“At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. . . .” MenLittlesBitsDemocracyWalkingPaperLittle BitCrossesPaidBottomPencilsTributeLittle Man Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.” PeopleNeedsSelfGovernmentCommonOpinionDemocracyStrangeMajorityCourtBottomCommon SenseCorporateCorporationsRejectionFlawsImperfectFoundingDistinctiveSelf-governmentUnderminingAmerican DemocracyTheodoreMoney In PoliticsStrange Times Author:John Paul Stevens
“democracy ... begins from the ground up. Anything living grows from the bottom up. Everything dangerous, like bombs, gets dropped from the sky down.” GrowsDemocracySkyDangerousBottomBombs Author:Vandana Shiva
“Democracy doesn't begin at the top; it begins at the bottom, when flesh-and-blood human beings fight to rekindle what Arlo Guthrie calls 'The Patriot's Dream.” HumansDreamFightingHuman BeingsDemocracyBloodBottomFleshPatriotFlesh And Blood Author:Bill Moyers
“If I rule out violent anarchism, there remains pacifist, anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist, moral, and anti-democratic anarchism (i.e., that which is hostile to the falsified democracy of bourgeois states). There remains the anarchism which acts by means of persuasion, by the creation of small groups and networks, denouncing falsehood and oppression, aiming at a true overturning of authorities of all kinds as people at the bottom speak and organize themselves.” PeopleIfsKindMeanStatesSpeakMoralDemocracyGroupsCreationAuthorityRemainsDemocraticBottomViolentAll KindsOppressionCapitalistFalsehoodOrganizePersuasionHostileAnarchismBourgeoisSmall GroupsPacifist Author:Jacques Ellul
“Democracy must be a sound scheme at bottom, else it would not survive such cruel strains.” SoundDemocracyBottomSchemesStrain Author:H. L. Mencken
“How do you have a democratic empire, how do you have an imperial foreign policy built on a democracy polity. It's like some sort of strange mythical beast that's part lion, part dragon. You know at the bottom is a democracy, and then it's an imperial power around the world.” KnowsWorldDemocracyPolicyStrangeBuiltDemocraticBottomAround The WorldBeastEmpiresDragonsLionsForeign PolicyMythical Beasts Author:Mark Danner
“The right tends to posit that the market fuels social good. The left tends to posit that the government fuels social good. At bottom, democracy claims that citizens drive social good, but there is currently no container for a political force-field that stakes claim to the unbelievable resources now virtually untapped in every man, woman, and child in our society.” MenChildrenGovernmentPoliticalLeftForceSocialDemocracyFieldsCitizensResourcesClaimsBottomEvery ManFuelOur SocietyStakesUnbelievableMen WomenContainersSocial GoodForce Fields Author:Marianne Williamson
“I was previously involved in local and state politics, but not national, because grassroots democracy starts at the bottom. This was the breaking point for me, though - and it made the case that in order to fight locally, we have to fight nationally; we can't afford to neglect any area of life in this democracy.” MadeStatesOrderFightingCasesDemocracyInvolvedAreasBottomLocalsNeglectGrassrootsPoint Break Author:Jill Stein