American Politics Quotes

If we do with Latinos what we did with African-Americans, Republicans and conservatives will be doomed. ~ Karl Rove

There have always been hucksters, cranks and populists who see a brief rise in American politics, going back to William Jennings Bryan at the turn of the century. The body politic has a way of expelling these invaders. ~ Joseph Rago

They only trusted the wisdom of people brighter and more worldly than themselves when it was expressed in the vocabulary and style of rural idiots. In his guise as Brazenydol, he had once had a contract with DARPA to teach a team of physicists the basic terminology of tractor pulls so that they could give an acceptable explanation of omniwavelength stealth to a Congressional committee that didn't understand tractor pulls, either. ~ John Barnes

Many of the pathologies that run through the carceral state also run through American politics today. They include the unwarranted reverence for nonpartisanship at all costs, the uncritical acceptance of neoliberalism in all aspects of public policy, the stranglehold that economic and financial interests exert on politics and policy-making, the growing political and economic disenfranchisement of wide swaths of the population, and the gross limitations of oppositional strategies formed primarily around identity-based politics. ~ Marie Gottschalk

In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like having a big right hand in boxing; you've always got a puncher's chance. ~ Matt Taibbi

We're getting the sort of 'compromise' American politics specializes in: the one where things are intentionally made worse for most people in the hopes that if things are made bad enough, the other side will cave. ~ Alex Pareene

Reagan "has conducted an arms race on earth," boomed Mondale. A race generally implies two parties. The Soviets contributed a little bit to this problem, if Mondale had not noticed. ~ Hugh Sidey

Affirming belief that America is an exceptional nation has become a test of patriotism in American politics. ~ Michael Ignatieff

I am a Conservative: Barack Obama is the Hans Gruber of American politics. #caring ~ Kurt Schlichter

My biggest objection to Fox News, I say, is not the scaremongering, it's the way it's reshaped the Republican party. It will misrepresent social and economic issues, and promote the more extreme elements of the party, politicians such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, in a way that is hugely detrimental to American politics. (For the record, Rupert Murdoch disagrees, and last year claimed that Fox News "absolutely saved" the Republican party.) "Watching these channels all day is incredibly depressing," says Stewart. "I live in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don't get turd lung disease. ~ Anonymous

I wish that all Americans would realize that American politics is world politics. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~ Charles Krauthammer

If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in, there's something wrong with American politics. ~ Edna Ferber

Do you realize that at the moment we have Barry Goldwater fighting the Moral Majority, with The New York Times rooting for Goldwater? Times have changed. ~ William A. Rusher

Mike Pence, the most anti-science religious fundamentalist in Washington, is now in charge of America's biggest science project ever: finding a cure for the coronavirus. I think we all better start praying. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

Nobody in a leadership level in American politics is trying to inspire the American people. Everybody needs to be goosed. The vast majority of people are not self-starters. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Tomorrow, I'm going to a soup kitchen in Mobile. I think that will symbolize the insensitivity of this administration to human needs. ~ Walter F. Mondale

When it comes to giving tax breaks to the wealthy of this country, the President has a heart of gold. ~ Tip O'Neill

In addition to the decline in competition, American politics today is characterized by a growing ideological polarization between the two major political parties. ~ Thomas E. Mann

A revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.

[Report to the United States Senate on his trip to Latin America and the Alliance for Progress, May 9-10 1966] ~ Robert F. Kennedy

Our political solar system, in short, has been characterized not by two equally competing suns, but by a sun and a moon. It is within the majority party that the issues of any particular period arc fought out; while the minority party shines in reflected radiance of the beat thus generated .... Each time one majority sun sets and a new sun arises, the drama of American politics is transformed. Figuratively and literally a new political era begins. For each new majority party brings its own orbit of conflict, its own peculiar rhythm of ethnic antagonisms, its own economic equilibrium, its own sectional balance. ~ Samuel Lubell

I will say that I think Israel enjoys strong bipartisan support in the United States. It's really above and beyond American politics. ~ Benjamin Netanyahu

