Malcolm X Quotes

Created by writer Beau Willimon, who's worked on several political campaigns, 'House of Cards' cannily exploits the current widespread cynicism for our politics, catering to a public scorn that's warranted and also glib in the sort of cheap pox-on-both-houses way that means not having to pay attention.

Promising something that seems popular at the time that you know you're never going to deliver - that's the kind of cynical politics that I don't want any part of.

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it.

I was initially rather charmed by David Cameron, but I think he's revealing himself to be a slightly darker and less charismatic figure than he first appeared. There's a brutality about him.

I've had great pleasure meeting the likes of Newt Gingrich and having a chat with the fellow on a staircase. I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn't care! He knows what a politician is, and he's a perfect embodiment of one.

Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody.

Jason McDermott's political career, however bogus, appears to have had an early and promising start.

The single biggest weakness that politicians have as a group is that they want people to like them.

…the nomination of Mr. Lincoln took everybody by surprise: it was brought about by accident or trick, by which my pledged friends had to vote against me… The thing was well planned and boldly executed.

In my years working in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, I had learned that those who seek the presidency are prepared to stop at almost nothing to get their party’s nomination.

And so I am launched again upon the faithless wave of politics.

A politician will do anything to keep his job—even become a patriot.

I personally think that Newt is amoral when it comes to politics. He'll do anything to get elected.

Romney is pretending to be something he is not. He is renting the Republican party in order to fulfill his ambition of being President. The Republican party is renting Romney in order to fulfill its ambition of beating Barack Obama.

For those of you who still believe in the Easter Bunny and that the letters that appear in your local newspaper come from concerned citizens who really care, I've got troubling news. At least in politics, most of the letters that get published on the letters-to-the-editor page originate in the campaign headquarters of the candidates.

Nixon's genius was that he was able to portray himself as the toughest of the anti-communists, and yet run on a platform that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War. And, of course, his plan was to prolong it until his second election - but he didn't tell us that then.

In politics, manipulating reality can take presidence over finding reality.

Politicians exploit economic illiteracy.

The art of manipulating public opinion, which is a necessary art for the democratic politician, and, like other arts, is sometimespractised with greater virtuosity by knaves than by honest men (who are apt to disdain it), has a different technique in different countries. For instance, in England we excel in whitewashing: in America they excel in tarring and feathering. We strain our nerves and stretch our consciences to avoid a scandal: Americans do the same to make one.

When I talk about people wrapping themselves in the flag and hiding behind Jesus - that's an anti-intellectual thing to do in the political process, because legally, allegedly we have a separation between church and state. That's a legal precedent that's never observed. When people are trying to do something that's not in your best interest, they will wrap it in the flag and hide behind Jesus, which is a corrupt thing to do.

The left can't win elections without lying and without camouflage and without masks hiding who they really are. So to get their way, they have to bully.

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

The Kremlin is constantly changing the rules of the game to suit its purposes. We are not playing chess, we're playing roulette.

Trying to gin up political violence for its electoral utility is - I think inarguably what we're seeing here. And I know that the Donald Trump campaign will not say that is what they're doing.

I think the Democrat attitude is, "You know, we've toyed with you people for all these years, and we've been faking you out. We've been making it look like we want you in our club, but we really don't. We don't want... You're nothing but a bunch of foils, and we don't need you anymore, and we're just gonna wipe you out".