Charles E. Schumer Quotes

Citizenship has been out of fashion for some decades in our country, but now it is back in fashion. Weekends are for fighting tyranny. And that's why it's going to be really fun to see Democracy Now!

Democracy is not what we hate the most and what we fear the most. We need to stand up.

I do believe that if millions of people do stand up and fight back, we can stop Donald Trump from doing some really awful things.

I think we need to fight against Trumpism in the courts, we need to fight at the ballot box and online, and we need to do peaceful protesting. We need to use every lever at our disposal to make sure that the president doesn't hurt our country, our values, and our people.

I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously.

We can't continue assuming that politics is something which is decided elsewhere by distant leaders in a distant capital. Protest is insufficient too. If people who are willing to put time into demonstrations also prove willing to work on behalf of candidates in local elections - or to become candidates themselves - they will achieve far more. If all of this upheaval provokes more involvement, then we have a slim chance of ending up with more vibrant democracies eventually. The alternative, as you've hinted, is that democracy fails altogether.

From tea parties to the election in Massachusetts, we are witnessing the single greatest political pushback in American history.

I don’t get involved in politics. I just blow my horn.

You know why I'm running for governor? Because everything we care about is under siege from President Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner.

Donald Trump is out to destroy people's lives, and he's trying to take our democracy down. That is something we can fight with everything we've got, but having compassion for one another while we do it is going to get us a lot further.

I have been fighting for democracy since I was 15 when I organised a strike to oppose the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce the Chinese patriotic school education; 100,000 people surrounded a government building with students asking for democracy for every citizen.

A lot of people will say to me, they'll say, "When is Trump going to be gone?" People who are thinking that way and are waiting, for those folks I worry that every day when they wake up and Trump is still president, every day is November 9. That's not a good headspace to be in. It just happens to be the case that the best thing you can do to feel better is to be actively engaged in pushing back, and that also happens to be the best thing that you can do for the country right now.

The racist rhetoric from politicians is inspiring people to organize, as more people see what happens by not getting active.

Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is ... We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.

What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but "who is sitting in" - and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.

We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided! Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.

If civil disobedience is the way to go about change, than I think a lot of people will be going to San Francisco

We are well aware of what Donald Trump has done in his first 100 days. And people are organized all over the place to fight back.

I am emboldened, not cowed, by the words and actions of Trump and his circle. I believe many others are as well. Together we will stand in opposition. I'm not going anywhere, and I won't be silenced.

I think people in America have had enough, and Donald Trump's the change agent.

It was a very interesting experience. You know, I don't think words could do it justice. Roseanne [Barr] is a comedian, a laugh a minute at every turn, and this time around she was actually going to be the vice presidential candidate of another Green Party candidate. So I guess she's still in the mix in some ways,sort of learning her politics as she goes, like a lot of us Americans who are getting thrown under the bus and for whom it is not a laughing matter. We are going to stand up and take this seriously and refuse to be intimidated out of the future that we deserve.

The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary.

We need to also act out, and anything that [Donald] Trump does, anything he's trying to do that we don't agree with or anything this country is doing in general that we don't agree with, we need to protest, we need to make our voices heard. And that has to go beyond Twitter - for me as well.

Johnny's in the basement Mixing up the medicine I'm on the pavement Thinking 'bout the government.