Quotes about republican
page 2

John R. Bolton photo
James A. Garfield photo

“Let us learn wisdom from this illustrious example. We have passed the Red Sea of slaughter; our garments are yet wet with its crimson spray. We have crossed the fearful wilderness of war, and have led our four hundred thousand heroes to sleep beside the dead enemies of the Republic. We have heard the voice of God amid the thunders of battle commanding us to wash our hands of iniquity, to 'proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.' When we spurned his counsels we were defeated, and the gulfs of ruin yawned before us. When we obeyed his voice, he gave us victory. And now at last we have reached the confines of the wilderness. Before us is the land of promise, the land of hope, the land of peace, filled with possibilities of greatness and glory too vast for the grasp of the imagination. Are we worthy to enter it? On what condition may it be ours to enjoy and transmit to our children's children? Let us pause and make deliberate and solemn preparation. Let us, as representatives of the people, whose servants we are, bear in advance the sacred ark of republican liberty, with its tables of the law inscribed with the 'irreversible guaranties' of liberty. Let us here build a monument on which shall be written not only the curses of the law against treason, disloyalty, and oppression, but also an everlasting covenant of peace and blessing with loyalty, liberty, and obedience; and all the people will say, Amen.”

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

1860s, Speech in the House of Representatives (1866)

Donald Barthelme photo

“What makes The Joker tick I wonder?” Fredric said. “I mean what are his real motivations?”
“Consider him at any level of conduct,” Bruce said slowly, “in the home, on the street, in interpersonal relations, in jail—always there is an extraordinary contradiction. He is dirty and compulsively neat, aloof and desperately gregarious, enthusiastic and sullen, generous and stingy, a snappy dresser and a scarecrow, a gentleman and a boor, given to extremes of happiness and despair, singularly well able to apply himself and capable of frittering away a lifetime in trivial pursuits, decorous and unseemly, kind and cruel, tolerant yet open to the most outrageous varieties of bigotry, a great friend and an implacable enemy, a lover and abominator of women, sweet-spoken and foul-mouthed, a rake and a puritan, swelling with hubris and haunted by inferiority, outcast and social climber, felon and philanthropist, barbarian and patron of the arts, enamored of novelty and solidly conservative, philosopher and fool, Republican and Democrat, large of soul and unbearably petty, distant and brimming with friendly impulses, an inveterate liar and astonishingly strict with petty cash, adventurous and timid, imaginative and stolid, malignly destructive and a planter of trees on Arbor Day—I tell you frankly, the man is a mess.”
“That’s extremely well said Bruce,” Fredric stated. “I think you’ve given a very thoughtful analysis.”

Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) American writer, editor, and professor

“I was paraphrasing what Mark Schorer said about Sinclair Lewis,” Bruce replied.
“The Joker’s Greatest Triumph”.
Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964)

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“They have retired into the Judiciary as a stronghold. There the remains of federalism are to be preserved and fed from the Treasury; and from that battery all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.”

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

Letter to J. Dickinson (19 December 1801)
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)

Howard Dean photo

“the Republicans are all about suppressing votes.”

Howard Dean (1948) American political activist

Source: "Take Back America" Conference, Washington, DC http://www.ac4vr.com/reports/072005/intimidation.html, June 2, 2005

“I will pick up a large percentage of votes on both sides (Republican and Democrat) and those in the middle.”

Scott Ashjian (1963) American businessman

[Vogel, Ed, Party announces appeal over Ashjian's candidacy, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2B, May 14, 2010]

“If there is a hereafter, the Democrats will burn because they were the Doers that killed the republic, the Republicans because they were the Talkers who abetted its murder. And such will be a well deserved fate for both. It is enough to make an agnostic hope there is a God.”

