David Harsanyi Quotes
It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that democracy will improve the function of policy.
Harsanyi, David. The People Have Spoken (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy. Regnery Publishing, 2014.
This concept was utilized by the U. S. State Department in opposition to the 1992 dissolution of the Peruvian Congress by the President who claimed he was doing it for democratic reasons. See Al Smith for a later expression of this notion.
When ambassador to Great Britain, he was very supportive of the British Fascists, and was an admirer of Adolf Hitler. Once war with Germany was commenced, Kennedy predicted that England would lose the war and became a fascist puppet state controlled by Germany. He opposed Lend Lease and the other efforts of the Roosevelt administration to assist England to fight off the Germans. Ironically his oldest son died in a dangerous volunteermission fighting Germany in the War. Kennedy's earlier pro-German views ended his political career and was an embarassment to his sons when they entered politics.
This is a very important quotation. Abraham Lincoln obtained a printed copy of Parker’s sermon and underlined this quotation on his copy. Later when he was President he used a slight variation of Parker’s last phrase in the last line of his famous Gettysburg Address.
The only soldier ever so honored. At the beginning of WWII, President Roosevelt and Churchill wanted the U. S. Army to invade German and Italian North Africa. Marshall, General Eisenhower, and all the other military men, advised that while it was possible, it would be a diversion from the strategic objective of invading Europe. None the less FDR ordered the invasion. The effect on the American people was wonderful, It showed that the Germans were not invincible, increased enlistment and morale at home, and developed more popular support for the war. Later, Marshall learned much about Democratic leadership and he, himself became a very effective government leader, and began to appreciate FDR’s approach but with a little cynicism about democracy.
Slogan that Theodore Roosevelt developed to go with this attempt to nominate Presidents with Primary Elections. Prior to his 1912 run for the Presidency, presidential nominees were selected by the delegates to the party national convention. Since then the parties have used various combinations of delegates that were bound by primary election results in their state and other delegates who could use their judgment. No combination has been totally satisfactory and both major American political parties tinker with the combination every four years.
David Harsanyi is an American conservative writer, opinion columnist, and author.