Dede Gardner Quotes

We have a democracy of elections to elections. After winning an election, the parties become brazen and arrogant. They would do all wrong things and if you question them, they would say - why don't you change the government next time? But that would be five years later. What do I do right now? I am suffering right now.

This is a country for, of, and by the people not for, of, and by the government. If we turn it over to them we cannot complain about what they're doing because this is a natural course of men and we have to hold their feet to the fire.

American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same in France; but in all these three countries the dominating fact is that whatever the people get ready to change the government, they can change it. The same thing is not true of Germany

We don't want the government to have anything we don't have, because government isn't 'We The People' anymore.

I'm one of those old cynics that thinks, whoever you vote for, the government always gets in.

If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other benefits from the treasury, democracy is done for.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the government of South Carolina is under domination of a small ring of cunning, conniving men.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

Our public officials have forgotten that they are ultimately accountable to the people who put them in office, that the information they keep in secrecy belongs to all of us.

If members of the security apparatus could, with impunity, keep from those elected by the people that which they're entitled to know - or worse, feed false information - those who could control the classified data could be the real decision makers.

I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.

In a democracy, people usually get the kind of government they deserve, and they deserve what they get.

The actual rulers in a parliamentary democracy are the class of professional politicians. In theory, they are supposed to represent the people, but in fact they rule over them.

All governments abuse power. Every one of them. It's the duty of citizens to resist those abuses.

If the Election be made by the People in large Districts, there will be no danger of Demagogues.

Only the checks put upon magistrates (government officials) make nations free; and only the want of such checks make them slaves. They are free, where their magistrates are confined within certain bounds set them by the people … And they are slaves, where the magistrates choose their own rules … and therefore most nations in the world are undone, and those nations only who bridle their governors do not wear chains

There once was a time when people chose their congressmen. Now congressmen choose their people.

Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust. Whether our Constitution has hit on the exact degree of control necessary, is yet under experiment

A government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices and ambitions of their leaders, is a democracy.

... we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

What we see before us is a politics devoid of kindness and truth... today, politics is not being used in the service of the people: it is being used to crush them, not to lift them up.

I'm against bureaucratization, corruption, seeing the same people in power.

Voters, whatever their political views, should rise up against politicians who want to dilute the Bill of Rights to perpetuate their tenure in office.

Billionaires and corporations buy and sell politicians, while citizens struggle to exercise their right to vote or hold their elected representatives to account.