Quotes about democrat
page 17

“The US Democratic Party increasingly emulates the economic and metaphysical collectivism of Nazism and fascism, while the Republican Party echoes the fascistic militarism and expansionism of the Third Reich.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: Killing History: The False Left-Right Political Spectrum and the Battle between the ‘Free Left’ and the ‘Statist Left', (2019), p. 412

Karl Dönitz photo
Baruch Spinoza photo
Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo
Wilhelm Reich photo
Su Tseng-chang photo

“Taiwan is a free, democratic and liberal nation, so the government would not issue a mask ban, but the government would not tolerate masked thugs, such as the man who tossed red paint on Hong Kong singer and rights advocate Denise Ho on the sidelines of a rally last month.”

Su Tseng-chang (1947) Taiwanese politician

Su Tseng-chang (2019) cited in " No ban on rally masks, MOI head and premier say http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/10/09/2003723647" on Taipei Times, 9 October 2019.

Selahattin Demirtaş photo
Shankar Dayal Sharma photo
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy photo
Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Reuven Rivlin photo

“There are red lines that I as a democrat, say you cannot cross. I see it as defiance against Israel and Jerusalem as its capital as well as another protest against the historical narrative, a matter already pending before the High Court.”

Reuven Rivlin (1939) Israeli politician, 10th President of Israel

Responding to a MK Tibi-proposed bill recognising Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state
Israel national news http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/229567#.U5gRtvldXs9, 16 January 2012

Gopal Krishna Gokhale photo
Ted Cruz photo

“Lucifer in the flesh, I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

Ted Cruz (1970) American politician

John Boehner, when asked his opinions on Ted Cruz during an appearance at Stanford University. http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/04/28/john-boehner-talks-election-time-in-office/

“We believe in a democratic society by governments freely and periodically elected by the people… We believe, in the virtue of hard work and that those who work harder in society should be given greater rewards… We believe that the world does not owe us a living and that we have to earn our keep.”

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (1915–2006) Early life

Adapted from speech by S Rajaratnam, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at a dinner in honour of His Excellency Mr. Hans Dietrich Genscher, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
20 April 1977.

William McKinley photo
Josefa Iloilo photo

“I welcome the democratic process allowing all sections of society to express their views on the proposed legislation. The debate taking place is, in itself, helping the nation to understand that reconciliation is a difficult but necessary process.”

Josefa Iloilo (1920–2011) President of Fiji

on the government's controversial plans to set up a Commission empowered to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the political upheaval of 2000
Speech opening Parliament, 1 August 2005 (excerpts)

Jimmy Carter photo
John Stuart Mill photo

“In those days I had seen little further than the old school of political economists into the possibilities of fundamental improvement in social arrangements. Private property, as now understood, and inheritance, appeared to me, as to them, the dernier mot of legislation: and I looked no further than to mitigating the inequalities consequent on these institutions, by getting rid of primogeniture and entails. The notion that it was possible to go further than this in removing the injustice -- for injustice it is, whether admitting of a complete remedy or not -- involved in the fact that some are born to riches and the vast majority to poverty, I then reckoned chimerical, and only hoped that by universal education, leading to voluntary restraint on population, the portion of the poor might be made more tolerable. In short, I was a democrat, but not the least of a Socialist. We were now much less democrats than I had been, because so long as education continues to be so wretchedly imperfect, we dreaded the ignorance and especially the selfishness and brutality of the mass: but our ideal of ultimate improvement went far beyond Democracy, and would class us decidedly under the general designation of Socialists. While we repudiated with the greatest energy that tyranny of society over the individual which most Socialistic systems are supposed to involve, we yet looked forward to a time when society will no longer be divided into the idle and the industrious; when the rule that they who do not work shall not eat, will be applied not to paupers only, but impartially to all; when the division of the produce of labour, instead of depending, as in so great a degree it now does, on the accident of birth, will be made by concert on an acknowledged principle of justice; and when it will no longer either be, or be thought to be, impossible for human beings to exert themselves strenuously in procuring benefits which are not to be exclusively their own, but to be shared with the society they belong to. The social problem of the future we considered to be, how to unite the greatest individual liberty of action, with a common ownership in the raw material of the globe, and an equal participation of all in the benefits of combined labour. We had not the presumption to suppose that we could already foresee, by what precise form of institutions these objects could most effectually be attained, or at how near or how distant a period they would become practicable. We saw clearly that to render any such social transformation either possible or desirable, an equivalent change of character must take place both in the uncultivated herd who now compose the labouring masses, and in the immense majority of their employers. Both these classes must learn by practice to labour and combine for generous, or at all events for public and social purposes, and not, as hitherto, solely for narrowly interested ones. But the capacity to do this has always existed in mankind, and is not, nor is ever likely to be, extinct. Education, habit, and the cultivation of the sentiments, will make a common man dig or weave for his country, as readily as fight for his country. True enough, it is only by slow degrees, and a system of culture prolonged through successive generations, that men in general can be brought up to this point. But the hindrance is not in the essential constitution of human nature. Interest in the common good is at present so weak a motive in the generality not because it can never be otherwise, but because the mind is not accustomed to dwell on it as it dwells from morning till night on things which tend only to personal advantage. When called into activity, as only self-interest now is, by the daily course of life, and spurred from behind by the love of distinction and the fear of shame, it is capable of producing, even in common men, the most strenuous exertions as well as the most heroic sacrifices. The deep-rooted selfishness which forms the general character of the existing state of society, is so deeply rooted, only because the whole course of existing institutions tends to foster it; modern institutions in some respects more than ancient, since the occasions on which the individual is called on to do anything for the public without receiving its pay, are far less frequent in modern life, than the smaller commonwealths of antiquity.”

