Democratic Quotes - Page 36

• Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

  Harry S. Truman

  Government, Presidential, Democracy

  Quoted in Merle Miller, Plain Speaking (1974). This from the man who presided over the creation of CIA.

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• A democratic public forms when citizens gather together to deliberate and make public judgments about local and national issues that affect their lives. By associating together for public discussion, citizens learn the skills necessary for the health of a democratic public; listening persuading, arguing, compromising, and seeking common ground. When these skills are nurtured within the institutions of a democratic public, citizens educate themselves in order to make informed political decisions.

  Kevin Mattson

  Order, Skills, Issues

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• In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man becomes rarer: the bond of human affections is extended and loosened.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Democracy, Affection

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.483, University of Chicago Press

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• I knew that however bad the Republican party was, the Democratic party was much worse. The elements of which the Republican party was composed gave better ground for the ultimate hope of the success of the colored mans cause than those of the Democratic party.

  Frederick Douglass

  Party, Elements, Causes

  Frederick Douglass (2012). “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, p.407, Courier Corporation

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• I will call not just on Israel, but on the Palestinians, on the Arab States, and the international community to join us in this effort, because the burden of making hard choices must not be Israel’s alone.

  Barack Obama

  Commitment, Israel, America

  Barack Obama's speech at the AIPAC Policy Conference at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 22, 2011.

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• What is true, just, and beautiful is not determined by popular vote. The masses everywhere are ignorant, short-sighted, motivated by envy, and easy to fool. Democratic politicians must appeal to these masses in order to be elected. Whoever is the best demagogue will win. Almost by necessity, then, democracy will lead to the perversion of truth, justice and beauty.

  Hans-Hermann Hoppe

  Beauty, Beautiful, Truth

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• Virtually everywhere in the world, people still wake up and want their country to be more like the United States than any other nation. We are the envy of the world because of what we stand for and how our democratic process, flawed as it may often seem to be, operates. We should take pride in that.

  Eliot Spitzer

  Country, Pride, People

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• Michelle, I love you. The other night, I think the entire country saw just how lucky I am. Malia and Sasha, you make me so proud…but don't get any ideas, you're still going to class tomorrow. And Joe Biden, thank you for being the best Vice President I could ever hope for.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Morning, Love You

  Barack Obama's Speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, abcnews.go.com. September 6, 2012.

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• [M]y mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone. And while she may be proud of me tonight, I've got to tell you, Mom, I'm even more proud of you. Thank you, Mom.

  Julian Castro

  Mom, Mother, Rights

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• Our parents taught us to love God, love our family and love our country. Their own grandparents were immigrants. Their first language may not have been English, but the hopes and dreams they had for their children were purely American.

  Martin O'Malley

  Dream, Country, Children

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• Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys...Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandma's house...and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn't stay awake for both.

  Michelle Obama

  Soccer, Mom, Grandma

  Michelle Obama's Speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, www.npr.org. September 4, 2012.

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• It shone on everyone, whether they had a contract or not. The most democratic thing I'd ever seen, that California sunshine.

  Angela Carter

  Sunshine, California, Contracts

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• The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice.

  W. H. Auden

  Practice, Justice, Politics

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• What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority.

  Walter Lippmann

  Hymns, Majority, Minorities

  Walter Lippmann (2003). “Men of Destiny (Ppr)”, p.56, Transaction Publishers

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• In any case, [y]ou can't teach a monkey to speak and you can't teach an Arab to be democratic. You're dealing with a culture of thieves and robbers. Muhammad, their prophet, was a robber and a killer and a liar. The Arab destroys everything he touches.

  Moshe Feiglin

  Liars, Thieves, Culture

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• You can't teach a monkey to speak and you can't teach an Arab to be democratic.

  Moshe Feiglin

  Monkeys, Speak, Teach

  "Among the Settlers" by Jeffrey Goldberg, www.newyorker.com. May 31, 2004.

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• The Soviet transition to a new political structure shows that the Soviet strategists are thinking, planning and acting in broad terms, way beyond the imagination of Western politicians. For this reason Western politicians cannot grasp the fact that the Soviet intention is to win by 'democratic' means. Through transition to a new system, the Soviets are revitalising their own people and institutions, and they are succeeding. Contrary to Western belief, they are holding their ranks together.

  Anatoliy Golitsyn

  Mean, Winning, Thinking

  "The Perestroika Deception: Memoranda to the Central Intelligence Agency". Book by Anatoliy Golitsyn, 1995.

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• So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat.

  Toby Keith

  Thinking, Important, Bills

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• This isn't the Democratic party of our fathers and grandfathers. This is the party of Woodstock hippies. I was at Woodstock--I built the stage. And when everything fell apart, and people were fighting for peanut butter sandwiches, it was the National Guard who came in and saved the same people who were protesting them. So when Hillary Clinton a few years ago wanted to build a Woodstock memorial, I said it should be a statue of a National Guardsman feeding a crying hippie.

  John Ratzenberger

  Father, Hippie, Party

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• I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace ... By suppressing Jews ... he was ending struggle in Germany.

  Gertrude Stein

  Struggle, Mean, Elements

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• As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.

  Barack Obama

  Struggle, Pride, Men

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• I think the Democratic Party has the chronic problem of appearing to be weak, of not standing and fighting for what it believes in, not fighting for its own.

  James Carville

  Party, Believe, Fighting

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• Truth is relative. Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you're smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That's why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.

  James Carville

  Truth, Smart, Believe

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• The voter is basically dumb and lazy. The reason I became a Democratic operative instead of a Republican was because there were more Democrats that didn’t have a clue than there were Republicans.

  James Carville

  Dumb, Lazy, Voters

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• It is no longer simply the merchant prince, or the aristocratic monopoly, or even the employing class, that is exploiting the world: it is the nation, a new democratic nation composed of united capital and labor.

  Howard Zinn

  Class, World, Monopoly

  Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.323, Pan Macmillan

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