Joshua Micah Marshall Quotes

Power in Washington is simply the perception of power.

Washington has political power combined with the insider illusion of being in control.

It doesn't matter that Bush scares the hell out of me. What matters is that he scares the hell out of a lot of very important people in Washington who can't speak out, in the military, in the intelligence community.

Washington [DC] is a zero sum place.

It used to be that Washington admired Hollywood for its sex and Hollywood admired Washington for its power. These days, Washington admires Hollywood for its power and Hollywood admires Washington for its sex.

Washington is rigged to favor people who have an army of lobbyists.

Ideology isn’t driving the dynamic in Washington, it’s the desire to stay in power.

It is no secret that Washington, D.C., is a tempest of people and institutions relentlessly seeking power over the lives of everyday Americans.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

The word power has such a generally negative implication in our society. What are people talking about? Are they talking about muscles, or control?

The number one way of becoming powerful in Washington is by becoming the 'Washington Post.'

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

He took pride in belonging to the world's most exclusive club: the United States Senate.

Political battles are won when the rich favor them.

It's wherever business rules, business is going to get the politicians they want because they control the money and money controls the power.

If I bring up political power, personal power, it sounds like they're my terms, and they're not.

I can't get very excited about the House of Commons these days because I don't feel the power is there. What is really bizarre is that you sense it is not in Washington either. It is now very hard even to locate the levers of power, let alone to pull them and change things.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

You turn on the TV, and you see very bland interviews. Journalists in the United States are very cozy with power, very close to those in power.

I grew up in that world of power and politics in Washington, but when you grow up around it, you are completely unfazed by it.

I'm not a Washington person.

Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.

The essence of American politics consists of the manipulation of populism by elitism.

People who think the might in Washington can be persuaded, or corrupted if you will, by anything less than voters just doesn’t understand what its about and never will. They don’t know what Washington juice is made of.

I have several times suggested that what I call the “Establishment” in this country is today more powerful than ever before. By “Establishment” I do not mean only the centers of official power – though they are certainly part of it – but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised ... the “Establishment” can be seen at work in the activities of, not only the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal, but of such lesser mortals as the Chairman of the Arts Council, the Director-General of the BBC, and even the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, not to mention dignitaries like Lady Violet Bonham Carter.