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Zephyr Teachout

Zephyr Teachout Quotes

Law professor

Zephyr Teachout is an American law professor recognized for her work in digital governance and campaign finance reform. Born on October 21, 1971, she has been a prominent figure in legal academia and public policy discussions.

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Famous Zephyr Teachout Quotes

“Integrity is hard work. I do think the Internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform.”

Thinking Hard Hard Work Internet Easier Integrity Performances Harder Temptation

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I think about people and events in terms of archetypes a lot.”

People Thinking Term Events Archetype

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“A lot of politics plays at the level of myth, and if you understand that, then you feel like you have access to the secret language of politics.”

Ifs Feels Play Language Levels Secret Like You Myth Access

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?"”

People Thinking Way Character Political Asks Games Fun Politician Athena Aries

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“What I see increasingly is that companies are playing political roles. We should actually have our research and our laws map that.”

Should Law Political Company Roles Research Maps

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“My current goal is to change the way we think about antitrust and anti-monopoly.”

Thinking Way Goal Currents Monopoly Antitrust

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“You can have very big local government. By big, I mean very engaged government. Do you measure it in terms of the number of laws? Number of employees? You could make arguments for either one. I tend to think the axis of the size of government is the wrong concern. But I do think that situating power more locally is a legitimate approach.”

Thinking Mean Bigs Government Law Term Numbers Approach Concern Argument Size Locals Engaged Employee Axes Local Government Size Of Government

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“There are some libertarians who are really anarchists, but others are more concerned about the distant relationship between themselves and power. They mistakenly think they want to get rid of government when instead they might just want to have greater access to power.”

Thinking Want Government Might Greater Concerned Libertarian Access Anarchist Distant Relationship

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I think part of the reason the Tea Party has resonated is that people feel disempowered. The Tea Party says, "You are out of power because of big government." Then some Democrats tend to respond by saying, "No, you're wrong, you're not out of power." It's a sense that doesn't resonate with people's lived experience.”

People Thinking Feels Reason Bigs Government Party Democrat Tea Saying No Tea Party Big Government

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Oftentimes people get it wrong when they say we need to educate voters first and then give them power. I tend to favor giving them power first.”

People Needs Giving Firsts Favors Voters Educate

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I tend to be a kind of left federalist. There's a value to more power of certain kinds being positioned at a more local level.”

Kind Certain Values Left Levels Locals Federalist

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I tend to think that knowledge is preceded by power instead of the other way around.”

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Because jurors have an extraordinary amount of power over the situation and of the people and the story in front of them, they tend to pay pretty intense attention to what's happening.”

People Stories Pay Attention Situation Fronts Amount Happenings Extraordinary Intense Jurors

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“You can't just provide power, you also need public education.”

Needs Public Education

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“As a school board member, I might have particular views about the ways we might increase the economics curriculum in a local high school, but I'm not sure I should mandate that for the entire country.”

Way Should Country Might School Views Particular Members High School Economics Increase Locals Boards Not Sure Curriculum Mandates School Board Board Members

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“In Europe, populism is sort of a dirty word, but we have this wonderful history of populism in America, including the abolitionist populists and the white and black populists working together in the nineteenth century.”

Together America Black White Wonderful Century Europe Including Dirty Working Together Nineteenth Century Populist Populism Abolitionist Dirty Words

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“New York City is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to climate change, so I see Keystone as the central threat to New York.”

World Cities New York Threat Climate Climate Change Vulnerable New York City Cities In The World Keystones

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“History is a series of mistakes. Now the task is to plan for those mistakes so those of us who are populists can actually take over the reins of power when the right mistakes are made.”

Made Mistake Plans Tasks Series Reins Populist

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“There's a tendency, especially among academics, to see politics as deeply dirty and deeply egotistical.”

Tendencies Dirty Egotistical

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I feel much more comfortable in politics than I did in book writing. Book writing is so hard. Politics felt easy compared to that.”

Feels Writing Book Hard Felt Easy Comfortable Book Writing

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Creativity is essential to any kind of joyful living. Sometimes I act, sometimes I draw, I paint, I write poems. I can't imagine living without it.”