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

James Thurber photo

“From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

said of the Kennedy-Nixon TV debates in an unpublished manuscript, (dated 20 March 1961); Collecting Himself (1989).
From other writings

Preston Manning photo
Jane Fonda photo
Bill Maher photo

“America really has no Left party. We have a center-right party -- which I would call what the Democrats are now -- and then we have the Republicans, a party that drove the Crazy Bus straight into Nut Town.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Interview with the Oxford Union http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPb1VNt2EOo (25 May 2015)

Aron Ra photo
Andrew Sullivan photo
Chris Murphy photo

“I've listened to Republicans say over and over again that we should focus on enforcing the laws that we have. The great hypocrisy of that statement is that they are deliberately handcuffing the enforcement agency that oversees current law.”

Chris Murphy (1973) American politician

2016 Could Be Pivotal in the Battle Over Guns" http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/guns-senator-chris-murphy/"How, Mother Jones, 8 September 2016.

Calvin Coolidge photo
Frederick Douglass photo
Herbert Spencer photo

“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature — a type nowhere at present existing.”

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist

Vol. 3, Ch. XV, The Americans
Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891)

George W. Bush photo

“What we Republicans should stand for is growth in the economy. We ought to make the pie higher.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Republican primary debate in Columbia, South Carolina http://www.businessweek.com/archives/2000/b3670066.arc.htm (February 15, 2000).
2000s, 2000

Max Boot photo
Michael Moore photo

“Early talk was that anti-Bush people would go see it and pro-Bush people would stay home, and that's not the case. Most people do not go around with labels. A lot of Republicans have open minds.”

Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist

On the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 — Zap2it.com (27 June 2004)
2004, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Bryant Gumbel photo

“This comes at a time when Republicans are looking to gut the Clean Water Act and also the Safe Drinking Water Act. What are our options? Are we now forced to boil water because bottled water is not an economically feasible option for a lot of people?”

Bryant Gumbel (1948) American sportscaster

To Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Erik Olson, June 1, 1995 Today. Real Video http://www.mediaresearch.org/rm/projects/99/gumbel7/segment1.ram

“His rise to the status of Republican presidential candidate will stand as a unique historic achievement.”

Robert Fulford (journalist) (1932) Canadian journalist

Until Trump, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in U.S. politics (August 5, 2016)

John McCain photo
Trey Gowdy photo
Ann Coulter photo
Eric Foner photo
Joseph Hayne Rainey photo

“We are fully determined to stand by the Republican Party and the government.”

Joseph Hayne Rainey (1832–1887) politician

1871, Speech on the the Ku Klux Klan Bill of 1871 (1 April 1871)

Harry V. Jaffa photo
Ron Paul photo

“Tax revenues are up 59 percent since 1980. Because of our economic growth? No. During Carter's four years, we had growth of 37.2 percent; Reagan's five years have given us 30.7 percent. The new revenues are due to four giant Republican tax increases since 1981. All republicans rightly chastised Carter for his $38 billion deficit. But they ignore or even defend deficits of $220 billion, as government spending has grown 10.4 percent per year since Reagan took office, while the federal payroll has zoomed by a quarter of a million bureaucrats… big government has been legitimized in a way the Democrats never could have accomplished. It was tragic to listen to Ronald Reagan on the 1986 campaign trail bragging about his high spending on farm subsidies, welfare, warfare, etc… the IRS has grown bigger, richer, more powerful, and more arrogant. In the words of the founders of our country, our government has "sent hither swarms" of tax gatherers "to harass our people and eat out their substance." His officers jailed the innocent George Hansen, with the President refusing to pardon a great American whose only crime was to defend the Constitution. Reagan's new tax "reform" gives even more power to the IRS. Far from making taxes fairer or simpler, it deceitfully raises more revenue for the government to waste… I want to totally disassociate myself from the policies that have given us unprecedented deficits, massive monetary inflation, indiscriminate military spending, an irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy, zooming foreign aid, the exaltation of international banking, and the attack on our personal liberties and privacy.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Letter to chairman of the RNC http://www.textfiles.com/politics/ron_paul.txt Frank Fahrenkopf (March 1987).
1980s

Abu Musab Zarqawi photo
Tom Price (U.S. politician) photo
Walter Cronkite photo

“…when General Eisenhower defined an intellectual as “a man who takes more words than is necessary to tell more than he knows”, he was speaking not as a Republican but as an American.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“The Intellectual in America”, p. 5
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)

David Johnson (Iowa politician) photo

“I want to be among those in the party who are willing to live up to Republican principles.”

