Joseph Schumpeter Quotes

I'm moved to think about the political state of our country right now. Most people who go out and vote have a very clear sense of what's right and wrong. And a lot of those people who don't aren't sure, so they don't go out and vote.

Democracy makes us articulate our views, defend them, and refine them.

People in New Hampshire know that I'll talk thoughtfully, substantively about any issue.

The level of discourse in this country is falling to a depth that cannot be sustained.

Read the editorial page of your local paper. It introduces you to opinion and can be terrifically provocative and perhaps a great motivating force for you to get involved in your community, regardless of your political ideology.

Whether you voted for me or not, going through the Democratic process had made me a better candidate. I am a smarter, better candidate.

Politics goes in one ear and out the other. I don't even know the president's name for sure. That's how stupid I am.

We gain by intelligent discussion of public questions carried on, … not from a standpoint of partisanship, but of good citizenship.

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

I believe that politicians have a public trust to further debates about important issues. I firmly believe that every public debate holds the prospect of enlightenment.

American democracy depends on the public's ability to remain accurately informed on our state of affairs.

In democratic republics such as ours, citizens rely on public criticism of ideas and people to determine national policy.

Going back to why people don't vote, I presume the main reason is because they understand without reading political science texts that it doesn't make any difference how they vote. It's not going to affect policy, so why bother?

People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.

You call that statesmanship. I call it an emotional spasm.

Voting, we might even say, is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge is, of course, giving your opinion to a pollster, who will get a version of it through a desiccated question, and then will submerge it in a Niagara of similar opinions, and convert them into--what else?--another piece of news. Thus we have here a great loop of impotence: The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.

In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no 'two evils' exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.

I always had a respect and an admiration for people who got into politics. I certainly have always been interested in law and political science.

I don't even think much about politicians. I think about the people in the audience who applaud the politicians. They are your fellow countrymen and they're the ones you live with - that should be who we target for education and enlightenment.

Voting for the right is doing nothing for it.

I want people to vote, I want them to pay attention. I want them to get up and go and vote and care about this country, inform themselves about the issues and I also want them to not vote for somebody just based on gender or race, based on qualification.

Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.

A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it. They are more or less unfit for liberty; and although it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it

To the haranguers of the populace among the ancients, succeed among the moderns your writers of political pamphlets and news-papers, and your coffee-house talkers.

I have never voted in my life... I have always known and understood that the idiots are in a majority so it's certain they will win.