Issue Complexity Quotes

Network news accustoms audiences to assertion not argument. Over time, it reinforces the notion that politics is about visceral identification and apposition, not complex problems and their solutions. ... sound bites aren't very helpful. They can tell a voter what a candidate believes, but not why. And many issues are too complex to be freeze dried into a slogan and a smile. ... What's lost in a world in which everything's an ad? Perhaps the country that created the assembly line has simply found a more efficient way to do politics.

For me it's more important that I outline all the facets of a controversial issue and let the reader make up his or her mind. I don't care if readers change their minds, but I would like readers to ask themselves why their opinion is what it is.

The important thing to understand about legislators is that there are dozens of competing interests and issues that occupy them. They are stretched thin.

Don't tell me this is a difficult problem. If it weren't difficult, it wouldn't be a problem.

Human problems are complex. If something isn't complex it doesn't qualify as problematic. Very simple bad things are not worth troubling ourselves about.

In reality, most of us depend on others to articulate the issues, to interpret data, and explain the implications. Few of us have the time or interest to read background reports for ourselves; even fewer have the inclination or ability to examine primary data. The volume, breadth, and complexity of our national issues defy casual understanding and frequently overwhelm sincere seekers of deeper insight. As a result, we substantively rely on the opinions of others to form our own. Yet, many of those on whom we rely as the basis of our opinions are doing the exact same thing. […] This is a perverse dysfunction in the way we form and reinforce our opinions.

The best version of comedy is when you can get to an issue where, at some point, you're not firmly on one side or the other, and you can see both sides. The more we become about the issues, the more successful we are.

The American people are a non-ideological people. They very much are looking for common-sense, practical solutions to the problems that they face. Oftentimes they've got contradictory senses of various issues and policy positions and I don't think that either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party necessarily capture their deepest dreams when those parties are described in caricature or in policy terms.

Important issues do not always split along party lines.

A Supreme Court justice is sometimes a liberal on one issue and a conservative on another.

The premise of most media is that only conflict is newsworthy. And that's just not true. I think for a lot of men, too - certainly for most women - there's enough real conflict without manufacturing it. The media formula is always to have a pro and con, to say there are two sides to any issue, when in fact there may be ten sides.

My parents are left-wing, and I would describe myself as that. But also, you know what? I wouldn't describe myself as that. Because I don't have to. Because I'm not a political party. Most people are a little bit of each, and we change our mind on various issues.

The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer - and they don't want explanations that do not give them that.