Democracy Quotes

In Defense of Democracy and Freedom

In Opposition to Authoritarianism and Subjugation

SJS @GreenPolicy360:

Today, July 19, 2024, marks the initiation of another of our website, global network pages, a democracy page of Green Quotes that we've been collecting over the years.

The time is ripe and we'll be posting 'democracy in the spotlight' archival lines for modern times, a collection of thoughts of freedom and liberty, rights and democracy, moments and clips, memes and graphics, pics and inspirations.

From the Green360 network we have often have spoken of the "3-Ds, discussion, debate and decision-making". We have spotlighted the importance of an open democratic decision-making process. We have expressed our belief in a human rights agenda, constitutional rights, civil rights.

On this Democracy Quotes page we'll be including many threads from democratic institutions and look to pull together, over time, a tapestry of ideas across communities that inspire democratic decision-making.

We believe in standing up for democratic values and hope our readers, visitors, educators and defenders of democracy, of all colors and stripes, find these quotations worthy of considering and sharing.

Democracy requires work. A working democracy is worth the work.

 

Mapping Freedom - Democracy Status

• https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2024

"A Republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin

The spirit of "Democracy Quotes" recalls Benjamin Franklin responding to a question in 1787 about the newly announced birth of the United States as he left Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention:

"We have "a Republic, if you can keep it."

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/12/18/republic-if-you-can-keep-it-did-ben-franklin-really-say-impeachment-days-favorite-quote/

“E pluribus unum.” (Out of many, one.)

— Motto of the United States

Democracy Quotes, an Ongoing Collaborative Enterprise

Democracy quotations presented here are arranged alphabetically by author/poster/speaker

A/

A Working Democracy, a 'Living Democracy'

GreenPolicy360, decades supporting and advocating for Democracy in Action

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Hannah Arendt, a Voice from the Past, a Clarion Call Not to Ignore

Democracy at Risk Explained by a Scholar -- One Who Experienced the Loss of Democracy

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Hannah_Arendt.jpg

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: Hannah Arendt's 'Origins of Totalitarianism' stands out in our modern times. The threats of autocracy are real and growing, with dis- and mis-information wielded, a cyberpolitics and cyberwarfare of manipulation, of big lies and big lies repeated until believed.

Consider the words that are interspersed with totalitarianism...

Autocracy/autocratic, Fascist/fascistic, Kleptocracy/kleptocratic, Oligarchy/oligarchic, Plutocracy/plutocratic, Authoritarianism/authoritarian, Antidemocracy/antidemocratic ... Arendt makes a distinction between totalitarianism and despotism, tyranny, dictatorship... totalitarianism is more extreme. Totalitarians use terror to subjugate mass populations in addition to political enemies...

Throughout all these definitions of politically oppressive systems, what becomes evident on investigation is how information is controlled and manipulated... Now, in the modern era, the invention and rollout of digital high-speed communication systems has enabled voluminous communications in every community. These systems, using 'political technology', are reaching, watching, listening, and interacting with all.

Authoritarian regimes are rapidly adopting these new technologies (software/firmware/hardware) and implementing surveillance techniques. These systems are collecting and monitoring mass populations and providing databanks with precise information.

The 20th century propagandists of oppressive political systems can be seen as rolling into the 21st century with powerfully increased reach and authority. Hannah Arendt would recognize these methods and be sounding a warning... to act in response to protect freedoms, rights, democratic institutions.

Hannah Arendt

Steven Schmidt: In 1974-75, Hannah Arendt was lecturing at the Graduate Faculty of New York's New School. She was rushing to finish a trilogy of books on the 'Life of the Mind'. I was enrolled in the Graduate Masters program on the History of Ideas, with a reading list that was exactly what my mind needed as a book editor during the day and an 'in awe' student at night. Hannah and Robert Heilbroner were my two favorites and Hannah's 'The Human Condition' book had more dog-eared and marked-up pages than any of the books on the syllabus. Her subject, weaved in throughout her thinking, was political philosophy and the threat to human rights. The New School was originally called the "University in Exile" as it had taken in some of the greatest thinkers, scholars, and writers who had escaped the collapse of democratic systems and the takeover of authoritarianism in Europe before and during World War II. The legacy of the New School was a real political immersion in every way, mind expanding and critical thinking skills centered around core values.

