Lupe Fiasco Quotes

I think all politics is local.

I think it is important the communities are listened to and that their voice is heard, particularly with local government boundaries more than parliamentary boundaries, because you are talking very much about communities. It can be a very emotive thing.

You can't assume anything in politics. That's why every Saturday I walk around my district. I talk to the longshoremen in Charlestown. I listen to the people in East Boston and their concern on the airport noise. I walk down to the Star Market in Porter Square, and people tell me about meat prices.

My dad was a city councilman and a county commissioner, so I grew up involved and engaged in the political process.

All politics is local.

Growing up, politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama's camp, and Obama himself, reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We've sat and had dinner, and we've spoken on the phone. He's a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.

Use your voice on the local level where it has the potential to be more widely heard.

Having a small business and being one of thousands of people whom no one in government will listen to, I have decided to run for supervisor as a person.

The people who care the most about the folks in your community are living in the community. They don't live in Washington, D.C.

At the federal level, as a member of Congress, you have one vote out of 435, and in the Senate, it's one out of 100. So, the ability to get some stuff done exists as a much larger opportunity at a local level than in the federal government.

The reason that I started the Black Futures Lab is because I have some clarity about what I think needs to happen in relationship to electoral organizing. It's not a destination. It is a set of tools that we use to engage people that we care about, en masse, around issues that are important to us.

I've been hearing from people saying they see me more than they do their city council member.

I think it's lovely when people are more involved in local politics.

I was born and brought up in south east London and been very conscious for a long time that people feel politics happens to them and not with them.

You see as mayors and local officials our jobs are designed so we have more in common with our constituents than Washington politicians can ever have.

I think it's possible for Tennessee to be flipped to a Democratic majority, which would be beneficial to enacting policies that I would like to see, but beyond party allegiance, we have an opportunity to involve ourselves in change that will empower us not just now but in the future.

I think you'll see a lot more people in the Valley get more involved in politics.

I brought attention to the fact that people need to be more involved in politics and not just let the establishment continue to control politics.

You put these politicians in office, but then you've got to tell them what you want them to do. And it's intimidating to most people. I was intimidated by it. I mean, calling my senator or writing my senator? I'm like, what do I say? What do I do? But we're showing people that the political process is actually less intimidating than we think.

Being politically active is "more about doing things, not just standing for some platform or being involved in some political party."

My advice is very simple: if you can win a small battle, it gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles, and so it is very much a bottom-up grass-roots way of doing politics.

Obama better understood community organisation and peer-to-peer communication than any recent candidate, and we are applying that lesson.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

I never stood for any president in my life, never voted, before Barack Obama. It changed my life to vote. It starts there with me. I never cared for politics before Barack Obama. I never thought it mattered to people like me.

New Yorkers have real issues, and they deserve to have a mayor that is prepared to work with them to solve the challenges they have, reduce the problems that they have, and they deserve to have a mayor's race that is focused on them.