American Democracy Quotes

• Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Democracy, Done, Nations

  Archibald MacLeish (1941). “The American cause”

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  Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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  To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Democracy, Foundation, Injustice

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• In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.

  Norman Cousins

  Freedom, Responsibility, Democracies Have

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• This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dream, Respect, Opportunity

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Michael K. Honey (2011). “All Labor Has Dignity”, p.57, Beacon Press

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• The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Political, Democracy, Aristocracy

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

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• Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Gun, Lunch, Democracies Have

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• The United States stands at the pinnacle of world power. This is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with primacy in power is joined an awe-inspiring accountability for the future.

  Winston Churchill

  America, Accountability, Democracy

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• American democracy is supposed to be the paradigm for the rest of the world.

  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

  Democracy, World, Paradigm

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• American democracy has been hacked.

  Al Gore

  Democracies Have, Democracy, Hacked

  Al Gore (2017). “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis”, p.182, Rodale

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• The danger of having the Constitution twisted and misconstrued to support vested interests and prejudices must be guarded against if American democracy is to maintain a progressive character.

  Helen Keller

  Character, Support, Democracy

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• There's no doubt that in the last two to three decades, American democracy has been hacked. It was based on the regular harvesting of the wisdom of crowds, but now big sources of special interest money are able to prevent the passage of almost any meaningful reform that's aimed at the public interest.

  Al Gore

  Meaningful, Democracies Have, Two

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• The paradox of American democracy has been that its slogan of equal opportunity has meant, often, equal opportunity to get power over your fellows.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Women, Opportunity, Democracies Have

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• What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.

  Rex Stout

  Running, Believe, Mean

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• Our fathers and grandfathers who poured over the Midwest were self-reliant, rugged, God-fearing people of indomitable courage...They asked only for freedom of opportunity and equal chance. In these conceptions lies the real basis of American democracy. They and their fathers give a genius to American institutions that distinguished our people from any other in the world.

  Herbert Hoover

  Lying, Father, Real

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• A day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they'll ask one of two questions. Either they will ask: "what in God's name were they doing?" or they may look back and say: "how did they find the uncommon moral courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise of American democracy?"

  Al Gore

  Children, Names, Two

  "Our World" with David Newman, www.voanews.com. October 27, 2009.

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• At the end of the day, you have to be yourself, you have to say and stand for what you believe in, you have to be willing to get up and go ahead and take the slings and arrows and just try to persist through them, because it's apparently an inevitable part of our American democracy.

  Hillary Clinton

  Being Yourself, Believe, Arrows

  "Hillary Responds To Critics Allegations". "Weekend Edition" with Scott Simon, wuot.org. January 13, 1996.

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• Resurrecting American democracy is vital to averting climate catastrophe. We must first repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which has flooded elections with billions of oily petrodollars from carbon tycoons.

  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

  Democracy, Firsts, Climate

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• Public control of the political process requires public financing. The restoration of our American Democracy depends upon public financing.

  Dennis Kucinich

  Political, Democracy, Restoration

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• There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle.

  Bill Moyers

  Struggle, Heart, Independent

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• That is not respecting our democracy, using the State Department as a concierge for foreign donations, not really respecting our American democracy.

  Kellyanne Conway

  Democracy, Donation, States

  "Meet the Press", www.nbcnews.com. October 23, 2016.

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• I worry about the entire structure of American democracy under Trump.

  Jonathan Chait

  Worry, Democracy, Structure

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• In democracy, as quaintly understood, voters pick their representatives. American democracy increasingly reverses that. Legislative districts are drawn to protect incumbents who, effectively, pick their voters.

  George Will

  Democracy, Voters, Protect

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• A more important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Democracy, Important, Quality

  "The United States". New York magazine, November 15, 1971.

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• American democracy is supposed to be the paradigm for the rest of the world, and it no longer is. Citizens cannot be guaranteed that they can walk into a voting booth with any assurance that their vote will be counted.

  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

  Voting, Democracy, Citizens

  Interview with David Kupfer for The Progressive Magazine, www.thirdworldtraveler.com. November 2006.

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