Hannah Arendt left an indelible impression and I am sharing her vision and her warnings here.

Hannah Arendt’s last public interview:

Arendt spoke about the importance of a free press in an era of mass manipulation of truth and public lying

Interview with Roger Errera in 1974

• https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1978/10/26/hannah-arendt-from-an-interview/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FkoMm1hs1g

"What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule..."

If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."

B/

“The decay of truth and democratic dissolution proceed hand in hand, starting with the insurgent’s assertion that the establishment media delivers false or biased information while he speaks the truth and risks everything to get the “real facts” out. Once his supporters bond to his person, they stop caring about his falsehoods. They believe him because they believe in him.” -- Ruth Ben-Ghiat, "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present"

• https://www.amazon.com/Strongmen-Mussolini-Present-Ruth-Ben-Ghiat/dp/0393868419/

• https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/932848.Ruth_Ben_Ghiat

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"We are not helpless. The fire is still burning. Please go out and vote this November. Too many people have died and sacrificed so much for us to have our voice, we have to use it. Get in formation. Use our voices to do something great for our children." -- Beyoncé, American Singer

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“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation." -- U.S. President Joseph R. Biden speaking from the White House, July 24, 2024

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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." -- Louis Brandeis

C/

'Coming Crisis, Democracy Challenged'

By David Leonhardt / NYT

Conspiracy theories and outright lies have a long American history, dating to the personal attacks that were a staple of the partisan press during the 18th century. In the mid-20th century, tens of thousands of Americans joined the John Birch Society, a far-right group that claimed Dwight Eisenhower was a secret Communist.

Today, however, falsehoods can spread much more easily, through social media and a fractured news environment. In the 1950s, no major television network spread the lies about Eisenhower. In recent years, the country’s most watched cable channel, Fox News, regularly promoted falsehoods about election results, Mr. Obama’s birthplace and other subjects.

These same forces — digital media, cultural change and economic stagnation in affluent countries — help explain why democracy is also struggling in other parts of the world. Only two decades ago, at the turn of the 21st century, democracy was the triumphant form of government around the world, with autocracy in retreat in the former Soviet empire, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, South Korea and elsewhere. Today, the global trend is moving in the other direction.

In the late 1990s, 72 countries were democratizing, and only three were growing more authoritarian, according to data from V-Dem, a Swedish institute that monitors democracy. Last year, only 15 countries grew more democratic, while 33 slid toward authoritarianism.

• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/17/us/american-democracy-threats.html

D/

Democracy at Risk, Democracy Threatened'

In March 2024, the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service announced its latest bipartisan Battleground Civility Poll: 81 percent of respondents said they believe democracy in America is being threatened. Three months before, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found 62 percent of adults believe democracy in the US “could be at risk.”

• https://politics.georgetown.edu/2024/03/21/new-poll-81-of-voters-believe-democracy-is-threatened/

• https://apnews.com/article/democracy-2024-election-trump-biden-poll-39309519c8473175c25ab5a305e629ba

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Democracy and Voting Rights

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Democracy_and_Voting_Rights

Digital Rights

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/Digital_Rights

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"The Russian disinformation operations that affected the 2016 United States presidential election are by no means over." -- Renée DiResta, Author, "Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality"

• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/opinion/russia-report-disinformation.html

• https://strategicdemands.com/russian-disinformation-targets-us/

• https://www.reneediresta.com/

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Democracy Threatened by Disinformation and a Haze of Lies

Disinformation - Online - Dangerous

E/

“The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1949

F/

Fact Checking

Fact Checking, Facts Count

"Fact is, facts matter." -- GreenPolicy360

Fake News Is Bad News for Democracy

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/05/fake-news-is-bad-news-democracy/

Fake news leads to the dissemination of false narratives, which exposes voters to a “noisier” signal of government performance. If the stories vary widely, voters may not know what to believe or may believe false information. Some individuals may come to believe that others are in thrall to false information and regard their views as illegitimate. In some ways, this noise is similar to situations in which no credible information is available at all.

