Jim Hightower Quotes

You have citizens who don't understand how government works and they're kind of soured on it. All they do is criticize. They have no idea that they can make things happen.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved - versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.

I think everybody who has a brain should get involved in politics. Working within. Not criticizing it from the outside. Become an active participant, no matter how feeble you think the effort is.

We need to be constantly reminded that this is a representative democracy, and we need to be in tune to what people are talking about.

The rise of civic society is not a negation of politics, but marks an opportunity for the involvement of the people.

What I was excited about was the opportunity for punters to be part of politics. The whole idea was to allow the voices of people outside this weirdo palace of Westminster to be heard. I thought the whole social media thing might be really positive.

Would I get into politics? I'll just say what I tell people when they ask me this: Pray that everyday citizens like me aren't pushed to that corner.

As for being a voice in politics, I feel whether you are famous or not, busy or not, it's incumbent upon every citizen to participate in this government in any way we can.

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

The good news is dollars don't vote, people do.

One of the best ways to stop the failed policies coming out of Congress is to bring in the ideas and the involvement of the American people, which the America Speaking Out project is designed to do.

I engage with local politics because it affects people I love. And I engage in national politics because it affects people I love.

We're all looking for an authentic way to be engaged in the community, engaged in politics, engaged in national discussion - and so, we're clunky. We're all clunky. But it's better than not doing it.

On the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats. We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn't left to the wealthy and privileged.

In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.

Crucially, I'd like to thank Labour party members up and down the country for sticking with us. For their active citizenship, their willingness to engage in our democracy, and for being there at the cutting edge of making our democracy work.

In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

I certainly think it's very important that writers as citizens - not necessarily as writers, but just as ordinary citizens - should talk about things that matter to them.

The value of government to the people it serves is in direct relationship to the interest citizens themselves display in the affairs of state.

A short exposure to the convention convinced me that the Internet may save the Democracy in that it is a way for the people, for the citizens, to have some direct influence on the government.

As I said, I spent most of my adult life thinking I didn't have a vote, and therefore that what I thought didn't matter.

Pretty much all I say politically is I encourage people to register to vote.