Thomas F. Hartnett Quotes

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

There is a permanent political class.

Our democracies are increasingly captured by a ruling class that seeks to perpetuate its privileges.

If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.

We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.

We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life.

I think that's most unfortunate about our Democratic system, that you're confining it to people who are either very wealthy in their own right or have capacity to gain access to large amounts of money.

The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes.

In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

Please don't begin to believe that the American political establishment is anything but a corrupt puppet of oligarchy.

Obviously no one wants to give members of Congress a lot of money, because they barely do anything, and many of them are terrible, but a Congress that is made up of rich-but-not-super-rich people is going to be more corruptible than a Congress of really rich people.

The actual rulers in a parliamentary democracy are the class of professional politicians. In theory, they are supposed to represent the people, but in fact they rule over them.

Government is everywhere to a great extent controlled by powerful minorities, with an interest distinct from that of the mass of the people.

No country can exist without a ruling class. The governing class in a America is a rank that is for sale.

Members of Congress don’t want anyone to have more influence than they have—that’s why they hated Harry Hopkins.

There are over 30,000 lobbyists circling around the 535 members of Congress. The people should have their Senator as their lobbyist.

A democracy is the name of a government of those who are ruling for their own advantage, in opposition to the rich, or to any specific people.

Our enemy, and the enemy of all America, is the monopolistic government of the United States of America

I have long since thrown in the towel on the Democratic and Republican parties because they are really a front group for the 1%, for predatory banks, fossil fuel giants, and war profiteers.

I really don't think we've become a plutocracy, but I worry about the enormous influence that money has in a democracy such as ours.

Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.

We have the best government that money can buy.

The simple fact is we do not live in a democracy. Certainly not the kind our Founding Fathers intended. We live in a corporate dictatorship represented by, and beholden to, no single human being you can reason with or hold responsible for anything.

With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, cause that's what really happens.

American politicians are responsive almost solely to the interests and desires of their rich constituents and interest groups that primarily represent big business.