Quotes about election
page 10

Augusto Pinochet photo

“If Senator Kennedy is elected President of the United States, the government of Chile will take the necessary measures.”

Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) Former dictator of the republic of Chile

Speech (11 September 1979), quoted in "Las frases para el bronce de Pinochet."
1970s

Louise Bours photo
Charles Krauthammer photo

“If Obama has his way, the change that is coming is a new America: "fair," leveled and social democratic. Obama didn't get elected to warranty your muffler. He's here to warranty your life.”

Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018) American journalist

Column, April 2, 2009, "Obama’s Ultimate Agenda" http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer040309.php3 at jewishworldreview.com.
2000s, 2009

John Nance Garner photo

“Worst damnfool mistake I ever made was letting myself be elected Vice President of the United States. Should have stuck with my old chores as Speaker of the House. I gave up the second most important job in the Government for one that didn't amount to a hill of beans. I spent eight long years as Mr. Roosevelt's spare tire. I might still be Speaker if I didn't let them elect me Vice-President.”

John Nance Garner (1868–1967) American politician

Comment shortly after leaving office, on leaving his post as speaker of the United States House of Representative to become the Vice President, quoted by Frank X. Tolbert, "What is Cactus Jack Up to Now," Saturday Evening Post (November 2, 1963) and recounted in Alden Whitman's obituary of Garner in the New York Times (November 8, 1967).

Garry Kasparov photo
George Washington Plunkitt photo
Herbert Hoover photo
Nicholas D. Kristof photo

“One takeaway from this astonishing presidential election is that fake news is gaining ground, empowering nuts and undermining our democracy.”

Nicholas D. Kristof (1959) journalist, author, columnist

Lies in the Guise of News in the Trump Era (November 12, 2016)

Brandon Flowers photo

“Barack Obama being elected. I think about how… um… how my sons will grow up only knowing a black President. [Wells with tears] I can’t explain how that’s changed America. There’s an optimism now that wasn’t there for black people.”

Brandon Flowers (1981) American indie rock singer

When asked what the most culturally significant event for him between 2000 and 2010
" Brandon Flowers On His Sons http://www.ibabycouture.com/blog/?p=3729", BabyCouture (accessed December 20, 2010)

Christopher Monckton photo
Boris Johnson photo
Harvey Milk photo
Elizabeth May photo

“Of all the deteriorating aspects of Canadian democracy, the lack of concern over the ability of the national police force to interfere in elections is the one that most suggests Third World politics.”

Elizabeth May (1954) Canadian politician

Source: Losing Confidence - Power, politics, And The Crisis In Canadian Democracy (2009), Chapter 5, Police State?, p. 124

Adam Gopnik photo
Bill Maher photo
Patrick Buchanan photo

“How did it happen that a republic born of a rebellion against a king and parliament we did not elect has fallen under a tyranny of judges we did not elect?”

Patrick Buchanan (1938) American politician and commentator

2000s, Where the Right Went Wrong (2004)

Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Alberto Gonzales photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“I have heard it said that the Government had no mandate for rearmament until the General Election. Such a doctrine is wholly inadmissible. The responsibility of Ministers for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate.”

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

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1936/nov/12/debate-on-the-address#column_1105 in the House of Commons (12 November 1936)
The 1930s

Tony Benn photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Kamisese Mara photo
Harlan F. Stone photo
Al Gore photo
Norodom Ranariddh photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“Sanders: I have a D minus voting record, from the NRA. I lost an election probably, for congress here in Vermont back in 1988, because I believe we should not be selling or distributing assault weapons in this country. I am on record and have been for a very long time in saying we have got to significantly tighten up the background checks. We have to end the absurdity of the gun show loophole. 40 percent of the guns in this country are sold without any background checks. We have to deal with the straw man provision which allows people to legally buy guns and then distribute. We’ve got to take on the NRA. And that is my view. And I am, will do everything I can to—the tragedy that we saw in Parkland is unspeakable. And all over this country, parents are scared to death of what might happen when they send their kids to school. This problem is not going to be easily solved. Nobody has a magic solution, alright, but we’ve got to do everything we can do protect the children—
Todd: What does that mean? You say everything we can. Does that mean raising the age when you can purchase an AR-15? Does that mean limiting the purchase of AR-15s?
Sanders: Yes! Yeah, look. Chuck, what I just told you is that for 30 years, I believe that we should not be selling assault weapons in this country. These weapons are not for hunting, they are for killing human beings. These are military weapons. I do not know why we have five million of them running around the United States of America, so of course we have to do that. Of course we have to make it harder for people to purchase weapons. We have people now who are on terrorist watch lists who can purchase a weapon. Does this make any sense to anybody. Bottom line here, Republicans are going to have to say that it’s more important to protect the children of this country than to antagonize the NRA. Are they prepared to do that, I surely hope they are.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Interviewed by Chuck Todd of NBC News on Meet the Press on 18 February 2018 after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting ([Meet the Press - 18 February 2018, 18 February 2018, 1 September 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-february-18-2018-n849191, NBC News, Meet the Press]).
2010s, 2018