Source: Autobiography (1873)
Source: https://archive.org/details/autobiography01mill/page/230/mode/1up pp. 230-233

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Ulysses S. Grant photo

“I am a Republican, as the two great political parties as now divided, because the Republican party is a National party, seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. There is not a precinct in this vast Nation where a Democrat cannot cast his ballot and have it counted as cast. No matter what the prominence of the opposite party, he can proclaim his political opinions, even if he is only one among a thousand, without fear and without proscription on account of his opinions.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

As quoted in Words of Our Hero, Ulysses S. Grant https://books.google.com/books?id=wqJBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=%22the+one+thing+i+never+wanted+to+see+again+was+a+military+parade%22&source=bl&ots=zH525oYpJn&sig=ACfU3U0GLPNgij-FmXIDwgWp_Kg8zDskWg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4uc7PzKniAhUq1lkKHWhlBfQQ6AEwBXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20one%20thing%20i%20never%20wanted%20to%20see%20again%20was%20a%20military%20parade%22&f=false, by Jeremiah Chaplin, p. 57
1880s, Speech at Warren, Ohio (1880)

Ulysses S. Grant photo

“I am a Republican for many other reasons. The Republican party assures protection to life and property, the public credit and the payment of the debts of the Government, State, county, or municipality so far as it can control. The Democratic party does not promise this; if it does, it has broken its promises to the extent of hundreds of millions, as many Northern Democrats can testify to their sorrow.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

As quoted in Words of Our Hero, Ulysses S. Grant https://books.google.com/books?id=wqJBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=%22the+one+thing+i+never+wanted+to+see+again+was+a+military+parade%22&source=bl&ots=zH525oYpJn&sig=ACfU3U0GLPNgij-FmXIDwgWp_Kg8zDskWg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4uc7PzKniAhUq1lkKHWhlBfQQ6AEwBXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20one%20thing%20i%20never%20wanted%20to%20see%20again%20was%20a%20military%20parade%22&f=false, by Jeremiah Chaplin, p. 58
1880s, Speech at Warren, Ohio (1880)

Max Eastman photo

“Stalinism is worse than fascism, more ruthless, barbarous, unjust, immoral, anti-democratic, unredeemed by any hope or scruple, ... better described as superfascist.”

Max Eastman (1883–1969) American activist

Source: Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism (1940), p. 82

Will Durant photo

“Hitler in 1919 took a position in the Communist run Bavarian Soviet Republic, wearing in public a red armband, according to a number of historians including Thomas Weber. And a little later after the Bavarian Soviet Republic was defeated, Hitler claimed to be a ‘social democrat.’”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: Killing History: The False Left-Right Political Spectrum and the Battle between the ‘Free Left’ and the ‘Statist Left', (2019), p. 285

Steven Crowder photo
Benny Tai photo

“We’re moving from a semi-democratic to a semi-authoritarian system and the central government wants to limit our freedoms.”

