Arlen Specter Quotes

Arlen Specter left the GOP because it is a lot easier to win in Pennsylvania as a Democrat than as a Republican. It is that simple. For folks on the Right to brush this off as some sort of 'good purge' is extremely naive.

The politician may change sides so frequently as to find himself always in the majority, but most politicians have a preference for one party to the other

I have this belief that Donald Trump keeps floating the idea that he will quit the party and run as an independent if the Republican Party does not treat him fairly.

I didn't want to engage in a campaign where I was defending myself on those issues at every turn, so I just decided that I'd switch and run as a Republican.

Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.

The Republican high command thinks that Henry Wallace will take so many votes away from the Democrats, and so little from the Republicans, that it does not matter what the Republican Party does. Victory will be theirs, they assure themselves. When any political party gets this feeling, it is time for that party to beware.

Individuals move and shift from one party to another simply on their aspirations for office.

Members of Congress are like the voters in one respect -- they want to go with the winners.

The Democrats have made the low-information voters think they care about 'em. And the worst thing you can do is invest in the Democrat Party, the worst thing, in terms of life potential.

I don't think there's much difference between the two parties. I think whatever their constituents at the moment want, that's what they believe. If their constituents changed, they would change overnight.

We've got to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general election.

All of the great patriots now engaged in edging and squirming their way toward the Presidency of the Republic run true to form. That is to say, they are all extremely wary, and all more or less palpable frauds. What they want, primarily, is the job; the necessary equipment of unescapable issues, immutable principles and soaring ideals can wait until it becomes more certain which way the mob will be whooping.

Back in 1980, the conservative movement was all-in for Ronald Reagan. Once Reagan won, they all wanted to be on the team. It was a landslide. Everybody wants to bask in that glow. And then as the Reagan years began, then the Republicans, certain members of the party began to individually fall out and start talking about problems they had, secretly telling the media they thought Reagan was a dunce and a danger to world peace, adopting the Democrat line that Reagan's finger on the nuclear button couldn't be trusted.

We have our nominee, and it's is Secretary [Hillary] Clinton. I do hope that Secretary Clinton will take into account the huge resonance of the vision that Senator ["Bernie"] Sanders was putting forward.This has inspired millions of citizens - a style of campaign we've never seen before winning 22 states, extraordinary number of caucuses. Now the challenge is to bring the two halves of the party together.

I've been a lifetime Democrat, and I'm re-registering this year as an independent. It's strictly [because] my party, that I've been affiliated with all these years, doesn't stand for anything that I stand for anymore. They've lost any sensibility that they had, and they've allowed all the kooks in, so I'm going independent.

As a lobbyist he had long ago concluded there was no difference in how Democrats and Republicans conducted the business of government. The game stayed the same: It was always about favors and friends, and who controlled the dough. Party labels were merely a way to keep track of the teams; issues were mostly smoke and vaudeville. Nobody believed in anything except hanging on to power, whatever it took.

It doesn't entirely make sense that if 51 senators are from one party, and they can stick together, they can do whatever they want. Especially in this age of blatant, shameless gerrymandering.

In the American political system, you're only allowed to have real ideas if it's absolutely guaranteed that you can't win an election

I would prefer that in the Republican party, we not engage in trying to destroy each other, because all that does is hand the election over to the Democrats. I don't know why there is this penchant for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, they'll find some way to destroy themselves. And it is just maddening to see it happening.

The Labour Party can go into the next election united behind the most radical manifesto on which we have ever campaigned.

I was speaking on the radio in South Texas [in 2016], and I was speaking to Hispanics, and I said 'You know, you probably vote Democrat because your parents always voted Democrat, and your grandparents always voted Democrat, but let me tell you something. Thirty years ago in Texas, there were two parties - liberal Democrats and conservative Democrats. Looking at your principles, your values as Hispanics, in all probability your parents were conservative Democrats. The conservative Democrats of 30 years ago are Republicans today!'

It is [a politician's] business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying, he will hold it by lying; if lying peters out, he will try to hold it by embracing new truths. His ear is ever close to the ground.

I don't think [Bill Clinton] does anything - I don't think it's ill will. I don't think he's evil in the sense that he hates the Bill of Rights. He does what he figures will help him politically.

A politician who climbs high over the bodies of the slain is described as vile or great according to the degree of his success.

Hillary Clinton does not have a connection with her voters like Donald Trump has with his. She's got people who like her, and she's got support because she's a woman, and she has support because she's Mrs. Clinton. She has support because she's a Democrat.