Richard C. Leone Quotes

This country has always been run by elite, and it's an elitist democracy. And that's not a radical concept. It's elitist democracy. When people talk about democracy, they don't talk - really talk about participatory democracy, until the point that we get us at Election Day.

In a democracy, you can be right and still lose power.

Decision making in a democracy depends above all on knowledge and not just the intel available to presidents and policymakers.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

Power is action; the electoral principle is discussion. No political action is possible when discussion is permanently established.

The freedom to persuade and suggest is the essence of the democratic process.

Government is everywhere to a great extent controlled by powerful minorities, with an interest distinct from that of the mass of the people.

Democratic processes require time.

I can't strong-arm my members. They vote the way they want to.

Under universal suffrage the elected are those who know best how to take in the masses. The minority, which may happen to be the half minus one, is sacrificed.

In the United States, where the numerical majority have long been in full possession of collective despotism, they would probably be as unwilling to part with it as a single despot or an aristocracy.

Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion.

When, in a democratic society, policies don’t go their way, people tend to blame it on a small group of other people who they believe have more influence.

The ballot box is a license to govern, not a mandate to rule.

The Rules Committee is the place that Democracy comes to die.

One-half of the people of this nation to-day are utterly powerless to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write there a new and a just one.

The debate is ended. Fifty percent plus one vote is all we need to govern this country.

Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country, was 'socialist.' The concept of the 'minimum wage' was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as 'socialist.'

Controversial disputes are a part of democratic culture.

In a multi-party democracy, many issues which you want - or do not want - will be raised. It is for us to make it relevant or not so relevant with our answers.

How can we even call this a Democracy when the House, the Senate, the White House, and now the Supreme Court are all controlled by the representatives of a minority group in America?

Everybody has their manifesto; let them talk their language, come to the people, and the people will decide. In a democracy, no party or candidate wins or loses. If you, the people, chose a wrong man, you lose; if you chose the right one, you win.

You can't keep a democracy going in a functional and constructive way if only 10 percent of the people you represent think your institution is functioning in an acceptable way. That's just not viable.

People from both political parties have long recognized that welfare without work creates negative incentives that lead to permanent poverty. It robs people of self-esteem.

That's what the Senate is about. It's the last bastion of minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he falls into the dust.