Thomas Frank Quotes

Ideology isn’t driving the dynamic in Washington, it’s the desire to stay in power.

Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.

There are few things more amusing in the world of politics than watching moderate Republicans charging to the right in pursuit of greater glory.

Like a cowboy saddling a bucking stallion, Republican leaders tried to tame the Tea Party while riding it to victories.

Arlen Specter left the GOP because it is a lot easier to win in Pennsylvania as a Democrat than as a Republican. It is that simple. For folks on the Right to brush this off as some sort of 'good purge' is extremely naive.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

We are in a period when old questions are settled and the new are not yet brought forward. Extreme party action, if continued in such a time, would ruin the party. Moderation is its only chance. The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power.

A lot of the Republicans wanted exactly what Barack Obama wanted, exactly what Nancy Pelosi wanted, exactly what Harry Reid wanted, which is to raise the debt ceiling, but they wanted to be able to tell what they view as their foolish, gullible constituents back home they didn't do it.

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.

I believe that the far-right and the far-left can be equally insane - but there's no question that in the first years of the Obama administration, the far-right has been far crazier. In part, this comes from parties being out of power - without the responsibility of governing to ground them, the activists and the ideologues take over.

The Democrats just don't have a foreign policy that they're willing to defend, that they're willing to use to take down the president's. We're dealing with the power of suggestion here.

When I arrived in the Senate, the moderate so-called Rockefeller Republicans held the balance of power.

I have criticisms of Ronald Reagan, but he lives in another universe from the kind of political theater that is represented by people, like Sarah Palin, who aren't really public servants.

I get a kick out of Democrats thinking they know how handicap a GOP race.

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers.

As for life within a Legislature,— who can tell how warped and bent and twisted, and accommodated to the exigencies of party struggle become the faculties of belief?

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

Political controversies are never entered into with any wish to gain knowledge, but only a triumph for the party.

Politicians quickly learn to pacify the liberals by passing laws and regulations which, to pacify the conservatives, would not be enforced.

Governments do not like to face radical remedies; it is easier to let politics predominate.

I underestimated in this town, the degree to which politics trumps problem solving.

Major political parties have a role, but they are incapable of initiating fundamental change because they are fundamentally tied to the status quo. They are the status quo.

Politics is a matter of day-to-day improvisation, and it often seems as though the major parties are guided only by the desire to stay in office and not by any philosophy that might justify their doing so.

Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn't carry out an intelligent debate. He oversimplifies, he exaggerates, and he basically led the Republican Party over the cliff in the fall of 2013. He has shown no qualifications, no legislation being passed, doesn't provide leadership, and he has no real experience.

The Republican leadership thinks the best way to avoid losing elections is to let the Democrats win every controversial issue.