Koenraad Elst photo
John Cornyn photo

“Well, you know, that's the problem in America, we're always having elections.”

John Cornyn (1952) United States Senator from Texas

American Morning http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/29/ltm.01.html (March 29, 2006)

Harry V. Jaffa photo

“The seven states of the Deep South, the same seven states that seceded after Lincoln's election and before his inauguration, demanded as a plank in the Democratic platform, without which they would not support Douglas, a slave code for the territories.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), The Right of Secession Is Not the Right of Revolution

“There was no democracy neither in Lithuania's, nor in Ukraine's elections - rules of the game were dictated by those, who had most money.”

Mindaugas Murza (1973) Lithuanian politician

Quoted in Murza supports dictator http://www.lt24.lt/lt/content/viewitem/1371/

Ron Paul photo
John Thune photo

“I can't believe someone this ignorant gets elected to the United States Senate.”

John Thune (1961) United States Senator from South Dakota

Michael Bloomberg, July 22, 2009. http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/Bloomberg_Thune_has_a_lot_of_nerve.html
About

Ben Sasse photo
Rutherford B. Hayes photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo

“How, for example, did Obama get elected as a complete unknown? … There is a one word answer: slavery. America's national guilt over slavery continues to benefit Obama, who ironically is not himself descended from slaves.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

Source: Books, America: Imagine a World without Her (2014), Ch. 1

Chelsea Manning photo
O. Henry photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Buckminster Fuller photo

“Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

As quoted in Synergetics Dictionary : The Mind of Buckminster Fuller (1986) by E. J. Applewhite
From 1980s onwards

Karen Handel photo
Michelle Obama photo

“To make matters worse, they have elected a foetus as the party leader. I bet a lot of them wish they had not voted against abortion now!”

Tony Banks (1942–2006) British politician

"Beyond a joke: the ones that went too far" http://politics.guardian.co.uk/redbox/story/0,9029,1157599,00.html, Guardian Unlimited, 27 February 2004.
comment on both the Conservative Party leader William Hague and the abortion debate at a Labour Party conference fringe meeting, 1997.

Antonin Scalia photo
Lewis H. Lapham photo
Richard Nixon photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Pat Robertson photo

“Pat Robertson: He's going to have a second term. He's going to win. Romney will win the election.
Benny Hinn: You believe that.
Pat Robertson: I absolutely believe that.
Benny Hinn: What makes you believe that?
Pat Robertson: Cause the Lord told me.”

Pat Robertson (1930) American media mogul, executive chairman, and a former Southern Baptist minister

2012-10-31
This Is Your Day
TBN
10:47, quoted in * 2013-05-09
Pat Robertson, Who Said 'The Lord Told Me' that 'Romney Will Win,' Urges Viewers to Beware False Prophets
Brian
Tashman
Right Wing Watch
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-who-said-lord-told-me-romney-will-win-urges-viewers-beware-false-prophets
Regarding 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Will Eisner photo

