#voting

As heirs to a legacy more than two centuries old, it is understandable why present-day Americans would take their own democracy for granted. A president freely chosen from a wide-open field of two men every four years; a Congress with a 99% incumbency rate; a Supreme Court comprised of nine politically appointed judges whose only oversight is the icy scythe of Death -- all these reveal a system fully capable of maintaining itself. But our perfect democracy, which neither needs nor particularly wants voters, is a rarity. It is important to remember there still exist other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign countries still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them. ↗

— Jon Stewart

#democracy #humor #politics #supreme-court #voting

Presidents are selected, not elected. ↗

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

#politics #presidency #presidents #voting #president

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it. ↗

— Sherman Alexie

#devoting #emotion #exhausted #experience #get

In my lifetime, we've gone from Eisenhower to George W. Bush. We've gone from John F. Kennedy to Al Gore. If this is evolution, I believe that in twelve years, we'll be voting for plants. ↗

— Lewis Black

#al gore #believe #bush #eisenhower #evolution

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. ↗

— James Bovard

#dinner #more #must #sheep #something

Why do the people humiliate themselves by voting? I didn't vote because I have dignity. If I had closed my nose and voted for one of them, I would spit on my own face. ↗

— Oriana Fallaci

#closed #dignity #face #had #humiliate

Tony Blair faced a massive defection from his own party ranks during voting around the intervention in Iraq. For our present purpose, the point is not that he survived the defection, but that he had to face it. ↗

— Stockwell Day

#blair #during #face #faced #had

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not stakes. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting FOR THE RIGHT is DOING nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#freedom #moral-concern #morality #personal-investment #politics

I am not a one-issue voter in the sense that indicates I am an ignorant fundamentalist who only cares about one thing. I believe in protecting the environment. I believe in caring for the poor, the orphan, the widow in her distress. These are some of the so-called "issues" that many of us use to justify voting for Obama. How can we possibly claim it is Christian love for the poor and helpless that motivates us to vote for such a man when he is so committed to the killing of the most helpless among us? ↗

— Joseph Bayly

#christian-love #murder #obama #obamanation #one-issue-voting

You've got to realize that any lady on a soap is devoting her life to it, 24/7. ↗

— Joan Van Ark

#devoting #got #her #lady #life