Quotes about democrat
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Shankar Dayal Sharma photo

“The demand for a Constituent Assembly was intrinsically linked to our larger goal of Freedom and Independence. The resolution for Purna Swaraj in 1929 had aroused great nationalist fervour and galvanized the people to take part with renewed vigour in the Freedom Movement. The clear and unambiguous articulation of this deep-rooted longing of the people of India to be in control of their own destiny contained within itself the idea of a democratic Constitution which would provide a framework for the governance of independent India by the Indian people. Clearly, such a Constitution could only be drawn up by the elected representatives of the people of India. It was from this unassailable logic that the demand for a Constituent Assembly was articulated by Panditji. The proposal was accepted by the Indian National Congress in 1934, whereafter it became a significant part of the nationalist agenda for Independent India.”

Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918–1999) Indian politician

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has compelled me to study, among other things, the implications of a Constituent Assembly. When he first introduced it in the Congress resolutions, I reconciled myself to it because of my belief in his superior knowledge of the technicalities of democracy. But I was not free from skepticism. Hard facts have, however, made me a convert and, for that reason perhaps, more enthusiastic than Jawaharlal himself.
Address By Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma President Of India On The Occasion Of The 50th Anniversary Of The First Sitting Of The Constituent Assembly

Matt Mullenweg photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
Umberto Eco photo

“A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

"Can Television Teach?" in Screen Education 31 (1979), p. 12

Paulo Freire photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Glenn Jacobs photo
Amir Taheri photo

“As some of us noted before Saddam Hussein’s 2003 fall, banning the Ba’ath as such was a mistake – for, in a sense, the Ba’ath had also been a victim of Saddam’s savage rule. The Ba’ath, modeled on European fascist parties, was never a democratic movement. Yet, before Saddam turned it into an empty shell to be filled with his personality cult, it had been a genuine political movement, representing a significant segment of Iraqi opinion. It had started as a predominantly Shiite party seeking to downplay sectarianism by promoting pan-Arab ideas. Saddam turned it into a sectarian party, first dominated by the Arab Sunni minority and eventually by his Tikriti clan. The wisest course would’ve been to let those Ba’athists who had been purged, imprisoned and exiled under Saddam to reclaim their party and rebuild it with full respect for Iraq’s new democratic and pluralist political system. Those Ba’athists who committed crimes were known to all and could’ve been blacklisted and tried as individuals. The blanket ban suddenly transformed some 1.4 million civil servants, including tens of thousands of teachers and medical doctors and some half a million military personnel, into pariahs simply because they’d been nominal Ba’ath members. Yet most had joined simply to protect their careers under a brutal regime.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

"Iraq: Reconciling with the Ba'ath" http://nypost.com/2008/01/16/iraq-reconciling-with-the-baath/, New York Post (January 16, 2008).
New York Post

Donald J. Trump photo
Joe Biden photo

“I would respectfully suggest to you that the Democrats out there understand I am the only person with a plan that can get out of Iraq without our interests in the region not falling apart.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Conference call https://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/01/31/cq_2212.html?pagewanted=all with reporters after announcing candidacy for the 2008 Democratic president nomination (January 30, 2007)
2000s

Ann Coulter photo
Ian Buruma photo
Irving Kristol photo
George W. Bush photo
Richard Pipes photo
William Westmoreland photo
Paul Mason (journalist) photo
Mao Zedong photo
Rudy Giuliani photo

“In choosing a president, we really don't choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal. We choose a leader.”

Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City

Speech before the Republican Party convention in New York. August 30, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3613480.stm

Thaksin Shinawatra photo

“I think those who say that they are patriotic, they should be quiet and let the country run in a democratic way. In every election, if you don't like the government, you don't vote for it.”

Thaksin Shinawatra (1949) Thai politician

Interview with World Policy http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2016/04/21/interview-thaksin-shinawatra-thailand

Ammar Nakshawani photo
Condoleezza Rice photo

“In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.”

