Theodore C. Sorensen Quotes

If you would look at my record, you would know that I’m a Roosevelt New Dealer. As a matter of fact, John F. Kennedy was a little too conservative to suit my taste.

I feel very strongly that the Democratic Party has, in the past, been the party of the future. I think when you look at Social Security and Medicare, when you look at the civil rights movement, the women's movement, I think the Democratic Party has always been in the forefront of change.

It's time that America's government lived by the same values as America's families. It's time we invested in America's future and made sure our people have the skills to compete and thrive in a 21st century economy. That's what Democrats believe.

I am a Roosevelt New Dealer … John F. Kennedy was a little too conservative for me.

If liberalism discredited itself, Obama woulda never gotten elected, and the New Deal woulda gone by the wayside, and LBJ woulda never gotten the Great Society. Liberalism does not discredit itself. It has to be explained and beaten back.

'Democratic socialism' is awful as a slogan and catastrophic as a policy. And 'social democracy' - a term that better fits the belief of more ordinary liberals who want, say, Medicare for all - is a politically dying force. Democrats who aren't yet sick of all their losing should feel free to embrace them both.

There's every reason to think that whatever their political leanings, Americans will be highly receptive to numerous reforms designed to improve health, safety, economic security, environmental quality and democratic self-government - at least if those reforms do not eliminate their freedom of choice.

The Democratic Party has been my party over 50 years, where I waged my battle to change America and change the world from its progressive wing.

I'm proud to be a Democrat, and I feel pretty strongly that the country would be better off with Democrats in charge.

I'm immensely proud to be a Democrat because of our party's history of fighting for justice, fairness, and equality. From Roosevelt to Obama, we've worked to bring seniors and children out of poverty, expanded civil rights, supported science and research, and pushed for equality of opportunity.

I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting freedom, fairness, families, and the future.

Listen, I'm a proud Democrat. My heroes are the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King. And I don't apologize for that and never will.

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

I'm a Harry Truman, JFK, Scoop Jackson and Bill Clinton Democrat.

How did the progressive Republican Party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower become the reactionary party of Ronald Reagan, the tea party and Paul Ryan? There is nothing random about these ideological shifts. They reflect the party’s — and the nation’s — central unresolved problem: the tension between equality of opportunity and protection of private property.

I'm someone who thinks that the world would be a better place if there was a big middle class. I mean, middle class is peace. In a perfect world, everybody would have enough to eat and we'd be living in security. It's obvious. I'm very happy to pay my taxes and all that. I would say I'm more of a Social Democrat.

If anything, I'm to the left of Obama.

I guess I'd be put in the ID politics camp. But there is really nothing in the world-view of, say, Bernie Sanders I actually disagree with. I'd like a guaranteed income, single-payer health care, a stronger safety net, etc. The problem is the temptation to paper over historically fraught issues to achieve that is tempting.

My father's political heroes were Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

I am a proud moderate republican. But I like democrats as well.

I support a guaranteed basic income. I think we should take care of sick people. I believe women can make their own choices and that the government is at its best when it's building bridges instead of bombs.

My parents were admirers of President Roosevelt and the New Deal. Their parents and most of our relatives and neighbors were Republicans, so they were self-conscious in their liberalism and took it as emblematic of their ability to think for themselves.

The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.

I'm of the opinion that the Democrats have the ideas I agree with more often than not. Reenergizing the middle class and giving people a break.

The more Democrats try to abandon the values and policies embodied in our platform, the more we will continue to lose. We can't win by running on incrementalism.