The prospect of sharing false information — spread by individuals and foreign governments — threatens the quality of democracy in America. False and noisy information makes voters more likely to reelect poorly performing governments and lowers public confidence in democracy.

G/

GreenPolicy360 believes in personal responsibility to manage wisely. We are planet citizens and Planet Earth is in human hands.

Together we are guiding our planet home into the future. We are delivering a legacy to future generations.

H/

“The soul of democracy lies in the free exchange of ideas, where truth emerges from the crucible of debate and discourse.” – Kamala Harris

"As President, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals. Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand — and where the United States of America belongs."

"Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives. It is one of the most important in the life of our nation." -- Kamala Harris, from her presidential nomination speech, August 22, 2024

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"We have to act now to take steps so that the next time there is a razor-thin election — and there will be one, sooner or later — our civil society is strong enough to withstand foreign and domestic efforts to tear it apart." -- Richard Hasen

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"America's experiment with government of the people, by the people, and for the people depends not only on constitutional structure and organization but also on the commitment, person to person, that we make to each other." -- Robert M. Hutchins

More re: Robert Hutchins

The famed educator/author, University of Chicago president and public interest speaker believed in 'lifelong learning'. As a founder of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions that brought together many of his era's renowned thinkers and writers on democracy, Robert Hutchins described the Center's goal as "taking a multidisciplinary look at the state of the democratic world – and the undemocratic world as well, because one has to contrast the two and see how they are going to develop." The Center's archive is a great source of knowledge and inspiration about democracy, when it is working, when it doesn't, and a generation's considered debate how best to move democratic institutions forward into the 21st century.

• https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3s2006vg/entire_text/

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"Listen to the people who are talking about how to fix what's wrong, not the ones who just work people into a snit over the problems. Listen to the people who have ideas about how to fix things, not the ones who just blame others. -- Molly Ivins

J/

“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.” -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Monsieur A. Coray, 1823

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“The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.” -- Barbara Jordan

K/

"Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.” -- John F. Kennedy

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“There’s a sign you can see in many shops that sell beautiful but fragile items: LOVELY TO LOOK AT, DELIGHTFUL TO HOLD, BUT ONCE YOU BREAK IT, THEN IT’S SOLD. You can say the same about democracy.” -- Stephen King

L/

“When you see something that is not right, you must say something ... Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part.” -- John Lewis

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"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” –- Abraham Lincoln

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-- J. Michael Luttig, Judge

M/

"Democracy is egalitarian." -- Rachel Maddow

• https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/egalitarian-democracy-index-vdem

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Jane Mayer, author of “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” (2016)

NYT/JB: Is it too soon to call an eight-year-old book a classic? Mayer’s searing look at the billionaires who have reshaped American politics shows how the influence of big money “is always for big money’s gain,” as M McAdams put it. “It all sounds like something from a political thriller,” wrote E Warner, “but it’s all true.”

