Neil Kinnock quote: “I don't believe that the policies on which we fought the [1983] election ought to be ejected like some sort of spent ca…”

“You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don't break it.Don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2013
Context: So let's work together to make government work better instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That's not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don't break it. Don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country's about.

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for”

Thomas Jefferson book Notes on the State of Virginia

Query XIII
1780s, Notes on the State of Virginia
Context: All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating these in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. [... ] As little will it avail us that they are chosen by ourselves. An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by others.

“If we believe that there are some irreducibly normative truths, we might be believing what we ought to believe. If there are such truths, one of these truths would be that we ought to believe that there are such truths. If instead we believe that there are no such truths, we could not be believing what we ought to believe. If there were no such truths, there would be nothing that we ought to believe.”

Derek Parfit book Reasons and Persons

Source: Reasons and Persons (1984), p. 619

“The general election of 1983 has produced one important result that has passed virtually without comment in the media. It is that, for the first time since 1945, a political party with an openly socialist policy has received the support of over eight and a half million people. This is a remarkable development by any standards and it deserves some analysis … the 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made.”

Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician

The Guardian (20 June 1983).
1980s

“Although it was a very close election, I don't think it was a polarised election. It was a tough fought contest but it was not a divisive contest. Although he won by a whisker I think the party will unite behind Ed Miliband.”

Harriet Harman (1950) British politician

On the Labour Leadership Election result http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/2010/09/27/new-leader-ed-miliband-vows-to-unite-labour-as-party-face-elections-to-decide-who-sits-in-shadow-cabinet-86908-22590365/, September 27, 2010.

“The PP has spent 3 years thinking about the election (in 2008), but I think that one has to give them some advice: to prepare themselves to carry on thinking, but about the election in 2012.”

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (1960) Former Prime Minister of Spain

Meeting on the 14th August 2007 in Jerez, predicting another PSOE victory in the 2008 elections.
Source: ABC http://www.abc.es/20070815/nacional-politica/zapatero-advierte-sera-firme_200708150245.html
As President, 2007

“Is it with respect to the reference point of American elections? Or is it with respect to the 1999 elections or is it in respect to the 1983 elections in Nigeria or to the 2003 elections? So when people make statements, or even organizations, or even the U. S. State Department, they should qualify such statements and we know the reference point from which they are making their statement against. Once you know the reference point, then it will actually make sense.”

Umaru Yar'Adua (1951–2010) President of Nigeria

Winner of Disputed Nigerian Presidential Election Denies Fraud http://web.archive.org/web/20070527110842/http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-04-23-voa59.cfm (April 23 2007)

“Well, I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President-elect Trump. It was wide-ranging. We talked about some of the organizational issues in setting up a White House. We talked about foreign policy. We talked about domestic policy.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2016, Presidential transition of Donald Trump (November 2016)

“What happens then when majorities in the directly elected European Assembly take decisions, or approve policies, or vote budgets which are regarded by the British electorate or by the electorate of some of the mammoth constituencies as highly offensive and prejudicial to their interests? What do the European MPs say to their constituents? They say: “Don't blame me; I had no say, nor did I and my Labour (or Conservative) colleagues, have any say in the framing of these policies”. He will then either add: “Anyhow, I voted against”; or alternatively he will add: “And don't misunderstand if I voted for this along with my German, French, and Italian pals, because if I don't help roll their logs, I shall never get them to roll any of mine”. What these pseudo-MPs will not be able to say is what any MP in a democracy must be able to say, namely, either “I voted against this, and if the majority of my party are elected next time, we will put it right”, or alternatively, “I supported this because it is part of the policy and programme for which a majority in this constituency and in the country voted at the last election and which we shall be proud to defend at the next election”. Direct elections to the European Assembly, so far from introducing democracy and democratic control, will strengthen the arbitrary and bureaucratic nature of the Community by giving a fallacious garb of elective authority to the exercise of supranational powers by institutions and persons who are – in the literal, not the abusive, sense of the word – irresponsible.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech in Brighton (24 October 1977), from Enoch Powell on 1992 (Anaya, 1989), pp. 19-20.
1970s

“The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Speaking about Don't ask, don't tell, before students at Iowa State University — [The Washington Post, The Washington Post Company, February 3, 2010, Michael D., Shear, McCain appears to shift on 'don't ask, don't tell', http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202588.html, 2010-10-28]
2000s, 2006

“I don't believe that the policies on which we fought the [1983] election ought to be ejected like some sort of spent cartridge.”

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