In the high-octane, low responsibility world of American politics it was better to be seen as crazy than weak. ~ Richard Peters

Of course, I may go into a strange bedroom every now and then that I don't want you to write about, but otherwise you can write everything. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

The reason he [Jimmy Carter] says he never lies is because he thinks the truth originates with him. ~ Lester Maddox

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. ~ Charles Krauthammer

'Politico Magazine' listed me among the top 50 'thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics' for my work in coalitions advancing net neutrality. ~ Marvin Ammori

Things happen in American politics in the political center. If the President will meet us in the center, there are things we can accomplish. ~ Mitch McConnell

I think Ralph Nader is the biggest liar in American politics when he said it didn't matter who was president. ~ James Carville

What America needs is character - a character, bright enough to shine over a whole community - a character burning with love, passion and purity - a character free from all sorts of sectarianism, be it religious, political or atheistic. ~ Abhijit Naskar

I had a new idea on the way to this meeting this morning, but that doesn't mean we should put it in the platform. ~ Michael D. Barnes

The President is aware of what is going on. That is not to say that something is going on. ~ Ron Ziegler

American politics are normally a result of pragmatic and not philosophical reasoning. No one in Washington has said we now prefer multilateralism. ~ Henry A. Kissinger

The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems. ~ Eric Alterman

I'm convinced Mr. Reagan would never be elected- I don't think his views are held by a majority of the American people ... it's the Republican party that's going to be committing suicide by nominating candidates of that genre. ~ John Anderson

Public life in this country is too damn dominated by people who'd read more if only their lips didn't get so tired. ~ Markham Shaw Pyle

Press critics worry that the rise of media polarization threatens the foundation of credible, common information that American politics needs to thrive. ~ John Harwood

We American's are the example of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We vote Republican; again buying the line that they are deficit hawks and, when in power, they both feast on our blood and treasure and stuff their coffers with sweat literally from our brows.

Again, fed up, we elect Democrats and they repair what the Republicans purposely and yet strategically managed to do. Then, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes with renewed youth, the Republican deficit hawks emerge; spoon feeding us the same old bullshit until we bend to their will. We, in turn, vote them to power and, yet again, the ravenous lot feeds.

This year...this era, however, they're governing like Kamikaze pilots, not giving one bit of damn about either public opinion nor their place in government. I believe that they see the writing on the wall and, with much fervor, are seeking to grab everything they can get their greedy little hands on.

Will we ever get off this hamster wheel, my fellow Americans? ~ A.K. Kuykendall

Hart is still like that little tub of vaguely milklike gunk that comes with airline coffee. It is labeled a "nondairy" product. Fine: we know what is is non, but what is it? ~ George Will

The American people aren't overtaxed. The government in Washington is overfed. The main difference between ourselves and the other side is: we see an America where every day is the Fourth of July. They see an America where every day is April 15. ~ Ronald Reagan

Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many. ~ James McGreevey

A wise nation should cultivate a political spirit that allows opponents to cooperate without fearing an automatic execution from their core supporters. Who knew that the real rogues in American politics would be the ones who dare to get along? ~ Jon Meacham

You know when I first thought I might have a chance? When I realized that you could go into any bar in the country and insult Lyndon Johnson and nobody would punch you in the nose. ~ Eugene McCarthy

In American politics, 'Europe' is usually a code word for 'big government.' ~ James Surowiecki

American politics, like most things, is a story of what statisticians describe as the reversion to the mean. ~ David Ignatius

The difference between a dictator and a true leader, is in intention. Given enough resources anybody can manipulate the minds of the masses and become their chosen authority, for the masses rarely look past the veil of the candidate's charm. And this is more evident today than ever, as a psychologically unfit misogynistic bully has swayed his way into the oval office with nothing but charm and charisma. So, basically we live in a society where a bully can become the authority of a great nation, the history of which is filled with true leaders who were the forerunners of humanitarian glory and real progress - these leaders were not simply the leaders of a country, or a party, but they were and still remain in the heart of the civilized humans as the leaders of humanity. They were the torch-bearers of egalitarianism and their light spread across the globe and touched countless lives with the warmth of humaneness. They lived among the masses but they didn't let the prejudices of the masses become their own, let alone infect the masses with more prejudices, unlike today's so-called leadership in America. They made America truly a great nation, by turning it into a symbol of liberty and acceptance, and today that very greatness is at stake, as the primitive evils of prejudices and discriminations have once again begun to creep into its backbone, through the words and actions of its very so-called leader. This is not a threat to democracy, for democracy itself at our current evolut ~ Abhijit Naskar

