Representation in Government Quotes

Most African-Americans really do believe that we are voting for our better interest in voting for Democrats.

There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.

Having personally watched the Voting Rights Act being signed into law that August day, I can't begin to imagine how we could have all been so wrong in believing that more Americans would vote once they were all truly free to do so.

The American people want a balanced budget. They want Congress to stop this barbaric practice of perpetual deficit spending. It really, if you think about it, is a form of taxation without representation. We fought a war over that issue and we won that war.

The fact is, I can vote for anybody; independents, Republicans, Democrats. But I'm a registered Democrat in the District of Columbia.

I used to say I represented 33% of the strategic reserve of physicists in Congress.

To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.

Secure to all people a free exercise of the right of suffrage and every other civil right.

Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men's lives.

We will take a meaningless vote so that some campaign operatives can try to bludgeon senators who are willing to stand up for the Bill of Rights and vote against this amendment.

As a millennial in Congress, I believe it's very important that we're educating our colleagues.

It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot.

If you're ever feeling a lack of middle-aged white men, just pop into the Capitol. Not so much the House of Representatives, which has a bit more color and texture, but the Senate -- jeez. Yes, let's have more testosterone running the country. Maximum Ride, School's Out--Forever

One of the things about New York City is obviously it's a very liberal place but there are plenty of conservatives that don't feel particularly well represented by Chuck Schumer or Kirsten Gillibrand.

I wonder who really is the change candidate? It can't be both of them [Hillary Clinton & Barak Obama]. What would be a black man and a woman - how could that be different than the 43 other Presidents we've had?

A majority of Senators placed on the Committee on Interstate Commerce were men whose sympathies were with the railroads.

Incumbent Congresswoman Bustos has proven during her time in Washington that she doesn't understand or feel the pain of middle class families. We need a true representative fighting for us in Washington, and incumbent Congresswoman Cheri Bustos has refused to act.

Of course, the genesis of a good portion of the gridlock in Congress does not reside in Congress itself. Ultimate reform will require each of us, as voters and Americans, to take a long look in the mirror, because in many ways, our representatives in Washington reflect the people who have sent them there.

I represent more Native Americans than anyone else in Congress.

In terms of the people that President [Donald] Trump is going to have around him, the cabinet. Predominantly white, predominantly male.

The right to religious freedom and the right to vote are both fundamental to our democracy.

From disaster relief to representation in Congress, the census plays an important role in protecting Iowa's future.

Most people are generally satisfied with their representative.

I was very proud and grateful to be the first African-American woman in the position. I thought it said a lot about our country that we had back-to-back African-American Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and then me. I also thought it said a lot about President Bush that he didn't see limits on the highest ranking diplomat in terms of color. It's a hard job, but really the best one in government.

It's important that people see themselves mirrored in government.