#politics

A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it. ↗

— Frank Lloyd Wright

#america #call #democracy #else #enslave

Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose. ↗

— George Will

#conservatives #define #oppose #terms #themselves

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#al-qaeda #antisemitism #dictatorship #freedom-flotilla-ii #gaza

لا يعني إنتهاء نظام ديكتاتوري أن جميع المشكلات التي خلفها ستنتهي، فسقوط نظام معين لا يخلق المدينة الفاضلة، بل يفتح المجال أمام عهود طويلة لبناء علاقات ءإجتماعية وإقتصادية وسياسية عادلة ويهيى للقضاء على أشكال الظلم والإضطهاد الأخرى. لقد استطاع تحدي الشعوب الذي تميز في الغالب باللا عنف منذ عام 1980 إسقاط الأنظمة الديكتاتورية في استونيا ولاتفيا وليتوانيا وبولندا وألمانيا الشرقية وتشيكوسلوفاكيا وسلوفينيا ومدغشقر ومالي وبوليفيا والفلبين، لكن من المؤكد إن إنهيار الأنظمة الديكتاتورية لم يحل جميع المشكلات الأخرى في هذه المجتمعات كالفقر والجريمة وعدم الفعالية البيروقراطية وتخريب البيئة فذلك ما تورثه الأنظمة القمعية. لكن سقوط هذه الأنظمة الديكتاتورية كان له الحد الأدنى من تخفيف معاناة ضحايا القمع وفتح الطريق أمام إعادة بناء هذه المجتمعات بوجود عدالة إجتماعية وحريات سياسية وديمقراطية وشخصية ↗

— Gene Sharp From Dictatorship to Democracy

#freedom

Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself. ↗

— Woodrow Wilson

#conceive #convenience #greatest #i #itself

Politics disappears; it vanishes. What remains constant is human life. So I try to develop a perspective in my writing where politics is just one of the pieces of furniture in this furnished world. It is not the purpose. It is not the goal. ↗

— Tatyana Tolstaya

#develop #disappears #furnished #furniture #goal

Politics itself is so unsexy, isn't it? But when the politics in creative works are really explored - not used as a vehicle - the results can be really interesting. ↗

— Marisa Tomei

#creative works #explored #interesting #itself #politics

One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government. ↗

— Donald Trump

#go #good #good people #government #into

Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting Struggle Street, the battlers, by dumbing things down into one-line sound bites are not respecting them, they are treating them with contempt. It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them. ↗

— Malcolm Turnbull

#big #bites #broadcasters #contempt #down

The proliferation of outlets that digital technology has enabled has itself contributed to the changing nature of what we regard as 'news' and the way in which many citizens perceive politics. ↗

— Malcolm Turnbull

#citizens #contributed #digital #enabled #itself