But I also want to change the dynamics of this debate, which has kept us gridlocked into positions which caused people to shoot at abortion clinics and other Americans to view it as the only issue in American politics, ... There are areas we can agree on ... We need to work together to eliminate abortion. ~ John McCain

Gary Hart is going to be all over the political spectrum fuzzing it up just like Jack Kennedy. ~ Robert Novak

There are two factors in American politics that may seem strange to Europeans: race and religion. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Politically Incorrect was the name of the show Bill Maher hosted in the 1990s. It's also an apt description of the man himself. Now host of
HBO's hit show Real Time, I find Maher to be one of the sharpest observers of American politics and life in general out there. It doesn't mean I always agree with him. I always find him funny, though. ~ Fareed Zakaria

American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free. ~ Bob Schieffer

[Facism] that incredibly loaded word we do not associate with the real American politics is being used by other conservatives, by other Republicans to talk about Donald Trump. ~ Rachel Maddow

Conspiracy theories abound in American politics. I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs. ~ George W. Bush

He [Jimmy Carter] says his lust is in his heart. I hope it's a little lower. ~ Shirley Maclaine

I've often thought that the gauntlet of American politics is more individualistic, more expensive, more unpredictable than in many other democracies. ~ Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama has brought glamour back to American politics - not the faux glamour-by-association of campaigning with movie stars or sailing with the Kennedys, but the real thing. The candidate himself is glamorous. Audiences project onto him the personal qualities and political positions they want in a president. ~ Virginia Postrel

Until Americans can overcome this idealization of law, until they begin to see that law is, like other institutions and actions, to be measured against moral principles, against human needs, we will remain a static society in a world of change, a society deaf to the rising cries for justice- and therefore,a society in serious trouble."
Added a quotation: "The realities of american politics, it turns out, are different than as described in old civic textbooks, which tell us how fortunate we are to have the ballot. The major nominees for president are not chosen by the ballot, but are picked for us by a quadrennial political convention which is half farce, half circus, most of whose delegates have not been instructed by popular vote. For months before the convention, the public has been conditioned by the mass media on who is who, so that it will not be temped to think beyond that list which the party regulars have approved."
Added a quotation: "I do not think civil disobedience is enough; it is a way of protest, but in itself it does not construct a new society. There are many other things that citizens should do to begin to build a new way of life in the midst of the old, to live the way human beings should live- enjoying the fruits of the earth, the warmth of nature and of one another-without hostility, without the artificial separation of religion, or race, or nationalism. Further, not all forms of civil disobedience are moral; not all are effective."
Added a ~ Howard Zinn

I'm completely fascinated with American politics because I think they dictate the politics of every nation of the Western world. So, it's very interesting to follow what's going on over here. ~ Nikolaj Arcel

We've had periods of meanness in American politics. Actually, the dawn of partisan division in America was basically in George Washington's second term, when it was obvious that he would be the first and only consensus president. ~ William J. Clinton

Are you attracted by his new ideas or his new poll ratings? ~ Pat Buchanan

If Jefferson seemed predestined to tell people what they wanted to hear, Adams now acknowledged that his own destiny was just the opposite: to tell them what they needed to know. ~ Joseph J. Ellis

Is there decency left in American politics? ~ Byron Dorgan

There is more to American politics than fat cats and their political friends. There are serious-minded liberals who fight the good fight on many issues, ecologically oriented politicians who remain true to their cause, and honest people of every political stripe who are not beholden to any wealthy people. But there are not enough of them, and they are often worn down by the constant pressure from lobbyists, lawyers and conventional politicians. ~ G. William Domhoff

