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NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The quadrennial presidential election and other political activities in the United States have been manipulated by large corporations in control of money, a former governor of Minnesota said Wednesday.
Every four years, millions of American voters go to the polls to pick a president that they believe is capable of taking the helm of the country. To many, the process epitomizes democracy.
But to Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota and author of New York Times best-seller "American Conspiracies," the process is now convoluted with money.
"The two parties control the entire system. We don't really choose our president; they do, because they handpick who they are going to put forward to you to be the president," he told Xinhua.
Blasting the influence of money in politics, Ventura said corporations now control the U.S. government through campaign contributions. "In the private sector we call that bribery. You go to jail for that. But in the public sector it's the way it is done."
By one estimate, the 2016 presidential election could cost as much as 5 billion U.S. dollars, more than double the money spent in the 2012 campaign.
A third of the campaign cash has come from about 60 donations, which means the wealthiest people in America are dominating the financing of the presidential election. Local media reported that many donors are registered a limited liability corporation so that their contributions are hard to trace.
"We are fascists now because the definition of fascism is when corporations take over the government. Our Democrats and Republicans are all bought off by the corporations so therefore the corporations call the shots," Ventura said.
He called for "a revolution of the ballot box" that stops electing Democrats and Republicans. "Elect anyone else. Let's take our country back."
During the interview, Ventura never hesitated to articulate his unique and acerbic views on a host of political issues, including the U.S. Middle East policy.
"We would not care about the Middle East if they did not have oil," said Ventura, who is seen by many as a rebel and a freethinker. "It is driven by money."
"Wars are done for money and everything else is to get people believe there is an alternative reason for it: changing their government. Well, that is not our business. We shouldn't be interfering in another country's governing. That's their business," he said.
Citing the example of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he said: "We don't care who governs Iraq. What we care about is the oil that's in Iraq."
In 2003, then U.S. President George W. Bush ordered a military operation in Iraq with a vow to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country and end the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Five years later, a report on the Iraq War showed that the Bush administration misused, and in some cases disregarded, intelligence which led the nation into war.
"Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11, even the 9/11 report said it didn't. But it changes the world. It is unstable there and it's worse today than it ever was," Ventura said.
Bush and then Vice President Dick Cheney "bear total responsibility for the mess that is over there," he added.
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