Democracy Quotes – Reflections on Political Structures

"The fundamental problem with our democracy is that it is not one. The people—the nominal ruler and sovereign—have, in reality, nothing to say. … Behind the democratic façade, a system has been installed in which completely different rules apply than those of the Basic Law. The system is undemocratic and corrupt; it abuses power and unscrupulously deceives citizens. … Every German is free to obey laws to which he has never consented; he may admire the majesty of the Basic Law, whose validity he has never legitimized; he is free to pay homage to politicians whom no citizen has ever elected, and to provide for them lavishly—with his tax money, about the use of which he has never been consulted. Overall, the state and politics are in a condition of which only professional optimists or hypocrites can claim it has arisen from the will of the citizens."

Prof. Dr. Hans Herbert von Arnim

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Henry Louis Mencken

"Even once we have a vaccine and know more about possible immunity, one thing remains clear for us: there must not be a two-tier society of infected and non-infected people. There can be no mandatory vaccination — and there will be none."

Bärbel Bas

"It is the opposition’s job to strip the government of its makeup while the show is still going on."

Jacques Chirac

"For Germany, ‘deep state’ means a structure of its own—one that is not subject to oversight, not bound by the rule of law, and able to act according to its own interests and expediency, without legal constraints and without control by a democracy based on the separation of powers."

Hajo Funke

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over. … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger."

Jimmy Carter

"By casting his vote in an election, the voter hands over his right to political participation—and in doing so legitimizes the actions that may later be taken against him."

Herbert Wehner

"Who dares not speak his free thought is a slave."

Euripides

"If you have a government of good laws and bad men, you will have a bad government. For bad men will not be bound by good laws."

Robert LeFevre

"You can't rely on what is said before the elections actually applying after the elections. And we have to expect that this could happen again in various ways."

Angela Merkel

"True democracy knows neither rich nor poor! Only those with a truly ‘free spirit’, independent of money, possessions, servitude, and wage labor, independent of state or social constraints and positions, are truly free!"

Horst Bulla

"If a government can define how far criticism of it can go, then criticism is worthless and freedom of expression is an illusion."

H.-Th. Tillschneider

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around these banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Thomas Jefferson

"We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..."

William Jefferson „Bill“ Clinton

"It’s organized crime. All you do is you call the Republicans the Genoveses and you call the Democrats the Gambinos. The people at the top, they treat it like a crap game. It’s their crap game, like they’re making lots of money. Occasionally, somebody at the table shoots each other, but the moment anything threatens their crap game, they all unite to protect it. ... They’re both controlled by the same financial, economic and corporate interests."

Michael Ruppert

"Someone asked me the other day if I believe in conspiracies. Well, sure. Here's one. It is called the political system. It is nothing if not a giant conspiracy to rob, trick and subjugate the population."

Jeffrey Tucker

"Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar Drivers. Then we know who owns them."

Robin Williams

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right... The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds."

H. L. Mencken