Pragmatic Politics Quotes

The strictest loyalty to the ideas of communism must be combined with the ability to make all the necessary practical compromises, to tack, to make agreements, zigzags, retreats, and so on, in order to accelerate coming into power.

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've always believed in supporting the best candidate at the time.

This is the Trump revolution. Pragmatic. Non-ideological. He approaches issues as a businessman. It's a revolution in ideas and it goes way beyond foreign policy.

.In politics a man must learn to rise above principle.

It was the custom when men received nominations to come to me for contributions, and I made them and considered them good paying investments for the company. In a Republican district I was a strong Republican; in a Democratic district I was Democratic, and in doubtful districts I was doubtful. In politics I was an Erie Railroad man all the time.

The greatest art of a politician is to render vice serviceable to the cause of virtue.

Ideas, not ideology. Voters want a government that works.

He had no gifts for the compromises with human frailty which alone can grease the wheels of politics.

A pragmatist won't let ideology get in the way of what's got to be done to get elected.

Despite the forces pulling politicians to the extremes, Americans must remember that the United States is not Europe. The American political tradition is pragmatic and centrist.

Reagan's enduring value as a conservative icon stems from his resolute preaching of the conservative gospel, in words that still warm the hearts of the most zealous conservatives. Yet Reagan's value as a conservative model must begin with recognition of his flexibility in the pursuit of his conservative goals.

If you're not sure about whether to support Mitt Romney, whether you're liberal, or whether you're very conservative, you ought to be excited, because he's been on your side at one time or another. So I'm not completely misunderstood. I'm not as excited as I am desperate.

Like all born politicians, their eye was for the main chance rather than for the argument, and they found it easier to forswear a conviction than to forego a comfort.

You know in politics you are dealing in the realm of choices. You don't always have clear-cut decision between a thoroughly principled position and a thoroughly unprincipled one. You're making snap decisions with paucity of information, generally trying to do the best that you can, but you will make errors, and sometimes it's a decision between a bad and a worse alternative. It has to be done, because we need to order our society, and of politics it can literally be said: Bad job, but someone's got to do it.

I don't in any way underestimate the difficulties, because it's only gotten harder. But I do think you just have to go into politics with the attitude that you're going to speak clearly and authentically about what you see the country needs...and seek out whatever possible partners you can, even in the other party. I've looked at successful presidents going back. Some of our most successful governed through periods when their party was in charge, and when the other party was in charge. There's no magic formula.

I didn't know my Dad - he moved out early. And my mom's politics were kind of hardscrabble. She didn't think about Democrats or Republicans. She thought about who made sense. I've been both in my life.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas — no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.

Before I ran for District Attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch. And I knew a party-switch was exactly what they wanted. So, I told Chuck, we'll be polite, enjoy a free lunch and then say goodbye. But we talked about issues - they never used the words Republican, or Democrat, conservative or liberal. We talked about many issues, like welfare - is it a way of life, or a hand-up? Talked about the size of government - how much should it tax families and small businesses? And when we left that lunch, we got in the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, "I'll be damned, we're Republicans."

I want a politics that doesn't need to pretend to be holy or perfect or infallible. I want a politics that gets on with it.

You're never gonna find the perfect politician.

Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.

In adopting the republican form of government, I not only took it as a man does his wife, for better, for worse, but, what few men do with their wives, I took it knowing all its bad qualities.

What is the primary purpose of a political leader? To build a majority. If voters care about parking lots, then talk about parking lots.