Barack Obama Quotes

Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.

What's wrong is that we are not participating to make this the type of government it needs to be.

The democratic process is only as great as the people who participate in it.

Although elections are not perfect tools for democracy, they reinforce the relationship between the people and their leaders, empowering citizens to remove and replace their governments in a peaceful and orderly manner. The only basis for a peaceful society is providing people with the opportunity to express their opinions and their will, and elections are instrumental in doing so.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

I think it doesn't actually matter what your political persuasion is, but if you are interested in the country that you live in and the way in which it's run, everyone has to do something about that.

I didn't run for student council president. I don't see myself in any way in elected office. I love policy. I'm not particularly fond of politics.

I will work with anyone that wants to get America back on track and make sure that the government is the servant and no longer the master.

We represent the people and we will do so in a way which allows us to interact with the people.

Our laws to be wholesome need not be enacted in a palace.

Influence elected government officials, don't just elect them. Your right is to govern yourselves, not just to choose your governors.

No government at any level has all the answers.

Presidents come from the people and the should return to the people.

Public participation in the process of government is the essence of democracy.

If the American people are going to support a policy than they had better be made to understand the rationale.

Access to government-held information allows citizens to hold their government accountable for policy decisions and public expenditures…. Access to information bridges the gap between state and society ….

I wish twenty-four hours, a good night's sleep and a day spent in the open air could always elapse before any government officials take action on matters of grave importance.

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation

Political authorities should lead the way and not lag behind [public opinion].

Our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is a difficult, hard, full-contact, participatory endeavor.

There's nothing wrong with any group of Americans using our democratic system in order to advance their policy views.

Whatever your political leaning, vote. This participation is vital. I feel the same way about issues like the space program, education, the military. The more the public focuses on these things, thinks and forms opinions, I think the better we are as a democracy.

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

Americans feel frustrated, distanced, and disenfranchised from our elected government. We deserve more: a government in which we truly all have a voice.