Quotes About Participation

The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial.

Most people associate reading with laying on the beach. They don't see that it's crucial for a democracy!

Cycling is open to the whole world.

I worry that, given the way the 2016 election went, how cynical and how terrible politics seems, that young people will be less likely to get involved.

If someone is cynical and doesn't vote and ends up with a crummy job in a crummy country with a decimated environment, they only have themselves to blame.

I really wasn't on the Dallas set much. I did three or four episodes so I didn't see too much.

Political systems are run by self-selecting politicians. We don't draft people; it's not jury duty.

The thing about local government is they want to hear what local people think, but for the most part, their systems are so long, dull and bureaucratic that people only get involved when there's an issue they really care about.

There are ways to pursue political change. In a democracy, it's through the ballot box. There are other ways, and many democracies have many different systems of democracy.

We got to make sure that the Democratic Party is not just Democratic, but seen to be Democratic. That means we got to have systems in place that makes sure that everybody who participates in a primary is perceived to have an equal shot with everybody else.

We must make both our distributional and democratic systems work for our communities.

You can much better have an influence on the debate when you sit at the bargaining table and you can give input.

If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

You cannot win if you're not at the table. You have to be where the action is.

I remember my dad supporting everyone on the local and national level. I was pretty much born into it. I saw the importance of politics firsthand. It gave you a chance to be at the table.

I like to get the audience involved in my act by walking among the tables and getting people to ask me questions.

One of the beautiful things about a movement is that there are many strategies and many tactics contained within it. Not every participant in a movement is required to do exactly the same things.

Taiwan is a budding democracy, and the people have participated in multi-party democratic elections since 1996.

Taiwan is democratic.

The government can give citizens opportunity and it's their responsibility to take advantage of it.

Federal assistance helps millions of Americans escape poverty every year by providing the stability needed to take advantage of new opportunities. In fact, it is our safety net that allows full participation in the economy. More Americans purchasing goods means more Americans making them, which means more American jobs.

Each person feels that he is an 'expert' in one or two fields and just the 'public' in all the others. But you know, probably, from experience that no one is really able to appreciate any display of ability in any field if he himself has not, to a certain degree, taken part in its problems and difficulties at some time.

The popular will cannot be taken for granted, it must be created.

A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.