Condoleezza Rice (1954) American Republican politician; U.S. Secretary of State; political scientist

Speaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin; Moscow, 13 October 2007
[Matthew, Lee, http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3726222, Rice worried by Putin's broad powers, ABC News, 13 October 2007, 2007-10-14].

George S. McGovern photo

“I opened the doors of the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out. -ibid”

George S. McGovern (1922–2012) American politician, Congressman, senator, Democratic presidential candidate
David Foster Wallace photo
Allen West (politician) photo
Stanley Baldwin photo
Kurt Lewin photo
John McCain photo
Tawakkol Karman photo

“Women have become at the forefront of these demonstrations and lines in protests — in the medical camps, in the security services, in the strategic planning for the revolution and the strategic planning for the civil democratic society after the revolution.”

Tawakkol Karman (1979) Yemeni journalist, politician, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

2010s, Nobel Prize winner highlights women’s role in Arab Spring (2011)

Rudolph Rummel photo
Mao Zedong photo
Harry Turtledove photo

“And now, as a result of honoring our commitment to our gallant allies, that man Roosevelt has sought from the U. S. Congress a declaration of war not only against England and France but also against the Confederate States of America. His servile lackeys, misnamed Democrats, have given him what he wanted, and the telegraph informs me that fighting has begun along our border and on the high seas. Leading our great and peaceful people into war is a fearful thing, not least because, with the great advances of science and industry over the past half-century, this may prove the most disastrous and terrible of all wars, truly a war of the nations: indeed a war of the world. But right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for those things we have always held dear in our hearts: for the rights of the Confederate States and of the white men who live in them; for the liberties of small nations everywhere from outside oppression; for our own freedom and independence from the vicious, bloody regime to the north. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and fortunes, everything we are and all that we have, with the pride of those who know the day has come when the Confederacy is privileged to spend her blood and her strength for the principles that gave her birth and led to her present happiness. God helping us, we can do nothing else. Men of the Confederacy, is it your will that a state of war should exist henceforth between us and the United States of America?" "Yes!”

The answer roared from Reginald Bartlett's throat, as from those of the other tens of thousands of people jamming the Capitol Square. Someone flung a straw hat in the air. In an instant, hundreds of them, Bartlett's included, were flying. A great chorus of "Dixie" rang out, loud enough, Bartlett thought, for the damnyankees to hear it in Washington.
Source: The Great War: American Front (1998), p. 33

Bill O'Reilly photo
Adlai Stevenson photo

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Campaign statement in Fresno, California (10 September 1952); earlier incidence of similar comments exist:
If Mr. Hughes will stop lying about me, I will stop telling the truth about him.
William Randolph Hearst, about Charles Evans Hughes, in 1906, as quoted in The Quote Verifier : Who Said What, Where, and When (2006) by Ralph Keyes
If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican Party, I'lll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats.
Chauncey Depew, as quoted in "If Elected I Promise … "Stories and Gems of Wisdom by and About Politicians (1969) by John F. Parker

David Bossie photo
Albert Jay Nock photo
David Kurten photo
Vladimir Lenin photo
Ernest Bevin photo

“If I may again refer to the different political concepts, there is, I think rather unfortunately, running through all the speeches and writings of our Soviet friends the theory that they alone represent the workers — that they alone are democratic.”

Ernest Bevin (1881–1951) British labour leader, politician, and statesman

Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 423, col. 1827.
Speech in the House of Commons, 4 June 1946.

Milton Friedman photo

“[A] society which is socialist cannot also be democratic, in the sense of guaranteeing individual freedom.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

As quoted in "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy: A Symposium" https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/capitalism-socialism-and-democracy/ (1 April 1978), edited by William Barrett, Commentary

Ann Coulter photo
Owen Lovejoy photo

“I love the Constitution. It is enshrined in my heart. I love it better than any dozen Democrats in the land do tonight.”

Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician

As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA243 (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 243
1860s, Speech (October 1860)

Fred Thompson photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Richard T. Ely photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“The President of the Commission, M. Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No. No. No.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Debate in the House of Commons (30 October 1990) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-10-30/Debate-1.html
Third term as Prime Minister

Gyles Brandreth photo

“On the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government: I think it should be made clear that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, they have not got into bed together; they are merely sharing a room.”

Gyles Brandreth (1948) British writer, broadcaster and former Member of Parliament

The News Quiz series 72, episode 1 (BBC Radio 4, 24 September 2010).

Ann Coulter photo

“Like the Democrats, Playboy just wants to liberate women to behave like pigs, have sex without consequences, prance about naked, and abort children.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

2004, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) (2004)

Harry Schwarz photo

“If we are going to have greater unemployment, if we are going to have more unrest, the chances of a negotiated settlement will be less and in a revolutionary situation the chances of a truly free democratic society emerging are reduced.”

Harry Schwarz (1924–2010) South African activist

The Herald Times (1988) http://www.samedia.uovs.ac.za/cgi-bin/getpdf?id=1030957.
Sanctions and disinvestment from South Africa

Mao Zedong photo
Gracie Allen photo

“Next we have Obama's murderous use of America's military young for his and his party’s partisan political purposes. He kept U. S. soldiers in Iraq, a war which should never have been started, long after he had announced the war was un-winnable but just long enough to pile up heaps of dead and maimed American youngsters in order to make their withdrawal timely and useful for electoral purposes. Now we see Obama and his team keeping U. S. troops in Afghanistan long after he decided to surrender to the Islamists in that that war, and thereby knowingly enhance the strength, lethality, self-confidence, and ambitions of America’s most dangerous enemies by returning to them their key safe haven. Our troops are the cream of America's young and they ought not to be used by any president as if he was their owner. Obama, however, seems to regard them, as he does the unborn, as chattel to be disposed of as he and his advisers see fit to advance Democratic Party political prospects. Finally, we have Obama and his advisers seeking to financially enslave this generation of young Americans, and each generation that follows it, in order to pay for his health care program. Obama and his lieutenants are starting slow in this area, but the evidence of coming coercion, beyond the mandatory fine young people pay if they prove not to be servile, can be seen in West Virginia, where university students reportedly will not be allowed to matriculate unless they enroll in Obama Care This amounts to a 4-year term of indentured service for the privilege of paying extortionate tuition for a mediocre education offered by anti-American ideologues of Obama’s stripe. And make no mistake, these young people are not being threatened and ultimately coerced to forfeit their salary, savings, and future for the elderly and sick. They are being used to fund health care for the core groups, dare I say 'plantations', of the Democratic Party.”

Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst

As quoted in "Obama and his party offer America's young … death, misery, and slavery" http://non-intervention.com/1143/obama-and-his-party-offer-america%E2%80%99s-young-%E2%80%A6-death-misery-and-slavery/ (2013), by M. Scheuer, Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention.
2010s

Chandrika Kumaratunga photo

“We have erected a terribly divided Nation at War with each other – the Tamils and Sinhala against each other, the Tamils and Muslims similarly and the State against the Tamils and now against everyone who opposes them even democratically, irrespective of their community.”

Chandrika Kumaratunga (1945) President of Sri Lanka

Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration http://groundviews.org/2011/07/27/justice-palakidnar-memorial-oration-economic-development-inclusive-societies-and-peace/, speech delivered at the Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 24 July 2011.
Also quoted by BBC News, "Chandrika Kumaratunga berates Sri Lankan government" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14274988, 25 July 2011.

Alfred de Zayas photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo

“Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to spiritual aristocracy.”

Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) American theologian

As quoted in David Cantor and Alan M. Schwartz (1995), Anti-Defamation League book -The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism In America

Allen West (politician) photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Mohamed ElBaradei photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Dave Barry photo
Boutros Boutros-Ghali photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“In the past, the United States has sometimes, kind of sardonically, been described as a one-party state: the business party with two factions called Democrats and Republicans. That’s no longer true. It’s still a one-party state, the business party. But it only has one faction. The faction is moderate Republicans, who are now called Democrats. There are virtually no moderate Republicans in what’s called the Republican Party and virtually no liberal Democrats in what’s called the Democratic [sic] Party. It’s basically a party of what would be moderate Republicans and similarly, Richard Nixon would be way at the left of the political spectrum today. Eisenhower would be in outer space. There is still something called the Republican Party, but it long ago abandoned any pretence of being a normal parliamentary party. It’s in lock-step service to the very rich and the corporate sector and has a catechism that everyone has to chant in unison, kind of like the old Communist Party. The distinguished conservative commentator, one of the most respected – Norman Ornstein – describes today’s Republican Party as, in his words, “a radical insurgency – ideologically extreme, scornful of facts and compromise, dismissive of its political opposition””

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

a serious danger to the society, as he points out.
Quotes 2010s, 2013, Speech at DW Global Media Forum

George W. Bush photo
Jeane Kirkpatrick photo

“Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. (for democracy) In Britain, the road to (democratic government) took seven centuries to traverse.”

Jeane Kirkpatrick (1926–2006) American diplomat and Presidential advisor

Dictatorship and Double Standards, Commentary (New York, Nov. 1979), quoted in The Economist , 23 December 2006:131

Gerald Ford photo

“America now is stumbling through the darkness of hatred and divisiveness. Our values, our principles, and our determination to succeed as a free and democratic people will give us a torch to light the way. And we will survive and become the stronger — not only because of a patriotism that stands for love of country, but a patriotism that stands for love of people.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

Address to the state conference of the Order of DeMolay, Grand Rapids, Michigan (7 September 1968); published in Gerald R. Ford, Selected Speeches (1973) edited by Michael V. Doyle
1960s

Clement Attlee photo
Tony Benn photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Adolf Hitler photo

“Everyone was at one time a Social Democrat.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

As quoted in Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905-1924, Eberhard Jäckel and Axel Kuhn, (editors) Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1980, p. 448 (quote from 1921)
1920s

R. Venkataraman photo
Clarence Thomas photo
Patrick Buchanan photo
Ilana Mercer photo
James M. McPherson photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“In a democratic republic, where the mass of the people of all parties have the same interest at stake, some respect must be had to the feelings and wishes of the minority, especially when that minority is large and clamorous; otherwise, it will be impossible to avoid discord, and discord weakens the bonds of union.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Account of a conversation with Col. Richard M. Johnson in 1809, as recounted in A Biographical Sketch of Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, p.12 (Saxton & Miles, New York, 1843)
1800s, Post-Presidency (1809)

Thomas Sowell photo

“Right after liberal Democrats, the most dangerous politicians are country club Republicans.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thoughts http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/08/26/random_thoughts?page=full&comments=true, 26 August 2008.
2000s

Vasil Bykaŭ photo

“Today he (Lukashenka) won by the hands of "gorillas" in black masks. Already it is clear that there will be no Parliament in Belarus, no democratic election. The remains of a free press will disappear. A presidential Junta will govern the country… Well, we can congratulate Belarusians on the previous elections. Worse cannot be done. For ourselves, for society and for future generations.”

Vasil Bykaŭ (1924–2003) Belarusian writer

about results of Belarusian presidential election, 1994
“Ён Прыехаў, Сам Памёр, Усё Спакойна…” Апошнія Тыдні Васіля Быкава https://www.svaboda.org/amp/24853764.html // svaboda.org
(in Belarusian)