Benny Tai (1964) Hong Kong activist and writer

April 23, 2018 Free speech fears as Beijing attacks Hong Kong professor https://www.ft.com/content/02439b1e-3efb-11e8-b7e0-52972418fec4

Joe Biden photo

“I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace—someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn't pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.”

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

1970s
Source: Philadelphia Enquirer (Oct. 12, 1975) Alana Goodman, “Joe Biden once said Democrats needed ‘a liberal George Wallace’” https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/joe-biden-once-said-democrats-needed-a-liberal-george-wallace, Washington Examiner (Feb. 7, 2019)

José Napoleón Duarte photo

“When the structures and values of Salvadoran society exemplify a democratic system, then the revolution I have worked for will have taken place. This is my dream.”

José Napoleón Duarte (1925–1990) President of El Salvador

Duarte: My Story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-399-13202-3 (1986), G.P. Putnam's Sons
1980s

Bernie Sanders photo

“Let's talk about democratic socialism. We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. The problem is, as Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us, "We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor."”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

When Donald Trump gets $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury condominiums, that's socialism for the rich. We have to subsidize Walmart’s workers on Medicaid and food stamps because the wealthiest family in America pays starvation wages. That's socialism for the rich. I believe in democratic socialism for working people. Not billionaires. Health care for all. Educational opportunity for all.

2020-02-19

Bloomberg takes a beating, Sanders defends socialism in fiery debate

Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/19/democratic-debate-2020-best-moments-116169
2020

Alfred von Waldersee photo

“"Democrat" is among officers simply a term denoting a bad lot.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary, quoted in Walter Görlitz, History of the German General Staff, 1657-1945 https://ia801907.us.archive.org/34/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.285159/2015.285159.The-_text.pdf

Raewyn Connell photo
Ralph Nader photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“My administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the United States. We are ready. We are ready. Totally ready. On January 31st, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States. An action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested and now everybody’s complimenting me saying, “Thank you very much. You were 100% correct.””

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Could’ve been a whole different story. But I say, so let’s get this right. A virus starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries all around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took against a lot of other wishes, and the Democrats’ single talking point, and you see it, is that it’s Donald Trump’s fault, right? It’s Donald Trump’s fault. No, just things that happened.
2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

Donald J. Trump photo
Ralph Nader photo

“[W]e have all these myths... about a Democratic society... [W]e have been disintegrating our Democratic institutions for over 40 years.”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

"American Mythology and the Loss of Democracy" (2018)

Ralph Nader photo

“Democratic elections require that votes are supreme, not big-money. They require contested candidacies, not a two-party duopoly that increasingly reflects the same commercial interests.”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

"American Mythology and the Loss of Democracy" (2018)

Robert B. Reich photo
Trevor Loudon photo

“There are many roads to tyranny. “Democratic socialism” is but the subtlest and most benign sounding road to communism.”

Trevor Loudon New Zealand politician

Will ‘Democratic Socialism’ Lead to Communism? https://www.theepochtimes.com/will-democratic-socialism-lead-to-communism_2777705.html

Noam Chomsky photo
Richard D. Wolff photo

“A worker-coop based economy—where workers democratically run enterprises, deciding what, how and where to produce, and what to do with any profits—could, and likely would, put social needs and goals (like proper preparation for pandemics) ahead of profits. Workers are the majority in all capitalist societies; their interests are those of the majority. Employers are always a small minority; theirs are the "special interests" of that minority. Capitalism gives that minority the position, profits and power to determine how the society as a whole lives or dies. That's why all employees now wonder and worry about how long our jobs, incomes, homes and bank accounts will last—if we still have them. A minority (employers) decides all those questions and excludes the majority (employees) from making those decisions, even though that majority must live with their results. Of course, the top priority now is to put public health and safety first. To that end, employees across the country are now thinking about refusing to obey orders to work in unsafe job conditions. U.S. capitalism has thus placed a general strike on today's social agenda. A close second priority is to learn from capitalism's failure in the face of the pandemic. We must not suffer such a dangerous and unnecessary social breakdown again. Thus system change is now also moving onto today's social agenda.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (2020)

Richard D. Wolff photo
Kofi Annan photo
Marianne Williamson photo
Abdullah Öcalan photo

“There can be no respect for a family that is established on ignorance. In the construction of a democratic civilization, the role of the family is vital.”

Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK

Source: The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Liberating Life: Women's Revolution, pp.80

Abdullah Öcalan photo

“Democratic confederalism is a non-state social paradigm. It is not controlled by a state. At the same time, democratic confederalism is the organisation of democracy and culture.”

Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK

The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Democratic Confederalism, Principles of Democratic Confederalism

Abdullah Öcalan photo
Abdullah Öcalan photo

“Democratic confederalism is open towards other politcal groups and factions. It is flexible, multicultal, anti-monopolistic and consensus-oriented. Ecology and feminism are central pillars.”

Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK

p 39-40
The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Democratic Confederalism

H.L. Mencken photo

“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty; and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.”

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

"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s

“Governments can be democratic or not, more or less corrupt, but they will still pursue the same basic goals, and they will still be controlled by an elite. Government by its very nature concentrates power and excludes people from making decisions over their own lives.”

Peter Gelderloos (1982) American anarchist

Source: "The Failure of Nonviolence" (2013) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-the-failure-of-nonviolence, Chapter 4. The Color Revolutions

Jacques Delors photo

“[Only federalism] allows democratic control and can punish abuses of power. Only federalism can guarantee respect for national character and regional variety. ... The springtime of Europe is still before us.”

Jacques Delors (1925) French economist and politician

Speech to the European Parliament (19 January 1995), quoted in The Times (20 January 1995), p. 11
President of the European Commission

Arundhati Roy photo

“Are democratic governments accountable to the people who elected them? And, critically, is the public in democratic countries responsible for the actions...?”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Arundhati Roy: Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire, Speech, San Francisco, California https://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/23/public_power_in_the_age_of (16 August 2004)
Speeches

Arundhati Roy photo

“The question is: is “democracy” still democratic?”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Speeches

Elon Musk photo
Walter Reuther photo

“Democratic nations must seek and find unity in diversity, while Communists achieve unity through conformity.”

Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader

Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 133 If the peoples of great nations can work, sacrifice, fight, and die together because they share common fears and common hatreds in war, why can we not find a way to tap the great spiritual reservoir that lies deep within each of us and get people and nations working, sacrificing, and building together in peacetime because they share common hopes and common aspirations.

Albert Ho photo

“We need good government...And that must be based on a truly democratic government.”

Albert Ho (1951) Hong Kong politician

Source: July 25, 2014 Will protest or persuasion shape Hong Kong's future? https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/25/world/asia/hong-kong-future/index.html

Jack Kirby photo

“I knew this much — that everybody voted Democrat down my way. If you were poor, you voted Democrat and if you were rich you voted Republican.”

Jack Kirby (1917–1994) American comic book artist, writer and editor

Source: 1990, Gary Groth interview

Rand Paul photo

“I'm tired of America always doing everybody else's fighting. I'm tired of America always paying for everybody else's war.
What is the one thing that brings Republicans and Democrats together? War! They love it. The more the better.”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

4 February 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-hCP5Tp4Nw, excerpt from 5 February 2019 article on Reason https://reason.com/blog/2019/02/05/rand-paul-criticizes-bipartisan-support, there is a full transcript https://votesmart.org/public-statement/1319881/strengthening-americas-security-in-the-middle-east-act-of#.XKGWiJhKjIU from VoteSmart's list of his public statements https://votesmart.org/candidate/public-statements/117285/rand-paul
2019

Rosa Luxemburg photo
Rosa Luxemburg photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“A great many people say that there is a great battle going on in the world: between Fascism and Communism. Fascism is represented as Capitalism in its ultimate and final form, when it controls the state wholly. Communism is represented as the final expression of democracy. But this theory was invented by fascists and communists. To a democrat, looking on, it seems like a sham battle.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
pp. 29-30

Montesquieu photo
Glenn Greenwald photo

“It's so ironic they [the Democratic Party] spent four years claiming they are fighting fascism and authoritarianism, and what are they trying to do now? They're trying to harness corporate and monopoly power to silence everyone who disagrees with them, the very hallmark, the epitome of the fascism they claim to be fighting, but which in reality they embody.”

