Sunday, January 22, 2012 – Our Politicians
Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason. ~ José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. ~Albert Einstein
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H. L. Mencken
Take our politicians: they’re a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize. ~ Saul Bellow
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. ~ Charles de Gaulle
Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. ~ William E. Gladstone
An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ~ George Eliot
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. ~ Ernest Benn
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. ~ Stewart Udall
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~ John Quinton
A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. ~ Alfred E. Wiggam
A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead. ~ Leo Rosten
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it. ~ P. J. O’Rourke
The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn’t bother to stop because they’d want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club. ~ Dave Barry
Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others. ~ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt. ~ Woodrow Wilson
Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country – and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~ Charles Krauthammer
I’m not a leftist; I’m where the righteous ought to be. ~ M. M. Cody
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~ Doug Larson
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~ Oscar Ameringer
Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right? ~ Robert Orben
The best thing about this group of candidates is that only one of them can win. ~ Will Rogers
Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors. ~ Caroline Baum
There are far too many men in politics and not enough elsewhere. ~ Hermione Gingold
All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats. ~ Groucho Marx
If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal. ~ Emma Goldman
A political leader is necessarily an imposter since he believes in solving life’s problems without asking its question. ~ André Malraux
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. ~ George E. MacDonald
Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends. ~ James Bovard
I think musicians can better run this state than politicians. And, hell, beauticians can better run the state than politicians. ~ Kinky Friedman
He’s suffering from Politicians’ Logic. Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it. ~ Antony Jay
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting. ~ Winston Churchill
It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.~ Anthony Trollope
Like its politicians and its war, society has the teenagers it deserves. ~ Joseph Priestley
Of course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough. ~ Robert Towne
Politicians who wear little tennis socks with the balls at the back should not be taken seriously. ~ Mo Rocca
It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals. ~ Charles Kuralt
Just Above Sunset 