“In 1848, driven by a revolution in Paris, King Louis Philippe abdicated and Louis Napoleon (a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) was elected president of France. Four years later, after a coup d’etat, Louis Napoleon styled himself Napoleon II, emperor of France.
napoleon III’s first act as emperor was to imprison his political opponents. He was a crafty monarch, and his ambition during his reign was to seek glory through military adventurism while the great mass of French peasants remained ina state of poverty and despair.
Initially, Napoleon III achieved a short-lived public popularity by trying to “modernize” France and liberalize its economy, but his legacy remains that of a dictator and conniving politician.
In 1870, fearful that Germany was expanding too fast, Napoleon III declared war against this neighbor. The French were quickly defeated, and Napoleon III became a prisoner of war. Upon release in 1871, he was exiled to England, where he lived until his death in 1873.
Maurice Joly was mindful of this growing tension between Germany and France. He had been born in 1821 of French parents. He was admitted to the Paris bar as an attorney and was a one-time member of the General Assembly. Joly devoted most of time to writing caustic essays on French politics. He joined many other severe critics of Napoleon III, who regarded him as a ruthless despot.
In 1864, Joly wrote a book called “The Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu.”…It intended to liken Napoleon III to the infamous Machiavelli, author of “The Prince,” a treatise on the acquisition of power. Holy intended to reveal the French dictator’s dark and evil plans.”

Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist

Will Eisner, pp. 7-8
The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005)

George William Curtis photo

“The country does want rest, we all want rest. Our very civilization wants it — and we mean that it shall have it. It shall have rest — repose — refreshment of soul and re-invigoration of faculty. And that rest shall be of life and not of death. It shall not be a poison that pacifies restlessness in death, nor shall it be any kind of anodyne or patting or propping or bolstering — as if a man with a cancer in his breast would be well if he only said he was so and wore a clean shirt and kept his shoes tied. We want the rest of a real Union, not of a name, not of a great transparent sham, which good old gentlemen must coddle and pat and dandle, and declare wheedlingly is the dearest Union that ever was, SO it is; and naughty, ugly old fanatics shan't frighten the pretty precious — no, they sha'n't. Are we babies or men? This is not the Union our fathers framed — and when slavery says that it will tolerate a Union on condition that freedom holds its tongue and consents that the Constitution means first slavery at all costs and then liberty, if you can get it, it speaks plainly and manfully, and says what it means. There are not wanting men enough to fall on their knees and cry: 'Certainly, certainly, stay on those terms. Don't go out of the Union — please don't go out; we'll promise to take great care in future that you have everything you want. Hold our tongues? Certainly. These people who talk about liberty are only a few fanatics — they are tolerably educated, but most of 'em are crazy; we don't speak to them in the street; we don't ask them to dinner; really, they are of no account, and if you'll really consent to stay in the Union, we'll see if we can't turn Plymouth Rock into a lump of dough'. I don't believe the Southern gentlemen want to be fed on dough. I believe they see quite as clearly as we do that this is not the sentiment of the North, because they can read the election returns as well as we. The thoughtful men among them see and feel that there is a hearty abhorrence of slavery among us, and a hearty desire to prevent its increase and expansion, and a constantly deepening conviction that the two systems of society are incompatible. When they want to know the sentiment of the North, they do not open their ears to speeches, they open their eyes, and go and look in the ballot-box, and they see there a constantly growing resolution that the Union of the United States shall no longer be a pretty name for the extension of slavery and the subversion of the Constitution. Both parties stand front to front. Each claims that the other is aggressive, that its rights have been outraged, and that the Constitution is on its side. Who shall decide? Shall it be the Supreme Court? But that is only a co-ordinate branch of the government. Its right to decide is not mutually acknowledged. There is no universally recognized official expounder of the meaning of the Constitution. Such an instrument, written or unwritten, always means in a crisis what the people choose. The people of the United States will always interpret the Constitution for themselves, because that is the nature of popular governments, and because they have learned that judges are sometimes appointed to do partisan service.”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)

Alan Charles Kors photo
Khalid A. Al-Falih photo
Yvette Cooper photo

“Sexism in politics is nothing new when you're standing for election. But don't stand for election and it's almost as bad. Shockingly, David Cameron thought it acceptable to claim this week that my decision not to run for the Labour leadership was because my husband, Ed Balls, "stopped [me] from standing."”

Yvette Cooper (1969) British politician

In an article written for The Guardian, Why I'm not standing for Labour leader – this time http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/28/yvette-cooper-labour-leadership, 28 May, 2010.

