In a democracy, in a functioning democracy, what would be happening is that popular organizations, unions, political groupings, others would be developing their programs, putting them forth, insisting that their representatives implement those programs.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

2018 is an incredibly important election year, not just with the important midterms here in the U.S., but you just had the Mexican elections. You have Brazil. You have India coming up at the beginning of next year. There’s an assortment of elections around the EU. We’re very serious about this. We know that we need to get this right.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

I admire Ralph Nader and Denis Kucinich very much, and insofar as they bring up issues and carry out an educational and organisational function – that’s important, and fine, and I support it.

I don’t vote. I don’t do no voting.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

We can’t equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.

In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

The New Deal repudiation of democracy has left the Republican Party alone the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant with its charter of freedom.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

We have the best government that money can buy.

I’m glad I can’t vote.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

I don’t think generally politician come from democratic country. I think not that thinking. But sometimes little bit short-sighted. They are mainly looking for their next vote.

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be ‚Citizens United.‘ I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, let’s say fighting world war two, it’s an assault on democracy.

Up until the First World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.

We will not be intimidated or pushed off the world stage by people who do not like what we stand for, and that is, freedom, democracy and the fight against disease, poverty and terrorism.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

There’s a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn’t count the votes right, and so on. That’s all accurate and of some importance, but of far more importance is the fact that elections just don’t take place, not in any meaningful sense of the term ‚election.‘

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities – which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

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.