David Johnson (Iowa politician) (1950) Iowa State Senator, born 1950

As quoted in "Iowa state senator is first elected official to leave Republican party over Trump" http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/david-johnson-iowa-state-senator-leaves-republican-party-trump (7 June 2016), by Ben Jacobs, The Guardian, United Kingdom

Hillary Clinton photo
John Oliver photo
Gillian Anderson photo

“We were in a small Republican town. There were only six punks there. We were weird. It's not like London.”

Gillian Anderson (1968) American-British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer

On her teenage punk years in Grand Rapids — The Guardian "Gillian Anderson on therapy, rebellion and 'being weird'" http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/08/gillian-anderson-on-therapy-rebellion-and-being-weird/ (February 8, 2015)
2010s

John McCain photo
Eric Foner photo
Stephen Harper photo

“On the September 26, 2008 broadcast of CNN's "Situation Room", while sitting next to Wolf Blitzer, Cafferty directly highlighted Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's abysmal interview performance with Katie Couric earlier in the week. Cafferty stated, prior to playing a particularly embarrassing segment of the interview in which Palin stumbles across a murky, confused, ambiguous answer to Couric's query regarding the pending economic bailout package, "There's a reason the McCain campaign keeps Sarah Palin away from the press." After the clip's conclusion, he then went on to say, "…Did you get that? If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72 year-old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the Hell out of you, it should…I'm 65 and have been covering politics as you have [addressing Blitzer] for a long time, and that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. That's all I have to say." Blitzer responded in a light-hearted, seemingly forced defense of Palin, stating, "Yeah, but she's cramming a lot of information…" Cafferty interrupted, "There's no excuse for that. She's supposed to know a little bit of this, you know. Don't make excuses for her - that's pathetic."”

Jack Cafferty (1942) American journalist

Blitzer replied, "It was not her best answer. I agree with you on that," and the segment came to a close.
[CNN, Jack Cafferty on Sarah Palin, 26 September 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc]
2008

Dan Quayle photo

“Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us.”

Dan Quayle (1947) American politician, lawyer

Misattributed

Zoran Đinđić photo
Perry Anderson photo
James Madison photo

“Where slavery exists, the republican theory becomes still more fallacious.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Vices of the Political System of the United States http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a4_4s2.html (April 1787), Papers 9:350-51
1780s

Gustav Stresemann photo

“Great Germany can only be created on a republican basis.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech (13 April 1919), quoted in Jonathan Wright, Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 135
1910s

Bob Black photo

“A libertarian is just a Republican who takes drugs.”

Bob Black (1951) American anarchist

The Libertarian as Conservative (1984)

Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Gary Johnson photo

“I may have vetoed more legislation than the other forty-nine governors in the country combined. And it wasn't just saying, "no," it was really looking at what we were spending our money on and what we were getting for the money we were spending. And I really do believe in smaller government, I really believe that there are consequences of legislation that gets passed and maybe it isn't in our best interest to pass all the legislation that we pass, that it layers bureaucracy on transactions that aren't made any safer by you and I, but that just end up making it so much more cumbersome, so much more burdensome, and ends up adding a lot of money as opposed to the notion of liberty and freedom and the personal responsibility that goes along with that… My entire life I watched government spend more money than what it takes in and I just always thought that there would be a day of reckoning with regard to that spending, and I think that day of reckoning is here, that it's right now, and it needs to be fixed… But what I said then and I'll say now, I think that Republicans would gain a lot of credibility in this argument if Republicans would offer up a repeal of the Prescription Health Care Benefit that they passed when they had control of both houses of Congress and ran up record deficits.”

Gary Johnson (1953) American politician, businessman, and 29th Governor of New Mexico

Announcement of Intention to Run for the Republican Nomination for President of the United States
YouTube
2011-04-21
http://youtu.be/lBlA7yEiiZs
2012-02-24
Sound Government

Anthony Weiner photo
Janeane Garofalo photo
James A. Garfield photo
Bobby Jindal photo

“You know, Republicans went to Washington to change the culture, to change the city. Instead, they became changed by Washington. Now, it doesn't do any good for us to look backwards or to fight amongst ourselves. We need to be looking forward.”