Writing Kind I Can Sometimes Creativity Imagine Essentials Draws Paint Joyful

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I think that most people have deeply creative sensibilities.”

People Thinking Creative Sensibility

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“If you think art is a competitive forum, then you're going to stop doing it if you're not good. But if it's not competitive, it's something that you'll keep doing.”

Ifs Thinking Art Art Is Forums

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I'm not from the arts, I'm a law professor. But I think we need more poetry in politics.”

Thinking Needs Art Law Professors

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I think the reason you see so many people dropping out of politics is because there's an anti-poetic strain in modern political discourse.”

People Thinking Reason Political Modern Poetic Discourse Strain Dropping Political Discourse Dropping Out

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Having more candidates come with a creative and artistic sensibility would actually bring more people out to vote.”

People Creative Vote Artistic Candidates Sensibility

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“A combination of working in politics as well as teaching and being [an actor] certainly helped. I became so much more comfortable in front of a crowd. I felt like I was calling on all those other experiences.”

Wells Actors Felt Teaching Fronts Calling Comfortable Crowds Combination

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I don't have any particular plans in mind. What I see is that you can become so focused on the idea of running that winning becomes your motivation, as opposed to what you stand for being your motivation.”

Mind Ideas Running Motivation Winning Plans Particular Focused

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Public education is so important - resisting privatization and charterization, high-stakes testing, and defunding. It's important for New York, but it's also important for the country.”

Important Country New York Stakes Testing Resisting Public Education Privatization

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“What happens in New York affects national policy in very significant ways.”

Way Happens Policy New York Significant

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“It's a lot harder to push forward things, like energy policy. There's a big dream out there about wind and solar power.”

Dream Bigs Energy Policy Wind Harder Energy Policy Solar Power

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“I think a lot of the reason people are attracted to the Keystone pipeline is because at least we're doing something. There's a fear that society will collapse if it's not acting. To contrast those actions with other actions is important in making it feel plausible. Maybe we must have the size of the dream meet the size of the threat.”

People Ifs Thinking Feels Important Reason Dream Action Acting Threat Size Contrast Collapse Plausible Pipeline Keystones Keystone Pipeline

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Things poll well, but people don't believe that politicians are telling the truth. Politicians might mention renewable energy, and the public will think, "That sounds good, but I don't believe they're going to do everything they can to build those towers."”

People Thinking Believe Wells Might Energy Sound Politician Don't Believe Telling The Truth Towers Polls Renewable Energy

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“People think that the politician is just part of a system, and whether they're lying or not doesn't matter.”

People Thinking Matter Lying Politician

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“One of the most dangerous things about Fox News isn't that it's right wing but that it's nihilistic. It takes away the capacity to believe in politics.”

Believe Dangerous News Capacity Wings Foxes Right Wing Dangerous Things Fox News

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“A lot of politics plays at the level of myth, and if you understand that, then you feel like you have access to the secret language of politics. People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?".”

People Thinking Character Political Language Fun Secret Like You Politician Myth Athena Aries

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“Integrity is hard work. I do think the internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform. So the temptations of social media lead to some dissonance.”

Thinking Hard Work Internet Integrity Social Media Temptation

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“If those people in power never made any mistakes, we'd be done for as a democracy. But people keep making mistakes. History is a series of mistakes.”

People Done Mistake Democracy Making Mistakes

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“This is what's so hard about our current politics: things poll well, but people don't believe that politicians are telling the truth.”

People Believe Politician Telling The Truth

Author:Zephyr Teachout

“There is a long American tradition of suspicion of concentrated economic power because of its tendency to corrupt government and turn it from a democracy into a plutocracy.”

Long Government Political Turns Democracy Economic Tradition Tendencies Suspicion Economic Power Plutocracy American Tradition Corrupt Government

Book:Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United

Source: Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United

About the Author

Born: October 21, 1971
Known for: Law professor
Quotes: 40

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Thinking People Political Politician Way Feels Government Believe Bigs Ifs

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Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens UnitedRelated source material

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