Nicholas of Cusa photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“Next we worked on destroying the democratic process. The left was obviously going to win the elections; it had a lot of prestige from the resistance, and the traditional conservative order had been discredited. The US wouldn't tolerate that.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

"How the Nazis Won the War" in How the World Works, p. 194
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Secrets, Lies and Democracy, 1994

Benjamin Stanton photo
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“To fortify London by works is impossible—London must be defended by an army in the Field, and by one or more Battles,—one I trust would be sufficient; but for this Purpose we must be able to concentrate in the Field the largest possible Military Force. In order to do so we must have the means of defending our Naval arsenals with the smallest possible Military Force, and this can be accomplished only by Fortifications which enable a small Force to resist a larger one. Thence it is demonstrable that to fortify our Dockyards is to assist the Defence of London. As to Time we have no time to lose. I deeply regret that various circumstances have so long delayed proposing the Measure to Parliament, but it would be a Breach of our public Duty to put it off to another year. There may be some Persons in the House of Commons with peculiar notions on things in General and with very imperfect notions as to our National Interest who will object to the proposed Measures, but I cannot bring myself to believe that the Majority of the present House of Commons, or the House of Commons that would be elected on an appeal on this Question to the People of the Country would refuse to sanction Measures so indispensably necessary.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Letter to Gladstone (16 July 1860), quoted in Philip Guedalla (ed.), Gladstone and Palmerston, being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston with Mr. Gladstone 1851-1865 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1928), pp. 142-143.
1860s

Horace Greeley photo

“VI. We complain that the Confiscation Act which you approved is habitually disregarded by your Generals, and that no word of rebuke for them from you has yet reached the public ear. Fremont's Proclamation and Hunter's Order favoring Emancipation were promptly annulled by you; while Halleck's No. 3, forbidding fugitives from Slavery to Rebels to come within his lines-- an order as unmilitary as inhuman, and which received the hearty approbation of every traitor in America-- with scores of like tendency, have never provoked even your own remonstrance. We complain that the officers of your Armies have habitually repelled rather than invited approach of slaves who would have gladly taken the risks of escaping from their Rebel masters to our camps, bringing intelligence often of inestimable value to the Union cause. We complain that those who have thus escaped to us, avowing a willingness to do for us whatever might be required, have been brutally and madly repulsed, and often surrendered to be scourged, maimed and tortured by the ruffian traitors, who pretend to own them. We complain that a large proportion of our regular Army Officers, with many of the Volunteers, evince far more solicitude to uphold Slavery than to put down the Rebellion. And finally, we complain that you, Mr. President, elected as a Republican, knowing well what an abomination Slavery is, and how emphatically it is the core and essence of this atrocious Rebellion, seem never to interfere with these atrocities, and never give a direction to your Military subordinates, which does not appear to have been conceived in the interest of Slavery rather than of Freedom.”

Horace Greeley (1811–1872) American politician and publisher

1860s, The Prayer of the Twenty Millions (1862)

Dave Barry photo
Roza Otunbayeva photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo
James A. Garfield photo

“After nearly a quarter of a century of prosperity under the Constitution, the spirit of slavery so far triumphed over the early principles and practices of the government that, in 1812, South Carolina and her followers in Congress succeeded in inserting the word 'white' in the suffrage clause of the act establishing a territorial government for Missouri. One by one the Slave States, and many of the free States, gave way before the crusade of slavery against negro citizenship. In 1817, Connecticut caught the infection, and in her constitution she excluded the negro from the ballot-box. In every other New England State his ancient right of suffrage has remained and still remains undisturbed. Free negroes voted in Maryland till 1833; in North Carolina, till 1835; in ennsylvania, till 1838. It was the boast of Cave Johnson of Tennessee that he owed his election to Congress in 1828 to the free negroes who worked in his mills. They were denied the suffrage in 1834, under the new constitution of Tennessee, by a vote of thirty-three to twenty-three. As new States were formed, their constitutions for the most part excluded the negro from citizenship. Then followed the shameful catalogue of black laws; expatriation and ostracism in every form, which have so deeply disgraced the record of legislation in many of the States.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

1860s, Oration at Ravenna, Ohio (1865)

Richard Pipes photo
Allen C. Guelzo photo
James A. Garfield photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Ferdinand Marcos photo

“Elect me as your congressman today, I promise you an Ilocano president in 20 years.”

