Democracy
Page 9
- I have talked to more people who are in politics who have said to me, “[House of Cards] is closer than you can imagine. It’s the most accurate description of how politics actually works that we’ve ever seen.” I mean, West Wing – beautiful, wonderful idea of how democracy should work. But I’ve had more people in politics say they think House of Cards is closer. I - don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or a sad state of affairs.
- There clearly are cases where evil people exist, but you don't have to violate the privacy of every single citizen of America to find them.
- One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.
- You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they’re pissed at both parties - I think they’re really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time…
- We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win.
- Enough of this foreign fiasco distraction. Get back to work. It is time to bomb Obamacare.
- But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it’s hard, and even if it’s politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?
- I don't see myself as a hero, because what I'm doing is self-interested; I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and, therefore, no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
- We want [government] down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to.
- I don’t really understand exactly why people regard this as being different, if you blow up someone with a bomb versus killing them with gas. Historically, the reason why countries banded together to prevent the use of gas attacks is because, among other things, it ended up being used inadvertently against your own troops….at this point the evidence seems to be that there’s only four countries in the world that have chemical weapons. We happen to be one of them. In fact, arguably, the United States has the largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the world. So, on the basis of that, I’m not sure that were in the best moral position to be indicating to others what to do about chemical weapons.
- One thing that is perfectly clear to me in my district, and I think is true in many other districts from speaking to other members, is that there is no desire, no desire, on the part of people to be the world's policeman.
- It should be clear by now, that despite centuries of being disappointed by the system, African-Americans believe in the value and potential of this democracy more than even white people do. We shed our lives for it; sacrifice our dignity to it; and internalize our anger in the face of it.