Glenn Greenwald (1967) American journalist, lawyer and writer

"Greenwald: Democratic Party the epitome of fascism they claim to fight" https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/greenwald-democratic-party-the-epitome-of-fascism-they-claim-to-fight, Fox News, 25 January 2021.

John Strachey photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat. It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn't be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats. ...But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we've had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzner, as quoted by * Trump in '04: 'I probably identify more as Democrat'
CNN
Chris Moody
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/21/politics/donald-trump-election-democrat/index.html
2000s, 2004

Stephen Robson photo
Boris Yeltsin photo

“Despite all the difficulties and severe trials being experienced by the people, the democratic process in the country is acquiring an increasingly broad sweep and an irreversible character. The peoples of Russia are becoming masters of their destiny.”

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

Appeal to citizens of Russia http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-august-coup/the-august-coup-texts/eltsins-defiance/ to oppose the 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev. (19 August 1991)
1990s

Justin Barrett photo
Tucker Carlson photo
Ferdinand Marcos photo

“We love your adherence to democratic principles and to democratic processes.”

Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) former President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986

Vice President George Bush addressing Marcos, on his visit to Manila, 1981
About

Chiang Kai-shek photo

“If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China.”

Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) Chinese politician and military leader

Taiwan's Modernization: Americanization and Modernizing Confucian Manifestations, Wei-Bin Zhang, 2003, World Scientific, 2003, 177, 9814486132, 23 May 2021 https://books.google.com/books?id=J3BpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177,

Stephen Chmilar photo

“It is the responsibility of all to stand up against any systemic discrimination by the government in a democratic society; this is a principle which Ukrainians certainly understand intimately.”

Bishop urges Catholic groups to renege after they signed Trudeau’s pro-abortion pledge https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-urges-catholic-groups-to-renege-after-they-signed-trudeaus-pro-abort (May 3, 2018)

Elizabeth Cheney photo

“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

Elizabeth Cheney (1966) American lawyer

[Alex Rogers and Manu Raju, https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/03/politics/liz-cheney-criticism-trump-big-lie/index.html, Cheney calls out Trump's latest attempt to promote 'BIG LIE' amid criticism from within her own party, cnn.com, May 3, 2021, May 7, 2021]

Michael Parenti photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“It may be said, therefore, that the military opinion of the world is opposed to those people who cry 'Democratize the army!'”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

and it must be remembered that an army is not a field upon which persons with Utopian ideas may exercise their political theories, but a weapon for the defence of the State.
British Cavalry, The Anglo-Saxon Review, March 1901.
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol I, Churchill at War, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 60. ISBN 0903988429
Early career years (1898–1929)

“Democracy in itself does not define or guarantee a free society. History has told many stories of democratic societies that have degenerated into corruption, plunder, and tyranny.”

Richard Ebeling (1950) American economist

“Beware Democracy without Liberty” https://fee.org/articles/beware-democracy-without-liberty/, Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), (April 1, 2005)

Bhaskar Sunkara photo
Tadeusz Mazowiecki photo

“We reject a political philosophy asserting that economic reforms can be launched over and against society, above people's heads - one that pushes democratic change aside.”

Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927–2013) Polish politician and prime minister

"Inaugural address of Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki" https://polishfreedom.pl/en/document/statement-inaugural-address-of-the-prime-minister-tadeusz-mazowiecki-delivered-at-the-seym-session-on-12th-september-1989 (12 September 1989)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki photo

“We all desire to live with dignity in a sovereign, democratic, and law-abiding state, one that everybody - regardless of their worldviews and ideological and political diversity - can consider their own.”

Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927–2013) Polish politician and prime minister

"Inaugural address of Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki" https://polishfreedom.pl/en/document/statement-inaugural-address-of-the-prime-minister-tadeusz-mazowiecki-delivered-at-the-seym-session-on-12th-september-1989 (12 September 1989)

Ayaz Mutallibov photo

“The course to democratic transformation is not justified if we cannot defend our land.”

Ayaz Mutallibov (1938–2022) Soviet politician, then president of Azerbaijan

Source: "Azerbaijani Leader, Restored To Power, Imposes Emergency Rule" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:epcCRJyvH3AJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/15/azerbaijani-leader-restored-to-power-imposes-emergency-rule/c4a5d291-a743-4227-90db-54e0f9739b80/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (15 May 1992)

Aleksandar Vučić photo

“Extremist ideas are something that will kill us all in the Balkans, something that will ruin our still very fragile democratic societies.”