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

Election speech as candidate for Congress, 1949
1949

J. William Fulbright photo
William T. Sherman photo

“I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

Telegram sent to General Henderson in 1884, refusing to run in the United States presidential election of that year. As quoted in Sherman's Memoirs, 4th ed. 1891. This is often paraphrased: If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.
1880s, 1884, Telegram (1884)

Jared Polis photo

“Jared Polis of Boulder is the first openly gay man elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.”

Jared Polis (1975) American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and US Representative

[KXRM, http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=360695#.TzY6WURSRn0, www.coloradoconnection.com, August 10, 2009, Colo. delegation votes party lines on hate crime, Associated Press]
About

Victor Davis Hanson photo
Simon LeVay photo
Jimmy Carter photo
Condoleezza Rice photo
Jean Cocteau photo

“The trouble about the Académie is that by the time they get around to electing us to a seat, we really need a bed.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

On his election to Académie Française (1955)

Carlos Menem photo

“English: "To those who are speaking about me getting off the elections, I say: Don't even think about it, you don't know the fiber one is made of"”

Carlos Menem (1930) Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999

"A los que vienen hablando de que me voy a bajar de la candidatura, yo les digo: Ni lo piensen, no saben de la fibra de la que está hecho uno"
Said one day before getting off the presidential elections on May 13th, 2003

Alfred de Zayas photo

“In totalitarian States citizen have no voice. In democratic countries, however, citizens bear responsibility for the decisions taken by their democratically elected officials. If crimes are committed in their name, it is their responsibility to demand accountability.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

2015, Report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council
Source: Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order exploring the adverse impacts of military expenditures on the realization of a democratic and equitable international order http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/Reports.aspx.

Karen Demirchyan photo

“I will fight for really fair elections. I think they will be fair.”

Karen Demirchyan (1932–1999) Soviet politician

May 30, 1999. Quoted in "Armenian ex-communist leader Demirchyan confident of fair elections" - BBC Archive.

Enoch Powell photo

“I was the first, and to date, the only woman veteran ever elected, and there is a surprisingly low percentage of veterans in Parliament.”

Judy LaMarsh (1924–1980) Canadian politician, writer, broadcaster and barrister.

Source: Memoirs Of A Bird In A Gilded Cage (1969), CHAPTER 2, N.A.T.O., p. 13

Martin Luther King III photo
Harry Truman photo
Benjamin Stanton photo

“The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that U. S. Senate candidate Scott Ashjian's name should stay on the November election ballot despite challenges to his qualifications.”

Scott Ashjian (1963) American businessman

[Oskar, Garcia, Nev. Supreme Court: Ashjian's name stays on ballot, Associated Press, October 6, 2010]
About

Vladimir Putin photo
Dick Cheney photo
Henry Adams photo
William Kristol photo

“So WE are to blame for the "bad blood" with Russia. Not what Putin has done in Ukraine, in Syria, in the UK, at home, or with respect to our elections. Amazing.”

William Kristol (1952) American writer

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/984074028817281026 (11 April 2018)
2010s, 2018

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Menzies Campbell photo
Gough Whitlam photo

“Well may we say "God save the Queen", because nothing will save the Governor-General! The Proclamation which you have just heard read by the Governor-General's Official Secretary was countersigned "Malcolm Fraser," who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's cur. They won't silence the outskirts of Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for the next few weeks … Maintain your rage and enthusiasm for the campaign for the election now to be held and until polling day.”

Gough Whitlam (1916–2014) Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia

On hearing the proclamation dismissing him from office, which ended with the previous official wording "God Save the Queen" which had been abolished by his government and unilaterally re-instated by David Smith, the Governor-General's Official Secretary, at that moment - the first of many changes undertaken by the so-called "caretaker" government.

Source: [Gough Whitlam dead: His memorable quotes, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019, https://www.smh.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-dead-his-memorable-quotes-20141021-1193jd.html, Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au, Murphy, D]

D. V. Gundappa photo
Ben Croshaw photo
Neil Cavuto photo
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery photo