It seems to me there are good deficits and bad deficits. Now, we have a deficit that comes from the militarization of our society and our policy and our approach to the global arena. ~ Victor Saul Navasky

I had worked in politics with Johnson and Nixon before becoming a historian and biographer. I kept discovering these dirtier, murkier threads in American politics that led back to Vegas' gambling interests and criminal connections. ~ Roger Morris

We don't need more politicians insisting we have deficits because you're not taxed enough. Those deficits ballooned from an economy that didn't grow enough and from 50 years of government spending too much. ~ Ronald Reagan

I've been interested in American politics since I was eight. That was in 1968. It was an interesting year. I was a huge Eugene McCarthy supporter, so I guess he was the first senator I really knew about and cared about. ~ George Packer

If I were a white candidate, I'd have won the Democratic nomination. ~ Jesse Jackson

When I spend my time out on the campaign trail, it's usually about what I can do for somebody else. I don't like talking about myself, I don't like the whole atmosphere of how people are judged in American politics too often as to what you say instead of what you do. And so for me it's always about what can I do for you? How can I help you? ~ Hillary Clinton

I'm Canadian so American politics are not really in my wheelhouse. ~ Ryan Gosling

American thought and American politics will be largely at the mercy of those who operate these stations, for publicity is the most powerful weapon that can be wielded in a republic. And when such a weapon is placed in the hands of one person, or a single selfish group is permitted to either tacitly or otherwise acquire ownership or dominate these broadcasting stations throughout the country, then woe be to those who dare to differ with them. It will be impossible to compete with them in reaching the ears of the American people. ~ Rep. Luther Johnson D.-Texas In The Debate That Preceded The Radio Act Of 1927 KPFA 1 16 03

Mr. Fulbright hasn't said anything new or interesting or clever in five years; his intellectual well dried up the day after Walter Lippmann stopped writing his regular column. ~ Spiro T. Agnew

Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible. ~ Dee Dee Myers

My childhood, adolescence and high school days are unusually important. If there has ever been a time that I developed a uniqueness and sense of humor and the ability to organize, it was then. In those early days, I developed the skills that gave me a certain degree of success in American politics. ~ Lee Atwater

Well, I think the great tragedy in American politics is what is legal, not what is illegal. ~ Jack Abramoff

In his study of Atlanta over the last 60 years, Kevin Kruse convincingly describes the critical connections between race, Sun Belt suburbanization, the rise of the new Republican majority. White Flight is a powerful and compelling book that should be read by anyone interested in modern American politics and post-World War II urban history. ~ Dan Carter

Jesse Jackson's living depends on the maintenance of an African-American victim culture ~ Mark Steyn

From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to American politics
the name of Jesus had been hijacked as an ally in all kinds of power struggles. Since the beginning of time, the ignorant had always screamed the loudest, herding the unsuspecting masses and forcing them to do their bidding. They defended their worldly desires by citing Scripture they did not understand. They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions. Now, after all these years, mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been so beautiful about Jesus. ~ Dan Brown

We're going to get that little bug before that little bug gets my poll ratings down any further. ~ Jerry Brown

To me, politics is culture. I became a journalist, and later a filmmaker, to get to know my new country and my volatile place in it as a gay, undocumented Filipino-American. ~ Jose Antonio Vargas

If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; if you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and party are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era,
then you yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem. ~ John Jay Chapman

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken American politics by storm. ~ Sean Hannity

The most momentous fact about the pattern of American politics is that we live under a persistent, obdurate, one might almost say tyrannical, two-party system. We have the Republicans and we have the Democrats, and we have almost no one else, no other strictly political aggregate that amounts to a corporal's guard in the struggle for power. ~ Clinton Rossiter