Aleksandar Vučić (1970) President of Serbia

Source: "Aleksandar Vučić: Let’s not go back to the ’90s" in POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/aleksandar-vucic-interview-serbia-balkans-migration-kosovo-bosnia/ (14 April 2016)

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj photo

“We should never take democracy for granted. Neither should we worship it. It must be nurtured and strengthened on a daily basis. It is our way of living, our state of mind. A democratic society is sustainable because it aims at the highest development of every one of its members.”

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (1963) Mongolian politician

Source: "Statement at the General Debate Of The 71th Session Of The United Nations General Assembly On “the Sustainable Development Goals: A Universal Push To Transform Our World”" https://www.un.int/mongolia/statements_speeches/statement-his-excellency-mr-tsakhia-elbegdorj-president-mongolia-general-debate (20 September 2016)

Mitch McConnell photo

“The pathway our Democratic colleagues have accepted will spare the American people any near-term crisis”

Mitch McConnell (1942) US Senator from Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader

Source: " Trump urges GOP senators to vote against McConnell debt deal https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/575876-trump-urged-gop-senators-to-vote-against-mcconnell-debt-deal" (October 7,2021)

Benazir Bhutto photo
Steve Bannon photo

“The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

Steve Bannon (1953) American media executive and former White House Chief Strategist for Donald Trump

Source: According to " “Flood the zone with shit”: How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/impeachment-trial-trump-bannon-misinformation" (2018)

Steven Crowder photo

“As though adding the word democratic in front of a word changes what it means.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

Source: https://www.prageru.com/video/democratic-socialism-is-still-socialism/

Steven Crowder photo
Nambaryn Enkhbayar photo

“We aim to develop as a nation where healthy, educated people will live without poverty ... building a democratic country that is environmentally friendly, is connected to international financial networks, has a competitive economy and respects human rights.”

Nambaryn Enkhbayar (1958) Mongolian politician, Leader of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party

Source: "In-depth interview - Reviving Mongolia’s early globalism" in Korea JoongAng Daily https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2007/06/05/people/Indepth-interviewReviving-Mongolias-early-globalism/2876407.html (5 June 2007)

Subramanian Swamy photo
Nancy Pelosi photo

“At the same time, we must lift the debt ceiling and hope that we can have a unanimous Democratic vote and perhaps a bipartisan vote to do so”

Nancy Pelosi (1940) American politician, first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, born 1940

Source: " Pelosi writes to Democrats about Build Back Better https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/oct/12/debt-ceiling-deal-latest-biden-pelosi-democrats-us-politics-infrastructure-live?page=with:block-61658bda8f089af1cb01c728#block-61658bda8f089af1cb01c728" (October 12, 2021)

Henry Miller photo

“[T]he blind lead the blind, it's the democratic way.”

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945)
Source: "With Edgar Varèse in the Gobi Desert", p. 166

Michael McFaul photo

“Today, however, Russia and China are united as autocracies. They do have this ideological connection. Both countries have tense relations with the United States and the liberal democratic world, and that brings them together.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Toward a “Grander Strategy of Containing Putin’s Russia”: Ambassador Michael McFaul on Engagement and Containment in a New Era of Great Power Competition" in The Yale Review of International Studies http://yris.yira.org/comments/5314 (June 2021)

“Kosovo and Taiwan, as two democratic countries, will fight against authoritarianism side by side.”

Source: Blerta Deliu-Kodra (2021) cited in " Taiwan, Kosovo parliamentary groups formed to boost bilateral ties https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202112210007" on Focus Taiwan, 21 December 2021.

Zdravko Krivokapić photo

“Freedom is more important than what the DPS (Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro) and those who are with it offer.”

Zdravko Krivokapić (1958) Montenegrin politician and professor

Source: Zdravko Krivokapić (2021) cited in: " Montenegro’s opposition pulls no-confidence motion against government https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/montenegros-opposition-pulls-no-confidence-motion-against-government/" in Euractiv, 14 December 2021.

Bob Casey Sr. photo

“What has become of the Democratic Party I once knew?”

Bob Casey Sr. (1932–2000) American politician (1932-2000)

Source: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/no-violence/civil/hentoff_casey.html 1992