Quotes from Edward T. Chambers

It's not the power you possess, but using the power of the opposition against itself that changes things. It's called political jujitsu [an Alinsky phrase]. You must go outside the opponent's [Big Boys] experience. You aim the action for the inevitable reaction, knowing that the reaction is more important than your action itself.

Politics is not a game. It exists to resolve the largest questions of the society—the agreed-upon terms by which everyone can live peaceably with one another. At its best politics creates and sustains social relationships—the human conversation and engagement that draw people together and allow them to discover their mutuality.2

Democratic hope envisions a political community where power, freedom, opportunity, and accountability reside not with elites or experts, but with everyday, ordinary people. It is anchored in the conviction that the political whole is more than the sum of the parts and must include all but be dominated by none.