One of the greatest weaknesses of Chris Mitchell's editorship of the Australian is that he has allowed Greg Sheridan to remain his foreign editor throughout. Sheridan is a man who argued in different columns that George W. Bush was the Winston Churchill of our era; that unlike mediocre politicians like Barack Obama and John McCain, the "new star" of American politics, Sarah Palin, was able to combine "celebrity" with "character"; that President Obama's "anti-Israel hysteria" was leading his administration toward "licensing a mutant strain of anti-semitism"; and that the United States would most likely be strengthened by the crash of Wall Street in September 2008. ~ Robert Manne

Unfortunately, the trading of political influence for money has come back in a big way in American politics, this time in a form that is perfectly legal and much harder to eradicate. Criminalized bribery is narrowly defined in American law as a transaction in which a politician and a private party explicitly agree upon a specific quid pro quo exchange. What is not covered by the law is what biologists call reciprocal altruism, or what an anthropologist might label a gift exchange. In a relationship of reciprocal altruism, one person confers a benefit on another with no explicit expectation that it will immediately buy a return favor, unlike an impersonal market transaction. ~ Francis Fukuyama

RECOUNT, n. In American politics, another throw of the dice, accorded to the player against whom they are loaded. ~ Ambrose Bierce

If our planes were shot down, yes, they's wake me right away. If the other fellows' were shot down, why wake me up? ~ Ronald Reagan

The battle in American politics used to be for the middle. Now, it's all about the building and the intensity of support on the far left and far right wings of both parties. And we have forgotten about the people here in the middle. ~ Hamilton Jordan

American politics is a struggle, not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central power houses. ~ Henry Adams

There was never a promise that race relations in America would be entirely resolved during my presidency or anybody's presidency. I mean, this has been a running thread - and - and fault line in American life and American politics since its founding. ~ Barack Obama

I think that no one roiled American politics and sort of scrambled the left/right dynamic more 2015 year than Pope Francis. ~ Joy-Ann Reid

I've always found that avoiding insanity is useful in life - which in American politics sometimes puts one in the minority. ~ Tony Blankley

It is my experience that the best way to deal with American politics is 50 milligrams of Zoloft 3 times a day. ~ Will Durst

ROSS PEROT was the best thing that happened in American politics since Richard Nixon acquired a taste for gin. In both cases, the political dialogue of the day was enriched by spontaneous gibberish that entertained the wrong people and made the right ones question their faith. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

The strangest thing about fascism in America today is that American facists are so dumb, they don't even know they're fascists. They don't even know what the word fascism means.

They vaguely know that it had something to do with Hitler and the Nazis, but that's it. They have no idea that the first words of the Nazi anthem were "Germany above all else" which was their version of "America first." And the way Nazis demonized jews was no different than the way American fascists demonize liberals. Hitler promised to "make Germany great again." And Hitler denounced the newspapers, which exposed him for what he really was, as "Lügenpresse," which is German for "fake news."

If the German Nazi party still existed today, they would look exactly like the Republican party under Trump. Hitler's rallies looked no different than Trump's rallies. And Hitler would absolutely love a well-oiled propaganda outlet like Fox News. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

I believe that the attitudes and actions that will restore America now are the very things that originally formed America. ~ Daniel Rundquist

I've always regarded it as a test of character to dislike the Kennedys. I don't really respect anyone who falls for Camelot. ~ Christopher Hitchens

Most of us had never seen a sober redneck before, and we have the Reagan Landslide to testify that none of us ever wants to see one again. It was a horrifying apparition. And ever since Jimmy Carter, all of us rednecks have had to be very careful to be drunk rednecks lest we turn into some kind of awful creature with big buck teeth and a State Department full of human-rights yahoos. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The result of these trends is that today the courts, unrestrained by
higher law and disdainful of majority will, are the dominant force in American politics. As law professor Russell Hittinger writes, in Casey the Court has laid down a "new covenant" by which it agrees to give citizens the right to decide for themselves the meaning of life, to decide what is right and wrong, to do as they please. In exchange for this guarantee, the Court asks only that the people accept the Court's assumption of ultimate power.3S Or as Notre Dame's Gerard Bradley puts it, the Court has said: "We will be your Court, and you will be our people. ~ Charles W. Colson

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions. ~ Robert Dallek