David Brooks Quotes

I think that the candidates who are doing it [not debating] are doing a great disservice to the party. It's a sign of an unhealthy institution.

Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive.

I love disagreements. I love the democratic process. If I'm in a room where everybody agrees, I start to nod off.

Healthy debate has been replaced by automatic sensors that eliminate the need for actual talking during a filibuster - a la 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' Robust debate is necessary in a democratic society. Instead, our discourse has been relegated to media spin by expert entertainers.

certain kinds of people become Republicans and certain kinds of people become Democrats, and ... it's more than a matter of party affiliation. It's a way of thinking and being.

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

The base of our party is commonsense conservatives.If the Republican Party gets back to that base, I think our party's going to be stronger and there's not going to be a need for a third party.

I've been criticized because I've had the temerity to speak out and done a couple of interviews since I left office. I don't find anything surprising about that. I don't say - I've been careful not to get personal in terms of my criticisms for my comment, but I think the issues are simply too important for the future of the nation for us to operate as though those of us who disagree somehow shouldn't speak out and be heard. I think we need to be heard.

I think we should do better next week, better the week after, and better right throughout the course of our government. Sometimes in parties these things happen, but it is not acceptable and I do believe that what people now want to do is to debate the future - about policy - and I think the issues about what Tony Blair will or will not do are going to be left to Tony Blair

If, two people have good minds and they're looking at problems, if they agree all the time it means one of them is not thinking. If they disagree all the time, it means one of them is not thinking. They're just allowing their political position to dictate their position on an issue. And I think that's unhealthy. And the public knows better.

The Democratic Party is a coalition. Its strength and its weakness is, it's a coalition of interest groups, caucuses. It's a lot less homogeneous than the Republican Party, where people tend to believe the same things and oftentimes look alike.

I think actually in any party it's a sign of general health to have different views, and especially on the subject of trade.

I was trying to get out of the night clubs and was thinking maybe I'll go to the colleges now; that's where you can speak your mind.

Parties that are majority parties are incoherent parties.

Maybe he [Bernie Sanders] still thinks about the Democratic Party as the party of the New Deal.

In every party there is one person who, through his dotingly credulous enunciation of party principles, incites the other members to defection.

You can question somebody's views and their judgment without questioning their motives or patriotism.

We're seeing the sort of liberal phenomenon of activists that are speaking out. And they have every right to do so. I think we need to respect that in this country. It's just part of the democratic process.

I don't expect anybody here to cheerlead for Donald Trump. I expect us to have platforms like this, where we can fairly and effectively and respectfully come in and state the case on his behalf.

Satire is used for political purposes all the time, but obviously there's a time and a place. I think in the current climate, it can be very difficult to speak your mind, but sometimes, I believe, we're all in danger and I think this discussion needs to be widened.

I think that's why we see this mixed reaction - Republican congressional leaders like Paul Ryan speaking out very firmly, but Republican candidates not as much, with the exception of the candidates in the single digits like Jeb Bush or Lindsey Graham, who said how to make America great again tell - Donald Trump to go to hell.

In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to their causes.

I do not think it would be appropriate to use official party resources such as the DNC website on behalf of organizations whose purpose is to reverse the current platform and/or to enact legislation that contradicts that platform.

The Democrat Party is a shrinking and dwindling hate group. That's literally what they've become.

When you have elections in which 90% or 95% or 99% of those elected come from one party, then I think there is some fraudulent act.