Ben Rhodes Quotes

A demagogue is a person with whom we disagree as to which gang should mismanage the country.

It is important not to confuse the national spirit with that of the faction which presently dominates…

I wouldn't call it a Breitbart audience. I would call it America.

That is when the Left is going to love America - when it is not America anymore.

I am somebody who respects Putin highly, but I'm not somebody who is against America.

From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality.

People aren't really afraid of my views. They are just afraid of the word 'nationalism.'

Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

My position is that it isn't government's job to mandate patriotism. To me, mandating a pledge of allegiance to a government is something Saddam Hussein would do.

In my grandfather's time, the FN was founded largely as an anti-Communist party.

The kind of support encouraged by such modes of expression has always arisen basically from confusing the fatherland itself with the social conditions which happened to prevail in it.

I often heard Latvians compare Russia and America. Latvians find both countries and their leaders possessed of the same mysterious confidence.

World War II proved our Soviet system to be a better form of organization of society than any non-Soviet social system.

Having for centuries had no sense of self esteem outside the state, we found ourselves wanting our old rulers back, the rulers who provided a sense of order, inspired patriotic fervor and the belief that we were great nation. We yearned for monumental--if repressive--leaders like Ivan the Terrible or Stalin. Yes they killed and imprisoned but how great were our victories and parades. So what if Stalin ruled by fear? That was simply a fear of one’s life. However terrifying, it was not as existentially threatening as the fear of freedom, of individual choice, with no one but oneself to blame if democracy turned into disarray and capitalism into corruption.

We do not stand equally distant from the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union … American troops are in West Germany in order that free trade unions exist and Soviet troops are in Poland to see to it that free trade unions there do not exist. That is the difference.

As a matter of fact, it is the fascist minded men of America who are the real enemies of our institutions.... It is these men who, pretending that they would save us from communism, would superimpose upon America an equally dreaded fascism.

This country is going so far right you are not even going to recognize it.

Perestroika and glasnost mean more nationalism, more fascism.

Our involvement in this war is treason to the interests of international socialism.

Putin has demonstrated his fondness for the Cold War…. Once a KBG agent, always a KGB agent.

Everything changes.... Social life changes, and with it the "national question" changes, too. At different periods different classes enter the arena, and each class has its own view of the "national question." Consequently, in different periods the "national question" serves different interests and assumes different shades, according to which class raises it, and when.

History shows that populism polarizes society, weakens economies, and undermined representative democracy.

In power for 16 years now, Mr. Putin and his global propaganda machine aggressively promote the idea that democracy is a chaotic mess that only the hero Putin can save Russia from falling into.

Anti-Western resentment and Russian patriotism appear particularly pronounced in Putin’s personality and life experiences, but a different Russian government not run by former KGB types would still be confronted with the challenge of weakness vis-à-vis the West and the desire for a special role in the world. Russia’s foreign policy orientation, in other words, is as much a condition as a choice. But if Russian elites could somehow redefine their sense of exceptionalism and put aside their unwinnable competition with the West, they could set their country on a less costly, more promising course.

What Does Trump See When He Looks Back In History? Mostly He Sees ... Trump