#politics

Presidents are selected, not elected. ↗

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

#politics #presidency #presidents #voting #president

Prolific irony - For 8 years, the finger on the button that could end the world belonged to a president who couldn't pronounce the word "nuclear. ↗

— T. Rafael Cimino

#americans #atomic-bomb #george-bush #nuclear #nuclear-weapons

That's what I like to call him, "the current president." I find it difficult to say or type his name, George W. Bush. I like to call him "the current president" because it's a hopeful phrase, implying that his administration is only temporary. ↗

— Sarah Vowell

#president

Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. ↗

— Frantz Fanon

#politics #psychology #revolution #ignorance

Many of our most serious conflicts are conflicts within ourselves. Those who suppose their judgements are always consistent are unreflective or dogmatic. ↗

— John Rawls

#philosophy #politics #ideology

The people who explain politics for a living – the politicians themselves, their advisers, the media who cover them – love to reach conclusions like this one. Elections are decided by charismatic personalities, strategic maneuvers, the power of rhetoric, the zeitgeist of the political moment. The explainers cloak themselves in loose-fitting theories because they offer a narrative comfort, unlike the more honest acknowledgment that elections hinge on the motivations of millions of individual human beings and their messy, illogical, and often unknowable psychologies. ↗

— Sasha Issenberg

#politics #love

But what a way to do things-never to perform a decent action until you are kicked into it and the rest of the world has ceased to believe that your motives can possibly be honest. ↗

— George Orwell

#politics #motivational

For a short while she considered the idea of orchestral courtesy. Certainly one should avoid giving political offence: German orchestras, of course, used to be careful about playing Wagner abroad, at least in some countries, choosing instead German composers who were somewhat more ... apologetic. ↗

— Alexander McCall Smith

#politics #music

A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#philosophy #politics #men

Saudis of all sorts recent having to beg princes for favors to secure services that should be a public right ↗

— Karen Elliott House

#religion