Quotes About Politics

What is punishment and theft to conservatives is civic duty and fairness to liberals. There

Unlike the right, the left does not think strategically. We think issue by issue.

Pragmatic conservatism is less idealistic than central conservatism. The goal is to get ahead, to serve your self-interest. The idealistic parts of conservatism are seen as effective means to achieve that goal.

The political effect of runaway wealth is, for example, to cut taxes on the wealthy, taking away funding for the public resources that made that wealth possible in the first place.

To a large extent, corporations govern us and run our lives—for their profit, not ours. The list could go on and on.

Because of the systemic effect of runaway personal and corporate wealth on our politics, both are systemically linked to the threat of global warming to the future of our planet, and to the fundamental split in our politics that is systemically threatening democracy in ways that are not obvious, and are therefore also unframed in public discourse.

In short, the moral hierarchy is an implicit part of the culture wars.

Given the central position that the Morality of Reward and Punishment has in the conservative moral system, it is no surprise that conservatives in most cases prefer retribution over restitution as a form of justice, as a way of balancing the moral books. It is therefore no surprise that conservatives are in favor of the death penalty. It is a form of retribution, a life for a life. Liberals

Conservatives figured out how to bring their people together. Every Wednesday, Grover Norquist has a group meeting—around eighty people—of leaders from the full range of the right. They are invited, and they debate.

the right wing is attempting to impose a strict father ideology on America and, ultimately, the rest of the world.

Norquist meetings have expanded to forty-eight states. Via ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), conservatism has spread at the state level, allowing conservatives to take over state legislatures, gerrymander congressional districts, and take over the House of Representatives with a minority of national voter support.

In short, I do not believe the cynical liberal claim that the details of conservative political policies are just due to a self-serving ultrarich conspiracy, though the interests and finances of the ultrarich are certainly engaged.

There are three principal conservative descriptions of conservatism. 1. Conservatism is against big government. 2. Conservatism is for traditional values. 3. Conservatism is just what the Bible tells us. We

The progressive world has not caught up. And what is worse is a set of myths believed by liberals and progressives.

Biconceptualism is central to our politics, and it is vital to understand how it works.

practical guide both for citizen activists and for anyone with a serious interest in politics.

Conservatives talk constantly about the centrality of morality and the family in their politics, while liberals did not talk about these things until conservatives started winning elections by doing so.

The privatization of education means that conservatives can set up their own schools in which their children will not have to learn about anything that might be inconsistent with conservative morality and politics. It would also mean a move away from the integration of schools, which means that the children of conservatives would not have to encounter students from different subcultures with different values. School vouchers would make privatization that much easier. In

It is not an accident that conservatives are winning where they have successfully framed the issues. They've got a forty- to fifty-year head start. And more than two billion dollars in think tank investments.

For example, from 1968 to 1992 (with the exception of the Carter presidency), the voters selected a fairly conservative president and a fairly liberal Congress, creating what might be seen as a Strict Father executive and a Nurturant Mother Congress, thus reproducing a classic family model in the government, with strictness at the top and caring right below. Thus

Orwellian language points to weakness—Orwellian weakness. When you hear Orwellian language, note where it is, because it is a guide to where they are vulnerable. They do not use it everywhere. It is very important to notice this and use their weakness to your advantage.

The honest strategy is to use only your language and avoid using the other side's language. That will maximally activate your moral system in the moderates on the other side.

In contemporary America, politics and personhood are inseparable—and apparently moving in a conservative direction.

When the United States was founded, politics and personhood had come together, but in the progressive direction. Historian Lynn Hunt at UCLA goes through the history in detail in her book Inventing Human Rights: A History.