Zephyr Teachout Quotes

I was dissatisfied with the status quo back in the 80's, particularly how the West was represented in federation. I wanted to try to change it.

We put together a one-sentence petition asking Congress to censure President Clinton and move on to other pressing issues. We sent it to under 100 friends and family, and within a week we had 100,000 people sign the petition.

I've got three little kids at home, and I'm trying to save this country from itself. I'm not here to play political power games, and I've had enough of people playing political power games, and this has just gone on too long.

If I was a politician right now I would change just about everything.

You don't choose a party because it's the flavour of the month. I feel I will be able to work under a political system. I feel if people like me don't enter politics to bring change, who will?

We didn't come here to become Washington, we came here to change Washington.

I spent 10 years fighting for reform in Cook County, and I didn't change my DNA when I got to Washington.

How much reform do you think this institution [Congress] can take?

When I grow up I’m going to change the government.

Sometime between elections we should concentrate on doing something.

Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counter-power, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.

Social change … almost inevitably leads to the rise of new political actors demanding a voice and a share of power.

I’m going to take Tennessee ideas to Washington and make them work for the country.

I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out of fear, because it is a potent force for political change.

It's not at all a secret that I was one of the co-founders of Brand New Congress, and we've never tried to hide our goals.

We need a coalition in this country. A coalition of change. People who have had enough of this.

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.

I think that people are tired. They're tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

The people of South Carolina support conservatives who are trying to push real change, and the people of South Carolina expect their presidential candidates to back them up when they show courage.

If we don't like what the Republicans do, we need to get in there and change it.

The challenge in working in politics, particularly if you're working for a political party, is that everyone's a messenger.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

I do identify with St. Patrick, not just in name. He drove the snakes out of Ireland. I intend to drive the snakes out of the State House.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.