Quotes About Politics

For Republicans, that "home" invariably meant a gauzy view of an idealized America somewhere in the 1950s that never existed.

Republicans had promised for decades to control spending, and when given a chance, they decided it was easier to just spend more.

Falwell, Graham, and others are providing religious cover for moral squalor

a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth

I was never burdened by the notion that I was working for a political party that was fundamentally hypocritical on the deficit and economy and one that would proceed to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about sex under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was having an affair with a former House intern himself.

What happened to the Republican Party is that slowly over half a century the kooks and weirdos and social misfits of a conservative ideology started discovering that they could force reasonable people to support unreasonable positions through fear.

colossal stupidity of Newt Gingrich as Speaker of the House.

The transition of the National Rifle Association is a perfect parable: over a couple of decades, it evolved from a gun-safety education organization to a thuggish gang that rewards those at the top with millions of dollars based on proven ability to muscle elected officials into doing what they mostly know is wrong.

know-nothing racist for president

Trump is a disaster and a disgrace.

those idiots at Breitbart.

And that's my question to all those Republicans who are more worried about defending Donald Trump than defending America: Is this why you went into politics? Is this why you put up with all the bullshit and stupidity that is integral to our political system, so you can be on the same side as the Russians?

When the Trump wing of the conservative media isn't simply inventing something out of nothing—the murder "conspiracy" of the DNC staffer Seth Rich is a perfect example—it loves to take one bit of truth and abuse it into a much larger lie.

Conspiracies are dominant realities in the world Trump and his followers inhabit.

Stuart Stevens

That party has now been transformed into Russian apologists, more concerned with defending Donald Trump than defending the country. It's madness.

Today the intellectual leaders of the Republican Party are the paranoids, kooks, know-nothings, and bigots who once could be heard only on late-night talk shows, the stations you listened to on long drives because it was hard to fall asleep while laughing. When any political movement loses all sense of self and has no unifying theory of government, it ceases to function as a collective rooted in thought and becomes more like fans of a sports team.

The Christian right would like the world to believe it was the political arm of Jesus Christ, come to life to save a sinful America. In practice it operates more like a Christian-related super PAC for a white America. The professional politicization of Christianity as a right-wing force was always more about the acquisition of power than a commitment to Christianity.

What does a center-right party in America stand for? Once this was easy to answer: fiscal sanity, free trade, being strong on Russia, personal responsibility, the Constitution. Now? Can anyone honestly define what the Republican Party stands for beyond "owning the libs"? Whatever that means.

I've spent decades waking up every morning eager to fight Democrats, trying to gain every bit of advantage for every battle. God knows we made mistakes and played too often on the dark side. But I never woke up knowing that somewhere out there a Russian agent was waking up with the same job I had.

All Republicans want to do is beat the team playing the Giants. They aren't voters using active intelligence or participants in a civil democracy; they are fans. Their role is to cheer and fund their team and trash-talk whatever team is on the other side.

When any political movement loses all sense of self and has no unifying theory of government, it ceases to function as a collective rooted in thought and becomes more like fans of a sports team. Asking the Republican Party today to agree on a definition of conservatism is like asking New York Giants fans to have a consensus opinion on the Law of the Sea Treaty. It's not just that no one knows anything about the subject; they don't remotely care.

We should worry when a politician 1) rejects, in words or action, the democratic rules of the game, 2) denies the legitimacy of opponents, 3) tolerates or encourages violence, or 4) indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media.19 Republicans in the Donald Trump era are guilty of all four.

The party will only change when its desire to revel in its worst instincts is challenged by its fear of losing power.