Bobby Jindal (1971) American politician; two-term Governor of Louisiana

"Gov Jindal: GOP Must Become the Conservative Party Again http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,451213,00.html", Fox News Channel, November 13, 2008

Trent Lott photo

“The spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform.”

Trent Lott (1941) United States Senator from Mississippi

Speech before the Sons of Confederate Veterans (1984), as quoted in The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi http://www.pdfarchive.info/pdf/N/Ne/Newton_Michael_-_The_Ku_Klux_Klan_in_Mississippi.pdf (2010), by Michael Newton, p. 195.
1980s

Alan Grayson photo

“"What the Republicans have been doing is an insult to America…. These are foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging neanderthals." [Questioned, 'Why are you name-calling?'] "I didn't call names, what I said is true."”

Alan Grayson (1958) American politician

CNN, YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTyAQEAseb0 –September 30, 2009. CNN Political Ticker http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/30/grayson-calls-republicans-knuckle-dragging-neanderthals/.
2009, Regarding the Republican Party

Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“For the first time since I became a citizen in 1983, I will not vote for the Republican candidate for President. Like many Americans, I’ve been conflicted by this election – I still haven’t made up my mind about how exactly I will vote next month. But as proud as I am to label myself a Republican, there is one label that I hold above all else – American. So I want to take a moment today to remind my fellow Republicans that it is not only acceptable to choose your country over your party – it is your duty.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

written Twitter statement reported 8 October 2016 article by Variety https://variety.com/2016/biz/news/arnold-schwarzenegger-i-will-not-vote-for-the-republican-candidate-for-president-1201882915/, released a day after the release of the Access Hollywood tape from 2005 of an interview of Trump by Billy Bush
2010s

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Gore Vidal photo
Martin Amis photo

“My father likes to talk about the stroller accident that resulted in me becoming a Republican.”

Mike Murphy (political consultant) (1962) American political consultant

As quoted in "Romney guru thrives in political 'show business'" https://web.archive.org/web/20060307070315/http://www.boston.com:80/news/politics/president/articles/2005/06/12/romney_guru_thrives_in_political_show_business/?page=full (12 June 2005), by Brian C. Mooney, The Boston Globe
2000s

Frederick Douglass photo

“The Republican Party is the ship and all else is the sea around us.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

As quoted in Frederick Douglass American Hero http://books.google.com/books?id=9ykO8sKDE30C&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=%22I+know+the+man.+I+like+a+man+in+the+Presidential+chair%22&source=bl&ots=0JRNsxNa8j&sig=UJpkupLqhe7-DOrhKxCYSCo7EcY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FA9lU5z5JsnQsQTM1YH4CA&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22I%20know%20the%20man.%20I%20like%20a%20man%20in%20the%20Presidential%20chair%22&f=false (2008), by Connie A. Miller, Sr., p. 277
Variant: For colored men the Republican party is the deck, all outside is the sea.

Grover Norquist photo
Alan Keyes photo
Michael Ignatieff photo
Martha Raye photo
Pat Paulsen photo

“I do not claim that I can solve all the world's problems by myself. If I did, I'd have to run as a Republican or a Democrat.”

Pat Paulsen (1927–1997) United States Marine

Unidentified dinner, 1968
Featured in Pat Paulsen for President (1968), part 6 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntOuehGE_D8&feature=relmfu, 02:32 ff (47:32 ff in full program)

Benito Mussolini photo

“I bequeath the republic to the republicans and not to the monarchists, and the work of social reform to the socialist and not to the middle class.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Joshua Muravchik, as quoted in Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism, Encounter Books (2002) p. 170.
Undated

Gustave Courbet photo

“In as much as the Vendôme Column is a monument devoid of all artistic value, tending to perpetuate by its expression the ideas of war and conquest of the past imperial dynasty, which are reproved by a republican nation's sentiment, citizen Courbet expresses the wish that the National Defense government will authorize him to disassemble this column.”

Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) French painter

version in original French: * Attendu que la colonne Vendôme est un monument dénué de toute valeur artistique, tendant à perpétuer par son expression les idées de guerre et de conquête qui étaient dans la dynastie impériale, mais que réprouve le sentiment d'une nation républicaine, [le citoyen Courbet] émet le vœu que le gouvernement de la Défense nationale veuille bien l'autoriser à déboulonner cette colonne.
Quote in Courbet's official letter (4 September 1870), to the Government of National Defense - proposing that the column in the Place Vendôme in Paris, erected by Napoleon I - to honour the victories of the French Army - be taken down.
1870s

James Carville photo

“Republicans want smaller government for the same reason crooks want fewer cops: it's easier to get away with murder.”

James Carville (1944) political writer, consultant and United States Marine

In Had enough?: A handbook for fighting back (2003), p. 21 http://books.google.com/books?id=gH4bMmu4CA4C

Leo Ryan photo
Eric Foner photo
Chester A. Arthur photo

“What a pleasant lot of fellows they are. What a pity they have so little sense about politics. If they lived North the last one of them would be Republicans.”

Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886) American politician, 21st President of the United States (in office from 1881 to 1885)

As quoted in Recollections of Thirteen Presidents, John S. Wise (1906).

Robert B. Reich photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“The Democratic and Republican parties each operates as a necessary counterweight in a partnership designed to keep the pendulum of power swinging in perpetuity from the one set of colluding quislings to the other, and back.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

“A Palin Third-Party?” http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=530 WorldNetDaily.com, January 15, 2010.
2010s, 2010

David Sedaris photo

“… name association was big, as were my presumed interests in vaudeville and politics. In St. Louis the Bow tie was characterized as "very Charlie McCarthy", while in Chicago a young man defined it as "the pierced eyebrow of the Republican party."”

On stereotypes of bowtie wearers, [Sedaris, David, David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Little, Brown and Company, Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?, 2008, 0316143472]
When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008)

Henry Knox photo

“Were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with your signature it would be a circumstance highly honorable to your fame... and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country.”

Henry Knox (1750–1806) Continental Army and US Army general, US Secretary of War

Letter to George Washington http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-05-02-0095, urging Washington to attend the Philadelphia Convention. (March 19, 1787)

Vladimir Lenin photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Pat Buchanan called Democrats political cross-dressers for attempting portray themselves… as something they weren’t… Until recently, I had assumed he meant this as a criticism.”

David A. Ridenour, "Say it Ain't So, Pat," Tampa Tribune, November 21, 1995
Referring to Pat Buchanan's characterization of a 40% increase in Medicare spending over seven years as a "cut."

Oliver Stone photo
Elbridge G. Spaulding photo
Herman Cain photo
Will Rogers photo

“Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect. They can start building some by admitting to themselves that Bush caused many of the problems they are protesting.”

Bruce Bartlett (1951) American historian

Bruce Bartlett, "The GOP's Misplaced Rage" http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-12/the-gops-misplaced-rage/full (12 August 2009), The Daily Beast
2000s

Thomas Frank photo
Anthony Weiner photo
Mitch McConnell photo

“I can’t imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm, in a lame duck session, a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association”

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

McConnell On SCOTUS Vacancy http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=503FB2A5-205C-4F6F-9BCE-A4473809A4DB on "Fox News Sunday" as Majority Leader of the Senate dismissing the possibility of considering the Supreme Court nominee Merrick B. Garland even after the elections in November (March 20, 2016)
2016

Moby photo

“Why can't a Democrat get fired up about protecting the environment and enacting gun control legislation just as right wing republicans get fired up about making sure that children have access to assault weapons and banning 'The catcher in the rye' and 'Harry Potter?”

Moby (1965) Activist, American musician, DJ and photographer

"imo" http://www.moby.com/journal/2002-12-28/imo.html, journal entry (28 December 2002) at moby.com