“In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion.”

—  Phil Ochs

Introduction to "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" on Phil Ochs in Concert (1966)
Context: In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion." by Phil Ochs?
Phil Ochs photo
Phil Ochs 48
American protest singer and songwriter 1940–1976

Related quotes

R. G. Collingwood photo

“The essence of this conception is.. the idea of a community as governing itself by fostering the free expression of all political opinions that take shape within it, and finding some means of reducing this multiplicity of opinions to a unity.”

R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) British historian and philosopher

R. G. Collingwood (2005). "Man Goes Mad" in The Philosophy of Enchantment. Oxford University Press, 318.

H.P. Lovecraft photo

“My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Transition of Juan Romero

"The Transition of Juan Romero" - Written 16 Sep 1919; first published in Marginalia (1944)<!-- Arkham House p. 276-84 -->
Fiction
Context: My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time. In broad daylight, and at most seasons I am apt to think the greater part of it a mere dream; but sometimes in the autumn, about two in the morning when winds and animals howl dismally, there comes from inconceivable depths below a damnable suggestions of rhythmical throbbing … and I feel that the transition of Juan Romero was a terrible one indeed.

“An important aspect of Nonconformity was its cult of the Bible as the fount of all wisdom. But the Bible takes much of its colour from whoever is reading it, and it provides a text to support almost every shade of opinion, however preposterous.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

Melodrama: The Silver King (1993).

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo

“All Governments rest mainly on public opinion, and to that of his own subjects every wise Sovereign will look. The opinion of his subjects will force a Sovereign to do his duty, and by that opinion will he be exalted or depressed in the politics of the world.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

Trial of John Vint and others (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 640.

“Economic problems have no sharp edges. They shade off imperceptibly into politics, sociology, and ethics. Indeed, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the ultimate answer to every economic problem lies in some other field.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1940s, The Economics of Peace, 1945, p. 252, quoted in Leonard Silk (1976) The Economists. New York: Basic Books. p. 208

“The Senate needs to protect the interests of the American people and the world community, not provide political cover to President Bush. It's not enough to call Saddam Hussein evil incarnate.”

Carl Romanelli (1959) American artist

on U.S. Senate hearings into President Bush's planned invasion of Iraq
[August 7, 2002, http://www.gp.org/press/pr_08_07_02.html, Press release: "Green Party Calls Senate Hearings on Iraq a 'Sham'", U.S Green Party, 2006-08-17]

Mark Twain photo

“An unpopular opinion concerning politics or religion lies concealed in the breast of every man; in many cases not only one sample, but several. The more intelligent the man, the larger the freightage of this kind of opinions he carries, and keeps to himself.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"The Privilege of the Grave" (1905)

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar photo

“Majorities are of two sorts: (1) Communal majority and (ii) political majority. A political majority is changeable in its class composition. A political majority grows. A communal majority is born. The admission to a political majority is open. The door in a communal majority is closed. The politics of political majority are free to all to make and unmake. The politics of community majority are made by its own members born in it.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (2010)

Pete Seeger photo

“The American Indians were Communists. They were. Every anthropologist will tell you they were Communists. No rich, no poor. If somebody needed something the community chipped in.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer
Charles Krauthammer photo

“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country — and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”

Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018) American journalist

1990s, 1994, Political Suicide (1994)

Related topics