Warren G. Harding Quotes
As Republics have risen and fallen, a transition from party to personal government has preceded every failure since the world began.
Many historians would argue that it was the party governments that caused most of the downfall of failed republics and individual dictators then stepped in and took over the failure in process.
Warren G. Harding, 1865-1923, 29th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Acceptance Speech when he received the Republican Presidential Nomination, 1920
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
“Personal government” meant to him charismatic individuals and demagogues who came to power in a republic and led it into a dictatorship. As opposed to representatives of political parties where a single individual could not control everything. However, this was before Adolf Hitler and his political party—the Nazis—came to power by election and turned Germany into a dictatorship. It takes more than structure to preserve democracy.
With so many revolutionary rulers of new nations suppressing all opposition, the history of Ataturk and Turkey is unique. Ataturk was so popular and his People’s Party so successful that there was no opposition and Turkey had one party rule. However, Ataturk was determined to have Turkey become a parliamentary democracy as good as the Western nations of Europe. So a tradition of multi-party democracy was needed. So Ataturk actually went to his friend Fethi Okyar and asked him to start an opposition party and oppose the government. Fethi was a strong supporter of the revolution and generally was in concurrence with Ataturk and the People’s Party on everything. Ataturk however convinced him that they had to start a tradition that would take Turkey through the future, and he did create a new party-- Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Liberal Republican Party) and worked hard to find differences with the People’s Party and the Government. One immediate contribution was the oversight that the new party provided—a strong tradition that exists to this day in Turkey.
Porfirio Diaz - the longtime dictator of Mexico stole the election of 1910 and had his opponent Francisco Madero arrested and imprisoned. Madero got out, crossed the border to San Antonio, and issued this declaration which started the Mexican Revolution. See {613620} for the statement that declared the Revolution.
While President Nixon and Henry Kissinger were putting all their eggs in the Shah’s basket, Simon was one of the government who had a different perception of our key ally. See {620093} for a CIA corroborating view.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that point. After his death, a number of scandals, including Teapot Dome, came to light, as did his extramarital affair with Nan Britton; those eroded his popular regard.
