illegal activities. In the end, we will continue to have a mess in the Middle Eat, which hurts the region and the United States.The bottom line is that billions of dollars are being spent by candidates to win the presidency and much of that money comes from a few individuals. The only way to change that is to create a constitutional amendment that overturns the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that allows individuals and corporations to contribute unlimited sums to political races. Until we do this, a small number of individuals and corporations will continue to exert undemocratic influence over our country. Featured image from YouTube via screenshot