The average man votes below himself; he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one. A man ought to vote with the whole of h...imself, as he worships or gets married. A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach, his eye for faces and his ear for music; also (when sufficiently provoked) with his hands and feet. If he has ever seen a fine sunset, the crimson colour of it should creep into his vote.... The question is not so much whether only a minority of the electorate votes. The point is that only a minority of the voter votes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a democracy, the will of the people is supreme. In a republic, it is not the will of the people but the rational consensus of t...he people--a rational consensus which is implicit in the term consent--which governs the people. That is to say, in a democracy, popular passion may rule--may, though it need not--but in a republic, popular passion is regarded as unfit to rule, and the precautions are taken to see that it is subdued rather than sovereign. In a democracy all politicians are, to some degree, demagogues: They appeal to people's prejudices and passions, they incite their expectations by making reckless promises, they endeavor to ingratiate themselves with the electorate in every possible way. In a republic, there are not supposed to be such politicians, only statesmen--sober, unglamorous, thoughtful men who are engaged in a kind of perpetual conversation with the citizenry.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We have no one to blame for the Kennedys but ourselves. We took the Kennedys to heart of our own accord. And it is my opinion that... we did it not because we respected them or thought what they proposed was good, but because they were pretty. We, the electorate, were smitten by this handsome, vivacious family.... We wanted to hug their golden tousled heads to our dumpy breasts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present sessio...n because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »