Best democracy & reality Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen social conflict the escalation of paranoia produces levels of distrust that reinforce cultural division. Rae is the most explosive issue in American life precisely because it forces us to confront the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia despair, and distrust. In short, a candid examination of race matters takes us to the core of the crisis of American democracy (p. 107).”

Source: Race Matters: With a New Introduction

“The slave will be free. Democracy in America will yet be a glorious reality; and when the top-stone of that temple of freedom which our fathers left unfinished shall be brought forth with shoutings and cries of grace unto it, when our now drooping Liberty lifts up her head and prospers, happy will he be who can say, with John Milton, "Among those who have something more than wished her welfare, I, too, have my charter and freehold of rejoicing to me and my heirs."”

Source: Old portraits and modern sketches

“The reality is that the founding fathers were land speculators. The fact was that you couldn't vote in this country if you did not own land, and that was basically you had to be a white man who owned land. Now how did they get that land? They basically had to steal it from someone, and that would be probably the Indians. And so most of the initial founding fathers were, while they may have had some really nice ideas about democracy, they had a lot of issues with people of color. They had a lot of issues with people who held things that they coveted.”

People Ifs Men May Ideas Country Facts Reality Would Be Father White Democracy Issues Nice Land Color Vote Stealing White Man Founding Initials Really Nice Speculators

Author:Winona LaDuke

“The unanimously applauded, self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible. The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy.”

Wells Self Reality Seems Party Democracy Media Congress Officials Mature Soviet Rhetoric Unworthy Commentators Concealing Unanimity Sanctimonious

Book:At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

Source: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

“Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence -- words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security -- there is the reality of enormous wealth in the hands of a few, while billions of people in the world are hungry, sick, homeless.”

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“Reality has changed, and we changed with it. However, I never changed sides. I have always been on the side of justice, democracy and social equality.”

Reality Social Sides Justice Democracy Changed Never Change Social Equality

Author:Dilma Rousseff

“In reality, at the end of World War II, America imposed democracy at the point of a bayonet on Japan and Germany, and it has proved a resounding success in both countries. The problem with liberals is that they never give bayonets a chance.”

World Giving War Ends Country Problem Reality America Chance Democracy War Of The Worlds Germany Japan World War Ii World War I Bayonets

Book:Letters to a Young Conservative

Source: Letters to a Young Conservative

“Pick the topic you like: the Middle East, international terrorism, Central America, whatever it is - the picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies. It's all been a marvelous success from the point of view in deterring the threat of democracy, achieved under conditions of freedom, which is extremely interesting. It's not like a totalitarian state, where it's done by force. These achievements are under conditions of freedom.”

Source: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

“Constant conflict is actually often good politics. Because the more you can inflame your supporters the more likely they are to show up at election day. And if they're more inflamed than the other side, even if the other side has more people agreeing with it, you'll win, because your crowd will show up.”

“Racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no mere historical artifact. To the contrary, Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights Act in every redistricting cycle from and after 1970.”

“People call me a socialist sometimes. But, no, you gotta meet real socialists. You'll have a sense of what a socialist is.”

People Real Sometimes Reality Political Politics Money Party Democracy Comedy Wall Taxes Socialism Ideology Call Me Free Speech Socialist Political Parties Free Market

Author:Barack Obama

“But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it's hard, and even if it's politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?”

“You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they're pissed at both parties - I think they're really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time.”

People Thinking Knows Littles Reality Political Politics Community Money Party Democracy Election Ideology Voting Political Parties Election Time

Author:Whoopi Goldberg

“We all accuse Vladimir Putin of Cold War nostalgia, but Washington's elites - politicians and intellectuals - miss the old days as well. They wish for the world in which the United States was utterly dominant over its friends, its foes were to be shunned entirely, and the challenges were stark, moral, and vital. Today's world is messy and complicated. China is one of our biggest trading partners and our looming geopolitical rival. Russia is a surly spoiler, but it has a globalized middle class and has created ties in Europe.”

“It is a law of nature that everything run by the government will get more expensive and worse over time. Everything run by the private sector will get better and cheaper over time. The fact that [Obamacare] starts this badly does not bode well....We want healthcare run on the same system that gave us cell phones, flat screens, Jerry Garcia chia pets. Everything you submit to the free market...keeps getting better and better.”

“America is just so weird in what they think is right and wrong. Like, I was watching 'Breaking Bad' the other day, and they were cooking meth. I could literally cook meth because of that show. It's a how-to. And then they bleeped out the word 'f__k'. And I'm like, really? They killed a guy, and disintegrated his body in acid, but you're not allowed to say 'f__k'? It's like when they bleeped 'molly' at the VMAs. Look what I'm doing up here right now, and you're going to bleep out 'molly'?”

“Now, here's a good question: should serious people focus on global political instability - terrorism, failing states, nuclear weapons - or should we focus on global climate instability - droughts, floods, extreme weather? Here's the correct answer: yes, both, because climate disruption will make every other national security problem worse.”

“In the 2012 election, Obamacare, as it's called, and I'll be more polite - the ACA ...was a major issue in the campaign. I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could. And in every single campaign rally I said, 'We have to repeal and replace Obamacare.' Well, the people spoke. They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke. And they reelected the President of the United States.”

“I don't think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison. I think that's inappropriate. I think that's why he fled, [because] that is what he faced.”

“In battle, combatants engaged in war against America get no due process and may lawfully be killed. But citizens not in a battlefield - however despicable - are guaranteed a trial by our Constitution. No one argues that Americans who commit treason shouldn't be punished. The maximum penalty for treason is death. But the Constitution specifies the process necessary to convict.”

“Power tends to corrupt. But the power in Washington resides in Congress, if it wants to use it. It can do anything-it can stop the Vietnam War. It can make its will felt, if it can ever get its act together to do anything.”

“Jail is just another micro-society. It just happens that here, the problems are far more out in the open, we don't live with the facades of lies that democracy or capitalism creates for us.”

Problem Reality Happens Lying Politics Community Money Class Democracy Policy Wall Taxes Capitalism Trade Property Human Rights Ideology Jail Free Speech Consumerism Facade Partisanship

Author:Cecily McMillan

“There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.”

Made Stills Country States Reality Government Age Democracy Conquest Monarchy

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“Italy is such a delightful place to live in if you happen to be a man. There one may enjoy that exquisite luxury of Socialism--that true Socialism which is based not on equality of income or character, but on the equality of manners. In the democracy of the caffè or the street the great question of our life has been solved, and the brotherhood of man is a reality. But it is accomplished at the expense of the sisterhood of women.”

Source: Where Angels Fear to Tread: England Literature

“We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world.”

World Country Home Reality Father Politics Justice Democracy Land Policy Highest Ethics Constitution Brave Rate Free Speech Incarceration Land Of The Free

Author:Bryan Stevenson

“One unanswered question is whether a Euro-Islam that combines Islam with democracy will be possible in the future. We mustn't confuse desire with reality.”

Reality Desire Democracy Islam Euro Unanswered Questions Unanswered

Author:Walter Kasper

“If racism is not the whole of the Tea Party, it is in its heart, along with blind hatred, a total disinterest in the welfare of others, and a full-flowered self-rationalizing refusal to accept the outcomes of elections, or the reality of democracy, or the narrowness of their minds and the equal narrowness of their public support.”

Ifs Mind Heart Self Whole Reality Party Accepting Support Democracy Equal Racism Hatred Election Blind Tea Welfare Outcomes Refusal Tea Party Disinterest

Author:Keith Olbermann

“Some who call themselves realists question whether the spread of democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours. But the realists in this case have lost contact with a fundamental reality: America has always been less secure when freedom is in retreat; America is always more secure when freedom is on the march.”

Should Reality America Lost Cases Democracy Middle Concern Fundamentals Spread East Contact Secure March Middle East Retreat Realist Democracy In The Middle East

Author:George W. Bush

“We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.”

Years Reality Challenges Leader Democracy Generations Achievement Years Ago Foundation Everyday Better Life Defining Unimaginable

Author:Nelson Mandela

“The sense of space within the reality of any building is a new concept wherever architecture is concerned. But it is essential ancient principle just the same and is not only necessary now but implied by the ideal of democracy itself.”

Reality Space Principles Democracy Building Essentials Concepts Concerned Ideals Ancient Architecture Implied

Author:Frank Lloyd Wright

“And for those of us who have, you know, looked in sort of the established order of the political fray over the course of the past several years, it looks like chaos. But to the people I think it looks like democracy. And I think that that's something that really is moving us to a new reality, where the parties are going to have to retrofit themselves and adapt to this new realignment.”

People Thinking Knows Years Looks Reality Past Moving Political Order Courses Party Democracy Chaos Fray

Author:Ben Domenech

“I am afraid that I think both the near future environmental reality and political landscape are not looking good - and they are connected. The best tool we have for advancing environmental solutions is our democracy, and we can't currently access it because it has been so thoroughly hijacked by big corporate interests.”

Thinking Has Beens Bigs Reality Political Interest Democracy Solutions Tools Environmental Connected Access Landscape Corporate Looking Good Advancing

Author:Annie Leonard

“The basic principles of democracy should be observed whatever the country - principles such as civil liberties, a free market, a free press, the priority of the individual over mythical state interests, a state which serves the interests of ordinary people and defends their rights and interests. This is all easy to say but hard to make reality.”

“I think what democracy means today, in reality, is to a large extent, manipulated consent - not forced consent, manipulated consent - and manipulated more and more with the help of Madison Avenue.”

Thinking Mean Helping Reality Today Democracy Consent Avenues Madison Madison Avenue

Author:Erich Fromm

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