Gil Troy Quotes
Primary season highlights the parties’ debility, reducing them to the role of referee among contenders. Then the winner takes over the party structure, frequently installing new leaders while commandeering party fundraising lists. The nominees function much like new sheriffs who swagger into town and dominate the scene for a dramatic but fleeting moment rather than like local deputies who rise through the system and last.
Gil Troy,"Bury the Hatchet", The Wison Quarterly, Fall 2008
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In the struggle for political power, this is often forgotten. During the Barak Administration, the President proposed measures that had been introduced and supported by his Republican opponents earlier. But they then not only failed to support them but often filibustered in the Senate to block them. The Democrats failed to support some of their ideas when President Eisenhower introduced them.
Questioning the wisdom of the then existing system of selecting major party presidential candidates by primary elections where even few party members vote.
2nd Viscount Melbourne. Party discipline has been a problem for party leaders whenever there are political parties.
Adams took the word from one of the Native American terms for a meeting within the tribe and gave it a political meaning that is still in common use.
At that time the Presidential nominee had influence but could not unilaterally determine who his running mate would be as the Party Conventions—especially the Democratic Party Convention—was wide open. The candidate joked in this quotation, but the party leaders were very unhappy with such an open convention and after the 1972 election which they lost handily, the rules were changed to give party leaders more influence. By the 21st century, the primary elections had all but made the party conventions a quaint celebration and no serious decisions were made by the party leaders or the party delegates.
Republican Party primary elections had become very contentious. The radical right and the Tea Party, though a minority of the party, had the power to destroy almost any Republican candidate’s chances. So those Republican political candidates were forced to pander to the extreme right and then try and backtrack to the center for the general election. As a result, few people believed the statements of Republican office seekers as no one knew what they really believed including members of their own party, Bush, no longer running for any political position, found himself with much more credibility and influence in the party than those who were running for office. The problem of appealing to party extremes was not unique to the Republicans at that time, but the degree and extent was unprecedented accounting for the distrust.
In a zero sum system whenever one party gains, the other must lose, and if one loses, the other has a corresponding gain. At other times, legislation was not a zero sum game. Many Congressmen believed that if good legislation would be passed, BOTH parties would benefit as would the country. If poor or no legislation were passed, that would be bad for all.
Gil Troy (born 1961) is an American presidential historian and a popular commentator on politics and other issues. He is Professor of History at McGill University and a 2015 visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution. Troy is the author of nine books, and the editor of two. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic and other major media outlets. He writes a column for The Daily Beast on Forgotten history, putting current events in historical perspective and is a columnist for The Jerusalem Post.