Ann Coulter photo
Jimmy Carter photo

“Within our country, ultimate decisions are made through democratic means, which tend to moderate radical or ill-advised proposals. Constrained and inspired by historic constitutional principles, our nation has endeavored for more than two hundred years to follow the now almost universal ideals of freedom, human rights, and justice for all.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Context: The world has changed greatly since I left the White House. Now there is only one superpower, with unprecedented military and economic strength. The coming budget for American armaments will be greater than those of the next fifteen nations combined, and there are troops from the United States in many countries throughout the world. Our gross national economy exceeds that of the three countries that follow us, and our nation's voice most often prevails as decisions are made concerning trade, humanitarian assistance, and the allocation of global wealth. This dominant status is unlikely to change in our lifetimes.
Great American power and responsibility are not unprecedented, and have been used with restraint and great benefit in the past. We have not assumed that super strength guarantees super wisdom, and we have consistently reached out to the international community to ensure that our own power and influence are tempered by the best common judgment.
Within our country, ultimate decisions are made through democratic means, which tend to moderate radical or ill-advised proposals. Constrained and inspired by historic constitutional principles, our nation has endeavored for more than two hundred years to follow the now almost universal ideals of freedom, human rights, and justice for all.

Arthur Scargill photo
Antonin Scalia photo

“Judges who find Constitutional rights the Framers never intended take important issues out of the public space of democratic debate and suspend them in a sort of legal formaldehyde.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Speech at University of Vermont, 8 October 2004 http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=article.php&id=1389
2000s

Bill Maher photo
Jesse Ventura photo
Max Scheler photo

“"Another situation generally exposed to ressentiment danger is the older generation's relation with the younger. The process of aging can only be fruitful and satisfactory if the important transitions are accompanied by free resignation, by the renunciation of the values proper to the preceding stage of life. Those spiritual and intellectual values which remain untouched by the process of aging, together with the values of the next stage of life, must compensate for what has been lost. Only if this happens can we cheerfully relive the values of our past in memory, without envy for the young to whom they are still accessible. If we cannot compensate, we avoid and flee the “tormenting” recollection of youth, thus blocking our possibilities of understanding younger people. At the same time we tend to negate the specific values of earlier stages. No wonder that youth always has a hard fight to sustain against the ressentiment of the older generation. Yet this source of ressentiment is also subject to an important historical variation. In the earliest stages of civilization, old age as such is so highly honored and respected for its experience that ressentiment has hardly any chance to develop. But education spreads through printing and other modern media and increasingly replaces the advantage of experience. Younger people displace the old from their positions and professions and push them into the defensive. As the pace of “progress” increases in all fields, and as the changes of fashion tend to affect even the higher domains (such as art and science), the old can no longer keep up with their juniors. “Novelty‟ becomes an ever greater value. This is doubly true when the generation as such is seized by an intense lust for life, and when the generations compete with each other instead of cooperating for the creation of works which outlast them. “Every cathedral,” Werner Sombart writes, “every monastery, every town hall, every castle of the Middle Ages bears testimony to the transcendence of the individual's span of life: its completion spans generations which thought that they lived for ever. Only when the individual cut himself loose from the community which outlasted him, did the duration of his personal life become his standard of happiness.” Therefore buildings are constructed ever more hastily—Sombart cites a number of examples. A corresponding phenomenon is the ever more rapid alternation of political regimes which goes hand in hand with the progression of the democratic movement. But every change of government, every parliamentary change of party domination leaves a remnant of absolute opposition against the values of the new ruling group. This opposition is spent in ressentiment the more the losing group feels unable to return to power. The “retired official” with his followers is a typical ressentiment figure. Even a man like Bismarck did not entirely escape from this danger."”

Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Ilana Mercer photo

“I hope I speak for Deplorables when I say this: The only time you want the president to reach across the aisle on matters immigration is to grab a Democrat or an errant Republican by the throat.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Ice Agents Prefer Deporting Illegals To Changing Their Diapers" http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/02/ice-agents-like-deporting-illegals-better-than-changing-their-diapers/ The Daily Caller, March 3, 2017
2010s, 2017

Kim Il-sung photo
Dick Cheney photo
Vladimir Lenin photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“Democratic man can understand the aims and aspirations of capitalism; they are, greatly magnified, simply his own aims and aspirations.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)

Margaret Thatcher photo
Michael Moore photo
Mario Cuomo photo