Free Elections Quotes

• Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Historical, Doe, Election

  One-Dimensional Man ch. 1 (1964)

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

  Matt Taibbi

  Integrity, Greed, Democracy

  Interview with Gregg LaGambina, www.avclub.com. November 2, 2010.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Years, Class, Politics

  "The State and Revolution". Chapter 5, www.marxists.org. 1917.

  126 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

  Matt Taibbi

  Freedom, Greed, Democracy

  "The Great American Bubble Machine" by Matt Taibbi, www.rollingstone.com. April 5, 2010.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

  Nelson Mandela

  America, Political, United States

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

  85 Copy quote

  Show source

• The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible.

  Saul Alinsky

  Loyalty, Spring, Rights

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.24, Vintage

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.

  Arundhati Roy

  Independent, Mean, Profound

  7 Copy quote

• The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Winning, Historical, Election

  85 Copy quote

• Leave us to our free election.

  William Shakespeare

  4th Of July, Election

  William Shakespeare (2015). “Pericles”, p.30, Courier Dover Publications

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion - not even for Shiites, who are forced by Irans theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules.

  Elliott Abrams

  Independent, Iran, Freedom Of Speech

  14 Copy quote

• We know what works: freedom works. We know what's right: freedom is right. We know how to secure a more and just and prosperous life for man on earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.

  George H. W. Bush

  Exercise, Men, Presidential

  Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1989

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• On a day when all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are celebrating the growth of freedom and honoring the sacrifices of American and Iraqi troops with elections in Iraq, it's sad that John Kerry has chosen once again to offer vacillation and defeatism. Even after the first free elections in Iraq in more than 50 years John Kerry still believes Iraq is more of terrorist threat than when the brutal tyrant Saddam Hussein was in power and even more remarkably Kerry is now once again for funding our troops, after being for the funding before he was against it.

  Ken Mehlman

  Party, Believe, Sacrifice

  4 Copy quote

• It is true that the American colonials have "free elections," in which they have the absolute right to vote for one of two opposing candidates, both of whom have been handpicked and financed by the Rockefeller syndicate. This touching evidence of "democracy" serves to convince most Americana that we are indeed a free people. We even have a cracked Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to prove it.

  Eustace Mullins

  Two, Philadelphia, People

  32 Copy quote

• On Jan. 30, millions of Iraqis will cast ballots in the country's first fair and free election in decades, marking continued progress in Iraq's transition toward a country built on the pillars of democracy and freedom for all.

  Jim Gerlach

  Country, Iraq, Democracy

  7 Copy quote

• They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.

  Chinua Achebe

  Long, Leader, Election

  8 Copy quote

• There was a free election in Palestine, but it came out the wrong way. So instantly, the United States and Israel with Europe tagging along, moved to punish the Palestinian people, and punish them harshly, because they voted the wrong way in a free election. That's accepted here in the West as perfectly normal. That illustrates the deep hatred and contempt for democracy among western elites, so deep-seated they can't even perceive it when it's in front of their eyes. You punish people severely if they vote the wrong way in a free election.

  Noam Chomsky

  Eye, Israel, Europe

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves. Free choice among a wide variety of goods and services does not signify freedom if these goods and services sustain social controls over a life of toil and fear – that is, if they sustain alienation. And the spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the controls.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Choices, Toil, Doe

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.10, Routledge

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy in China is like Viagra; no such thing as free elections.

  George Montgomery

  Democracy, Viagra, Election

  11 Copy quote

• Frankly, I don't think you should perform in a plaza where thousands of Cubans have been subjected to the death penalty, by firing squad, including three young black men in 2003. What is needed in Cuba is a concert in favor of democracy, civil liberties for the people, the freedom of political prisoners, free elections and the expulsion of dictatorial power.

  Zoe Valdes

  Men, Thinking, Squad

  5 Copy quote

• Thus these three amendments to the Constitution [13th, 14th, 15th] were ratified while the ten Southern states were under martial law, and "had no law at all." The Force Acts, the four Reconstruction Acts, and the Civil Rights Act were all passed by Congress while the Southern states were not allowed to hold free elections, and all voters were under close supervision by federal troops. Even Soviet Russia has never staged such mockeries of the election procedures.

  Eustace Mullins

  War, Russia, Rights

  18 Copy quote

• The trouble with free elections is that you never know how they are going to turn out.

  Vyacheslav Molotov

  Election, Trouble, Cold War

  Remark at the Berlin Conference (1954) according to an eyewitness writing in "International Affairs" Vol. 36, (p. 4), 1960.

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• America must begin the struggle for democracy at home. The advocacy of free elections in Europe by American officials is hypocrisy when free elections are not held in great sections of America.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Home, Europe

  10 Copy quote

• We have free elections. Everybody can vote, we fought for that, we brag about that and we know we're going to have a winner and we're going to have a loser.

  Jim Brown

  Election, Vote, Loser

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The people are fed up with corruption and embezzlement. They object to censorship. The first thing that the people of Iran want is free elections.

  Shirin Ebadi

  Iran, People, Want

  "Iran’s Nobel Peace Laureate Speaks From Exile". Interview with Bryan Schatz, www.motherjones.com. February 29, 2016.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Obviously, Turkey is not a typical authoritarian regime, and obviously it's very important that there are free elections. But it's also obvious that this is not a liberal, mature democracy. This is why I call Turkey a wobbly democracy. At any time, it can tip over and fall down.

  Elif Safak

  Fall, Turkeys, Democracy

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  5 Copy quote

  Show source