Quotes About Democracy

Public campaign financing isn't perfect and can doubtlessly be improved upon as we go.

There is so much that can be done, you see, the assembly is about improving our democracy.

If we did not have the impulse and ability to believe in the impossible, we would not have religion, democracy, or marriage.

When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law?

But in the end our government usually - not unfailingly - is responsive to the people; and usually - not always - will try to do what is right.

Senators, in the end, must be elected.

Our founding fathers made no mistake when they included the right to peaceably assemble among the first tenets of democracy.

Government by blackmail is incompatible with democracy.

As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society.

It is very difficult for any dictator or any incumbent to falsify the results of an election and just get away with it.

Democracy is not the end point of mankind. There may be developments in many different directions in the coming centuries. Democracy has only existed for about 200 years. It started out with the American Declaration of Independence. The Americans got their ideas from the Europeans, in the main from the French, the Dutch and the British.

India is a democracy; it is in our DNA.

This can't be constitutional," he said. "This is America, damn it. We still have freedom of speech here.

Democracies cannot dispense with hypocrisy any more than dictatorships can with cynicism.

There is no greater threat to a free and democratic nation than a government that fails to protect its citizen's freedom and liberty as aggressively as it pursues justice.

In a free and democratic society such as ours, justice should not eternally abrogate one's rights to freedom and liberty, except in the most extreme cases.

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.

Democracy is about one person, one vote. It's about all of us coming together to determine the future of our country. It is not about a handful of billionaires buying elections, or governors suppressing the vote by denying poor people or people of color the right to vote. Our job is to stand together to defeat the drift toward oligarchy and create a vibrant democracy.

In 2007, the top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income, more than the bottom 50 percent. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. That is not the foundation of a democratic society. That is the foundation for an oligarchic society. The rich get richer. The middle class shrinks. Poverty increases.

The simple truth is that unfettered capitalism is not just creating economic misery for the majority of Americans, it is destroying our health, our well-being, our democracy, and our planet.

The rise to power of a right-wing lunatic in a free election in Germany.

The American people were sick and tired of endless "negotiations." They were sick and tired of politicians hiding behind closed doors. They wanted the Senate to vote on legislation to improve their lives. At the very least, they had a right to know where their senators stood on the issues. But Senate leaders preferred to do nothing rather than "divide" their caucus by exposing the pro-corporate stances of a handful of their Democratic colleagues.

My answer to all these questions is that Americans are not nearly so free as we think we are, or as we should be. To achieve the genuine freedom to which we are entitled as human beings, we cannot be satisfied with political democracy alone—especially at a time when democracy itself is under fierce attack. We need economic democracy every bit as much as we need political democracy.

Das Volk hat das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt.Wäre es da nicht doch einfacher,die Regierung löste das Volk auf und wählte ein anderes?