John Avlon Quotes

Conservatives, please. Let's not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is.

Unquestionably, American political rhetoric can be repugnant, and the Right can certainly be as guilty as the Left.

Political vitriol is a familiar enough characteristic of American history.

Barack Obama is more irritating than the other nuisances on the Left.

For eight years Republicans worked around the clock to delegitimize Bill Clinton. For the next eight years, Democrats tried to delegitimize Bush. Now Barack Obama is enduring the rage of his conservative opposition.

Republicans have nothing but bad ideas and Democrats have no ideas.

It's a sad commentary on where politics is today. If someone disagrees with you, you're either Attila the Hun or a leftist liberal.

It's very personal in its politics, very bitter and very negative.

American political life has reached the stage where a vocal and powerful group uses "liberal" as a term of contempt.... Never before in our history has this been true. Liberals and conservatives have disagreed and, on occasion, have stoutly fought each other; but not in the lifelong recollection of the speaker has any similar attempt been made to convert an honorable word for a socially useful attitude into a sling of mud to be thrown at a political opponent.

Liberal criticism of George W. Bush's minority cabinet and staff selections reveals just how much the left has come to rely on the manipulation of group identity in America as a means to political power.

Even if Donald Trump's successful, it's the beginning of the end if this rhetoric persists in the Republican Party.

The liberal people are the violent people in this country. The Democrat Party are the violent people.

I hate it when Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi get to beat their drums and talk about what a great day it is for America that President Trump failed - when even they know ObamaCare is a total disaster.

The arrogance of the Left always fascinates me.

You've got the brain-washed, that's the Democrats, and the brain-dead, that's the Republicans!

Obama specializes in knocking down straw men. 'I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves,' he said, implying that's the view of Republicans. It's the view of almost no one.

I am not predicting here that Obama will fail like Jimmy Carter. What I am predicting is the Republican Party is not extinct and will after a period of time become a strong opposition party.

I hate Republicans and everything they stand for.

To my great disappointment, it appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback. Many Americans share my disappointment - especially those who were filled with great hope a few years ago, when then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois.

The problem with the Tea Party is that it's been used in a way that scares people into supporting an agenda that's counter to their own interests.

The left claims that Republicans hate Hispanics, which is just the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard, and the right just claims all we need to do is close the borders and do nothing else, which is also ridiculous.

The GOP doesn't seem particularly afraid of being perceived as blocking reform, despite efforts by the Obama White House to establish that narrative.

If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis.

The myopic obsession of the Tea Party with destroying health care reform and wounding the president has led Republicans astray.

Too many politicians are shifting the critical themes of our national conversations from a 'big ideas' American Brand Platform to narrowly focused, polarizing sound bites that put party philosophy before what used to be heralded as the common good. These ideas, more often than not, divide us rather than serve to bind us.