#politics

We read too much Shakespeare at school, and view our parliamentary politics as dynastic drama, in which an impatient crown prince frets at his long subordination and begins to scheme for the throne he knows he merits, was promised and has earned. ↗

— James Buchan

#crown #drama #earned #frets #his

The writing is all done, so it's all about verbalizing everything from point A to point B, and certainly there's a bit of politics involved, so it's a different thing. ↗

— Lindsey Buckingham

#bit #certainly #different #different thing #done

I think especially in a world where you have so little say about what goes on in your life, or in the politics of the world around you, it is wonderful to go into that studio, and tell yourself what to do. ↗

— Suzanne Farrell

#around #especially #go #goes #i

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#little #politics #pulpit #terms

Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action. In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism, and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with a larger meaning. We lose elections and hope for the courts to foil Republican plans. We lost the courts and wait for a White House scandal. And increasingly we feel the need to match the Republican right in stridency and hardball tactics. The accepted wisdom that drives many advocacy groups and Democratic activists these days goes like this: The Republican Party has been able to consistently win elections not by expanding its base but by vilifying Democrats, driving wedges into the electorate, energizing its right wing, and disciplining those who stray from the party line. If the Democrats ever want to get back into power, then they will have to take up the same approach. ...Ultimately, though, I believe any attempt by Democrats to pursue a more sharply partisan and ideological strategy misapprehends the moment we're in. I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country. It's what keeps us locked in "either/or" thinking: the notion that we can have only big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate forty-six million without health insurance or embrace "socialized medicine". It is such doctrinaire thinking and stark partisanship that have turned Americans off of politics. ↗

— Barack Obama

#dreams

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#politics #possession #power #real

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#attributed #british #dinner #great #great success

The only way to Cuba is with the CIA. ↗

— Phil Ochs

#central-intelligence-agency #cuba #foreign-policy #politics #united-states

I came into American politics and into this political system proud of politics and the way we make decisions. ↗

— Byron Dorgan

#american politics #came #decisions #i #i came

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance. ↗

— William O. Douglas

#applaud #audience #butter #cattle #diseased