Political Complexity Quotes

Politics is dirty. Politics is exciting. Politics is often very, very difficult and disappointing. And I really would rather the world would be a little more like it was when my dad was young, where you knew pretty much where people stood on the great moral issues.

Politics is less than perfect because we are less than perfect. We therefore need to approach it with some modesty. Politics is not like mathematics, where clear premises and deductive reasoning can lead to exact answers.

The attempt to treat politics as a branch of the profession of law [has] the disadvantage of refining issues to a point which no large society could comprehend.

Well Mr. President, it isn’t quite as simple as that.

Richard Nixon was a very complex man. I don't think he was a conservative, nor liberal, not even a moderate. He was a pragmatic politician. He loved politics.

I guess nobody assumes anybody is a libertarian. It's a more complex political discussion than most people are used to, to explain why you think the way you do about public education or drug laws, and why it's not as simple as being for or against something.

One must realise that it is not a child's play to run a government.

Like a lot of people, I had this naive hope that Barack Obama would fix everything quickly. You know, the culture of celebrity in this country leads us away from democratic ways of thinking and into this hero worship. And so of course, one man cannot swoop in and fix everything on his own. It's much more complicated and difficult than that, and progressives in this country since then have had to come to terms with the fact that we need to do more than actually get out of our house and vote. It's an ongoing process to turn the tide.

Running a democratic country is one of the most difficult things for any government.

A difficult regional situation doesn't justify one man's determination to hold onto power. It's clear to me that democratization is a very complicated process.

Representatives of Congress come to Washington representing their districts, but they don’t necessarily understand the complexities of the world.

In political administration, no problem is ever simple. It can never be reduced to the question whether a certain measure is good or not.

Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.

Probably like a lot of people, my personal politics are all over the map.

Washington is not a geographical entity, it is a state of mind.... People understand how Cleveland works. They even understand how New York City works, but they can't figure Washington out.

If you want to govern the nation, you should first be able to govern San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

I never met anyone in Ireland who understood the Irish question, except one Englishman who had only been there a week.

I can't speak for all Iranians, but I think that many of them would be uncomfortable with Ahmadinejad if Iran had nuclear weapons and he had his finger on the button. But the reality is that Iran's system of government is actually very complex. It has a lot of checks and balances, and neither Ahmadinejad nor any Iranian president would ever have his finger on the button. There are too many people involved in a decision of that magnitude.

As I've said repeatedly, Republicans are very good at describing things in black and white; Democrats are very good at describing the 11 shades of gray.

The fact that Obama is getting criticism from the left and the right might reflect his understanding of the underlying political dynamics.

The problems of the President of the United States are not susceptible to scientific treatment.

The issues are too complicated for government leaders to discuss, and too important for bureaucrats.

Indian politics has a way of taking a curious turn and surprising the wisest of pundits.

There can be no finality in politics.

President el-Sisi of Egypt took over in a very complicated environment. He needed to give a new direction. It is quite a difficult job.