Viggo Mortensen Quotes

We have seen in Washington the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock. There is nothing wrong with our country. There is much wrong with our politics ….

Unfortunately, our country has become so politically polarized that one side routinely attempts to destroy and discredit the other.

In America, we have a bifurcated country, we have a polarized country. One of the reasons I think it's polarized is because of identity politics on the left.

Trump is, to some extent, redefining what we think of as polarization in this country. Where polarization has been seen as ideological, it is now being seen almost as behavioral.

Anybody who tunes into Rush Limabaugh already knows what he's going to say and is already inclined to agree. So it winds up creating tribes.

People at the political extremes have an advantage over the rest of us. Only they seem to know exactly who and what is wrong with America and precisely what policies and programs should be adopted to fix it.

The politicians are not the only people who are in their own silos. Many of our citizens only watch or listen to the news that they want to hear, and if there is anything else, they turn it off. We all need to listen to the people who are on the other side.

The most active people in the country know different things, and because each one tends to hear mostly and deal mostly with people with whom they agree, they are reinforced not simply in the conviction that they are right, which is totally appropriate, but that they are the majority. So you have both sides, the Left and the Right, thinking that the majority of the country is really with them.

In America, we're in a divided country.

America is a divided country; we have always been a divided country, but even more divided now, thanks to Trump and a lot of other things, as well.

Any time the country is split 50/50, the leader is wrong.

Everybody seems to be imprisoned in their own sectarian or political affiliations. They don't seem to be able to rise above these things.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

But this is the great danger America faces. That we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual. Each seeking to satisfy private wants.

Sides are being divided now. It's very obvious. So if you're on the other side of the fence, you're suddenly anti-American. It's breeding fear of being on the wrong side.

Our politicians don't say anything anymore: they just refute and assert.

I mean, look, we're living in a country where you can't have a non-denominational response. If you're slightly critical of either party, all of the partisans jump on you like you're a lunatic.

In Washington, compromise has become a dirty word.

Politics is a highly tribal business.

Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.

The field of politics always presents the same struggle. There are the Right and the Left, and in the middle is the Swamp. The Swamp is made up of know-nothings, of them who are without ideas, of them who are always with the majority.

Part of the tribalness of politics is to really dislike the other side with intensity. And the more I see of them the more I hate them.

There are some people who are so partisan that they do not live in the word the rest of us are in.

Politicians are trapped in their own views.

In an ideological, polarized political environment, people see the reality that they want to see.