Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters. But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way-in their own lives, at least- to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves.. I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting. They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.Barack Obama
About This Quote
“There are too many politicians in Washington D.C. who are not interested in people but only in power. They care about what they can get out of you without any regard for the rights of others. They lie to you, take your money and waste your time,” said President Ronald Reagan, “but it’s not just them! Most people are like that too! Their priorities are wrong! The government doesn’t work for us, we work for the government.
The majority of Americans aren’t interested in politics, they just want a job and a decent living to provide for their families. I think most people want to be left alone and prevented from being controlled by the government or anyone else. I believe that most people believe that they should have freedom to do what they want to do as long as they don’t harm anyone else in doing so.
Most people I have spoken with have a desire to be part of a community where they can count on others being good neighbors and good friends and a place in which they can feel safe in their homes and feel secure in their jobs and in their future. Most people believe that they should be able to look forward to a better life for their children, not knowing if the next generation will be better off than this one.
Source: The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream
Some Similar Quotes
- Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
- Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.
- Immer wieder behauptete Unwahrheiten werden nicht zu Wahrheiten, sondern, was schlimmer ist, zu Gewohnheiten.
- What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree.
- A people religiously right, will not long remain politically wrong.
More Quotes By Barack Obama
- Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
- What I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children – a better world. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the...
- The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with...
- Yes We Can!
- In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.