Political Discourse Quotes

• Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.

  George Washington

  Attitude, Business, 4th Of July

  George Washington (1871). “Words of Washington”, p.8

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's pretty standard fare in political discourse. You misconstrue what somebody said. You isolate a statement, you lend your interpretation to it and then feign moral outrage. And Democrats have been doing it for years.

  John F. Kerry

  Years, Political, Moral

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's fine to talk about politics with people you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse becomes more extreme.

  Lawrence Lessig

  People, Rude, Political

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field. Small businesses should have the same ability to reach customers as powerful corporations. A blogger should have the same ability to find an audience as a media conglomerate.

  Al Franken

  Powerful, Media, Should Have

  "The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time". www.huffingtonpost.com. December 20, 2010.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you listen to the political discourse in America today, you would think that all our problems have been caused by the Mexicans of the Chinese or the Muslims. The reality is that we have caused our own problems. Whatever has happened has been caused by isolating ourselves or blaming others.

  Fareed Zakaria

  Reality, Thinking, America

  12 Copy quote

• I think the reason you see so many people dropping out of politics is because there's an anti-poetic strain in modern political discourse.

  Zephyr Teachout

  Thinking, People, Political

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is political discourse still just shouting opinions about subjective, hot-button issues based on poor understanding and outright ignorance about which agreements can never be reached?

  Jeffrey Rowland

  Ignorance, Issues, Agreement

  4 Copy quote

• If we ban whatever offends any group in our diverse society, we will soon have no art, no culture, no humor, no satire. Satire is by its nature offensive. So is much art and political discourse. The value of these expressions far outweighs their risk.

  Erica Jong

  Art, Expression, Diverse Society

  Erica Jong (2007). “What Do Women Want?: Essays by Erica Jong”, p.84, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Two truths are all too often overshadowed in today's political discourse: Public service is a most honorable pursuit, and so is bipartisanship.

  Olympia Snowe

  Two, Political, Today

  "Olympia Snowe: Why I’m Leaving The Senate" by Olympia Snowe, www.washingtonpost.com. March 1, 2012.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have entered an Orwellian era in which entitlement replaces responsibility, coercion is described as compassion, compulsory redistribution is called sharing, race quotas substitute for diversity, and suicide is prescribed as 'death with dignity.' Political discourse has become completely corrupted. The reason is that if you tell people directly that you want to raise their taxes, transfer their wealth, count them by skin color, or let doctors kill them, most will object. Statists know this and therefore are obliged to obfuscate.

  Theodore J. Forstmann

  Suicide, Responsibility, Compassion

  8 Copy quote

• The reduction of political discourse to sound bites is one of the worst things that's happened in American political life.

  John Silber

  Political, Sound, Propaganda

  7 Copy quote

• I've watched politics for years. Republicans rarely get credit for the good things that happen in the economy during their watch. Democrats always get more credit than they deserve. They are just better at political discourse that we are.

  George W. Bush

  Years, Political, Watches

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• President Obama promised to usher in a new era of civility in our political discourse. We should make sure that, quote, "talk to each other in ways that heal, not in ways that wound," close quote.

  Eric Bolling

  Political, President, Way

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• And let no one suppose that I claim that just living can be taught for, in a word, I hold that there does not exist an art of the kind which can implant sobriety and justice into depraved natures.  Nevertheless, I do think that the study of political discourse can help more than any other thing to stimulate and form such qualities of character

  Isocrates

  Art, Character, Thinking

  25 Copy quote

• Like most terms of political discourse, socialism has more or less, lost its meaning. Socialism used to mean something. If you go back far enough it meant basically control of production by producers, elimination of wage labor, democratization of all spheres of life; production, commerce, education, media, workers control of factories, community control of communities, and so on. That was socialism once. But it hasn't meant that for a hundred years. Socialism meant something different.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Media, Years

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was younger, I used to be very impatient with anyone who wasn't doing overtly political work. I've since come to feel that some writers have an appetite or a need for the political, for political discourse, for historical political subjects.

  Tony Kushner

  Political, Historical, Needs

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I look at the Republicans, I am tempted to dismiss them as the Treason Party. Seriously, were a band of traitors to concoct a series of positions deliberately designed to weaken America, they would be hard pressed to beat the current GOP dogma - hobble education, starve the government by slashing taxes to the rich, kneecap attempts to jumpstart the economy by fixating on debt, invite corporations to dominate political discourse, balkanize the population by demonizing minorities and immigrants and let favored religions dictate social policy.

  Neil Steinberg

  Party, Government, America

  19 Copy quote

• Much of the left's hate speech bears greater similarity to a psychological disorder than to standard political discourse. The hatred is blinding, producing logical contradictions that would be impossible to sustain were it not for the central element faith plays in the left's new religion. The basic tenet of their faith is this: Maybe they were wrong about their facts and policies, but they are good and conservatives are evil. You almost want to give it to them. It's all they have left.

  Ann Coulter

  Hate, Psychological Disorders, Play

  "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right". Book by Ann Coulter, 2002.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• My feeling is, Twitter's free. If people want to have a political discourse with me on Twitter, and they disagree with me, I've got all the time in the world for that. It's when it gets nasty that I have problems.

  Josh Groban

  People, Political, Feelings

  "Josh Groban and Denée Benton are Broadway bound". Interview with David Cote, www.timeout.com. August 23, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think the press, by and large, is what we call "liberal". But of course what we call "liberal" means well to the right. "Liberal" means the "guardians of the gates". So the New York Times is "liberal" by, what's called, the standards of political discourse, New York Times is liberal, CBS is liberal. I don't disagree. I think they're moderately critical at the fringes. They're not totally subordinate to power, but they are very strict in how far you can go. And in fact, their liberalism serves an extremely important function in supporting power.

  Noam Chomsky

  New York, Mean, Thinking

  Source: theanarchistlibrary.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The dominance of [an ideology] is shown by the fact that the dominated classes live their conditions of political existence through the forms of dominant political discourse: this means that often they live even their revolt against domination of the system within the frame of reference of the dominant legitimacy.

  Nicos Poulantzas

  Mean, Class, Political

  20 Copy quote

• Politics isn't something that really interested me; I, of course, care about what's going on in the world, but so much of political discourse now is not necessarily about doing what's right.

  Mike O'Malley

  Political, World, Care

  4 Copy quote

• Virtually all political discourse in the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy... Because they were hypocrites, the Victorians were despised in the late twentieth century. Many of the persons who held such opinions were, of course, guilty of the most nefarious conduct themselves, and yet saw no paradox in holding such views because they were not hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances and lived by none.

  Neal Stephenson

  Hypocrite, Views, Hypocrisy

  4 Copy quote

• A new race-neutral language was developed for appealing to old racist sentiments, a language accompanied by a political movement that succeeded in putting the vast majority of backs back in their place. Proponents of racial hierarchy found they could install a new racial caste system without violating the law or the new limits of acceptable political discourse, by demanding 'law and order' rather than 'segregation forever'.

  Michelle Alexander

  Race, Order, Law

  65 Copy quote

• Why is one view permissible and the other criminally barred - other than because the force of law is being used to control political discourse and one form of terrorism (violence in the Muslim world) is done by, rather than to, the west?

  Glenn Greenwald

  Views, Law, Political

  "France Arrests a Comedian For His Facebook Comments, Showing the Sham of the West’s “Free Speech” Celebration". theintercept.com. January 14, 2015.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source