Nicola Sturgeon Quotes

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.

Barack is at a level where he can't - no matter how much he wants to or how much we want him to - he's not going to come take out our garbage, so to speak. He can't be the garbage man and the president. He can't be the mayor and the alderman. He can't fill all those roles. So I always push for local, local activity on the political scene.

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.

I know that government doesn't have the all solutions that real solutions do not come from the top down. Instead, the ways to end poverty come from all of us. We are part of the solution.

All politics is local.

… it is the great mass of people, particularly women, who do not often hear government questions discussed who would really enjoy and profit from these

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

I think all politics is local.

I think he was absolutely right not to go to UN last week... First things first - that is, values and people here in their local communities, and remembering all politics is local, and trusting people more.

In my native Boulder County, Colorado, the fracking fanatics are out in force. They are marching door-to-door, petitions and mythology in hand, and they are storming city council and county commissioner meetings.

I am proud to represent people who care so deeply about their communities. Their perseverance and strength only motivates me more as their representative in Congress.

Being out and about talking to residents and representing their views is, in my view, as important to politics as the grandstanding that takes place in Westminster.

I have run two small businesses in Kansas, and I have seen how government can crush entrepreneurism. That's why I ran for Congress. It just so happens that there are a lot of people in south central Kansas who agree with me on that.

A majority in all parties do, I think, want to see local government recover its old vigour and independence.

We have a government that, generally speaking, does not respond to the people.

I love being a part of something that is grassroots, and you can see the actual changes, the effect of what people do.

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

There are many ways of encouraging people to make life better other than joining a political party. Politics with a small 'p' isn't just about darkened committee rooms, endless meetings - it is about giving people the right to make decisions about our lives.

The problem is not in the office: the problem is out there. Every day I go to the people, go to the street. I can ask the people what they want, what they need.

The voice of the people must be heeded.

To enable consensus politics to develop we need to empower people where they live. This means devolving financial resources and political power down to the community level. One of the greatest blocks to movement is fear. This fear can only be removed when people feel their voices are being heard by government and when they have a say in their own lives and communities.

People do not dislike their local government, but they do think it could do better.

The voices of a billion Indians … are telling us that the course of their lives cannot be decided by a handful of people behind closed doors who are not fully accountable to them. They are telling us that India’s governmental system … robs people of their voice, a system that disempowers rather than empowering.

An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community ... must speak in the tone of that community, not as somebody else's buffer zone.

Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out.