Populist Quotes

• Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Race, People, Political

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• Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people's fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence.

  Kjell Magne Bondevik

  People, Violence, Movement

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• And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the 'mob' - a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.

  Camille Paglia

  Party, Wish, Ordinary

  "Obama’s Healthcare Horror". Salon Column, www.salon.com. August 12, 2009.

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• Beating up on the so-called elite media has a nice populist ring to it.

  Bill Keller

  Nice, Media, Rings

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• Well, I think the Republican Party is the more populist party.

  Ed Gillespie

  Party, Thinking, Republican

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• It's innate in me to be a Democrat - a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. That's just the way I feel.

  Tim McGraw

  Southern, Way, Kind

  "10 Questions for Tim McGraw". Interview with Jeff Chu, content.time.com. October 15, 2006.

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• I think there's a far more general audience now because I've done more populist stuff on telly.

  Jo Brand

  Thinking, Done, Stuff

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• Populists hate journalists, they hate teachers, they hate lawyers, but they tend to like rich people. There's something deeply consistent.

  David Brooks

  Teacher, Hate, People

  Source: www.npr.org

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• Populists have never had a good press in Freedom's land.

  Gore Vidal

  Land, Presses

  Gore Vidal (2007). “Point to Point Navigation”, p.21, Vintage

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• Movements are not radical. Movements are the American way. A small group of abolitionists writing and speaking eventually led to the end of slavery. A few stirred-up women brought about women's voting. The Populist movement, the Progressive movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women's movement - the examples go on and on of 'little people' getting together and telling the truth about their lives. They made our government act.

  Unita Blackwell

  War, Writing, Government

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• When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.

  Hannah Arendt

  Peace, War, Winning

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• I am hopelessly divided between the dark and the good, the rebel and the saint, the sex maniac and the monk, the poet and the priest, the demagogue and the populist. Pen to paper, I put it all down - I'm out on a limb here, so watch my back.

  Billy Idol

  Sex, Heart, Dark

  "Billy Idol: The Story of My Drug-Fueled Recording of 'Dancing with Myself'" by Billy Idol, www.esquire.com. October 3, 2014.

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• Take, for example, there is a right-wing populist uprising. It's very common, even on the left, to just ridicule them, but that's not the right reaction. If you look at those people and listen to them on talk radio, these are people with real grievances.

  Noam Chomsky

  Real, Uprising, Wings

  Source: www.iww.org

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• America is always a good target for a populist. In many countries, particularly authoritarian systems, if you want to get an extra bonus, you bash the Americans.

  Mohamed ElBaradei

  Country, America, Target

  "The Army Is on the Edge". Interview with Lally Weymouth, www.slate.com. August 2, 2013.

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• Populists have always been out to challenge the orthodoxy of the corporate order and to empower workaday Americans so they can control their own economic and political destinies. This approach distinguishes the movement from classic liberalism, which seeks to live in harmony with concentrated corporate power by trying to regulate excesses.

  Jim Hightower

  Destiny, Order, Empowering

  "Populism Is Not A Style" by Jim Hightower, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 14, 2009.

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• I suspect that many of the great cultural shifts that prepare the way for political change are largely aesthetic.

  J. G. Ballard

  Inspirational, Political, Way

  "Age of unreason". Interview With Jeannette Baxter, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2004.

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• The populist zeal to seek revenge on those who make a lot of money is targeted almost exclusively at corporations. I haven't heard outcries about Hollywood actors who make millions per film, even when those movies are a bust at the box office and the talent at issue has none. There's no outrage over athletes like New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez's $33 million salary or Celtic power forward Kevin Garnett's $25 million. Nor should there be. These are exceptionally talented individuals whose teams' owners think they're worth every penny.

  Linda Chavez

  New York, Revenge, Team

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• If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.

  Adolf Hitler

  Sympathy, Stupid, Wish

  "Mein Kampf". Book by Adolf Hitler, Volume II, 1926.

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• Whether you're a populist; whether you're a limited government conservative; whether you're libertarian; whether you're an economic nationalist - we have wide and sometimes divergent opinions. The center core of what we believe, that America is a nation with an economy, not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but we are a nation with a culture and a reason for being.

  Stephen K. Bannon

  Believe, America, Government

  "Steve Bannon outlines his plan to 'deconstruct' Washington" by Z. Byron Wolf, edition.cnn.com. February 24, 2017.

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• Populism is at its essence just determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government. One big difference between real populism and what the Tea Party thing is, is that real populists understand that government has become a subsidiary of corporations. So you can't say, let's get rid of government. You need to be saying let's take over government.

  Jim Hightower

  Real, Party, Government

  "Bill Moyers Journal" with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. April 30, 2010.

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• Populists believe in conspiracies, and one of the most enduring is that a secret group of international bankers and capitalists, and their minions, control the world's economy. Because of my name and prominence as the head of the Chase for many years, I have earned the distinction of the "conspirator in chief" from these people.

  David Rockefeller

  Believe, Power, Years

  David Rockefeller (2011). “Memoirs”, p.368, Random House

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• It’s easy to see why politicians would be drawn to the populist pose. First, it makes everything so simple. The economic crisis was caused by a complex web of factors, including global imbalances caused by the rise of China. But with the populist narrative, you can just blame Goldman Sachs.

  David Brooks

  Simple, Would Be, Rise Of China

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• It is quite possible that we will soon come to live under some sort of global despotism, enlightened or not. This is not a nice prospect. And there is only one way of avoiding that this happens: to establish a global democracy. And it is not too late to strive for such a democracy, of a straightforward populist nature, where people on the globe elect a world parliament, which in turn elects a world government.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Nice, Government, People

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• I do believe that what I have called populist democracy is to be preferred to what I have called elitist democracy.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Believe, Democracy, Elitist

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Anything popular is populist, and populist is rarely a good adjective.

  Brian Eno

  Adjectives, Populism

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