Allen C. Guelzo Quotes

Our political debates today are corrosive and not reflective of the belief that Abe Lincoln espoused back in his day: that we are a great country because we are a good country.

The core of my platform is to change the role of money in politics, support public education and break up monopoly power. All of these are fundamental prerequisites to a responsive democracy.

A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated.

The right to free speech is critical to our democracy.

The back and forth between the press and government is essential to any good democracy.

Men like Abraham Lincoln recognized that if the slaveholders were not stopped, it would only be a question of time until they spread their system of elite rule to the entire country. Poor men would be bound for life into menial labor, and American democracy would die.

I'm just an old storyteller, and I always wanted to know, what the hell were these candidates really like?

Elections aren't about records, they're about plans and choices.

In a true democracy, there has to be a line between deliberative debate and mob rule. Trump has crossed the line, and much of the media has exacerbated the problem by treating his remarks as entertainment, effectively encouraging his competition to do the same.

In India, elections happen every year in at least a few states.

While the protection of speech is at the bedrock of our democracy, it's critical as a nation that we exercise our right every day - and that includes embracing and engaging with those we may not agree with.

The only thing about politics I do discuss is, be into them: Read what's online. Read what the candidates are talking about. Try to understand why people are fighting over what the candidates are standing for.

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.

It is unimaginable that anyone, right or left, can aspire to be president without having thought about this. Every candidate has the stage; the Republicans have used it to fuss unproductively over the Common Core. The Democrats have all but refused to speak.

Public conversations about who we are and who we want to be are key to the vitality of our democracy, and leaders can seed those conversations when they speak out their own views.

I'm hoping that college students and young professionals in general will pay very close attention to what is being said by both parties and all the candidates in the parties and pick the best person that best reflects the values that we all have.

It is part of our political thinking that democracy is a battle of ideas.

In some ways, political decency is a sign of a healthy democracy, but in other ways, it is the cause of it.

We have a beautiful right in this country, which is freedom of speech.

Here in Maine, we know that the system of special interests influencing elections runs contrary to our democratic values.

Democracy requires a certain relish for confusion

Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy.

It's all these pundits, all these consultants, and the candidates, as if they're in a bubble leaving democracy off-limits.

There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

Remember, at the end of the day [election] campaigns are always about the candidates.