David Axelrod Quotes

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

Washington has political power combined with the insider illusion of being in control.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.

It is always a disappointment to turn from forthright consideration of some subject - whether from the Left or the Right, a poet or a plumber - to the Beltway version, in which the only aspects of the issue that matter are the effects it will have on the fortunes of the two parties and the various men in power.

Everyone in Congress represents Washington.

In the final analysis, politics is a game of force, in which no weakling may expect to be assigned a conspicuous role.

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 ….

By exploiting envy and fear, politicians can portray themselves as the saviors and protectors of the public — doing and saying whatever is necessary to gain the support needed to remain in power.

Washington believes in Zero-Sum politics.

Congress members put their ideology ahead of your prosperity.

… lobbyist-larded Washington

Honestly, the egos and the quest and thirst for power is very prevalent in Washington.

Politics and power is a realm of relative influence.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician's objective. Election and power are.

For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.

Everything's viewed with a political lens in Washington, and that's just the nature of the beast, and it is what it is.

You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you.

Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.

One of the melancholy facts of political life is that your convictions tend to align with your paycheck.

The term Party is applied equally to the peaceful parties of America and to the Communist Party of Russia, the Nazi Party of Germany, and the Fascist Party of Italy. The methodology of these parties varies, but their fundamental objective-to place and keep their leaders in control of the government - is the same.

Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, masses about central powerhouses. The conflict is no longer between the men, but between the motors that drive men [i.e. governments], and the men who succumb to their own motive forces.

Conservatives are unashamed by self-interest and feel comfortable exercising power on their own behalf.

Washington [DC] is a zero sum place.

We Republicans came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.