Read More on Money in Politics @GreenPolicy360

The Business of Politics in the USA is Pay2Play, Money in Politics

• https://politicopay.com/

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"We need to verify claims and think about them critically, but we can’t let people destroy truth by calling everything they don’t like “fake news.” Verify, then trust. To use our power as a democracy, we all must participate." -- @BarbMcQuade

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"All of us, believers and non-believers, desire some kind of fellowship and connection." -- Eric Metaxas, "If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty", Book / Published 2016

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“Let skepticism be your companion, not your captor.” -- Maryland Governor Wes Moore

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“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” -- Reinhold Niebuhr

O/

We believe that humanity can bridge our differences and make better choices, that we can see each other and listen to each other, and imagine each other’s hardships and pain, and that this better future is most likely to happen under democratic systems of government, democracies in which everyone’s dignity is recognized, where the rule of law and human rights are respected by everybody, where people have a voice in how they’re governed, where we all have a stake in maintaining the social order, and where we can disagree with each other, sometimes bitterly, without losing sight of the ties that bind us together." -- Barack Obama, 2023

"You wouldn't let your grandparents pick your playlist. Why would you let them pick your representative who's going to determine your future?" -- Barack Obama, Former U.S. President

~

“Democracy is not just a system of governance; it’s a promise of equality, justice, and opportunity for all.” -- Michelle Obama

P/

"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -- Thomas Paine

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“Fascism does not rest explicitly upon an elaborated philosophical system, but rather upon popular feelings about master races, their unjust lot, and their rightful predominance over inferior peoples.” -- Robert Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism"

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"The family meal is really the nursery of democracy. It’s where we learn to share; it’s where we learn to argue without offending." -- Michael Pollan

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“We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its state, its national conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.” -- Joseph Pulitzer

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R/

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A diverse group of influential Christian leaders is calling on their fellow faithful to protect democracy, arguing that American Christians are compelled to defend voting freedoms as a “test of faith.”

“We write in a moment of fierce urgency, as the people of God animated by faith, hope, and love,” said the statement, which was provided to Religion News Service (RNS) ahead of its formal release on September 19. “It is in this spirit that we reaffirm Christian support for democracy and invite all Christians and people of moral conscience to do the same.”

The Statement on Christian Faith & Democracy -- https://faithanddemocracy.net/

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“When you don’t have facts, you can’t have truth... When you don’t have truth, you can’t have trust. When you can’t have a shared reality, you can’t have democracy. You can’t have any kind of meaningful interaction to solve the existential problems we face.”

“When social media platforms amplify lies & recommend liars, facts are drowned in a flood of falsehoods & doubt, eroding democracy in a tide of truth decay. If facts lose in every country around the world — and that is what’s at stake — we will lose truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these, any shared human endeavor is impossible, & that includes democracy." -- Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize

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Heather Cox Richardson, Author of Democracy Awakening

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Democracy_Challenged,_Democracy_Awakening.png

• https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717588/democracy-awakening-by-heather-cox-richardson/

"Once again, we are at a time of testing. How it comes out rests, as it always has, in our hands." -- Heather Cox Richardson, "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America"

"In 1959, veteran Robert Biggs wrote to Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had led the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, asking the president to make “direct statements” that would give people the confidence to “back him completely.” Americans needed “more of the attitude of a commanding officer who knows the goal and the mission and states, without evasion, the way it is to be done.”

"Eisenhower answered that “in a democracy debate is the breath of life. This is to me what Lincoln meant by government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’”

“[D]ictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems — freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning…tremendous complex and difficult questions,” Eisenhower wrote. “But while this responsibility is a taxing one to a free people it is their great strength as well—from millions of individual free minds come new ideas, new adjustments to emerging problems, and tremendous vigor, vitality and progress... . While complete success will always elude us, still it is a quest which is vital to self-government and to our way of life as free men.” -- Heather Cox Richardson, Historian & Contemporary Writer, Via "Letters from an American", July 18, 2024

[Ed: "(I)t is a quest which is vital to self-government and to our way of life as free men” ... and free women, free peoples around the world, future generations, families and our inter-generational legacy. The above Professor Robinson quote of General Eisenhower about democratic responsibilities of 'free people' carries a special relevance to me. My father was a German Republican from Kansas and lieutenant pilot of B-17s and B-29s in the 1940s fighting "against Fascism and Nazism" as he explained to me in the 1960s. The bravery of Eisenhower in defense of democracy was a message of the United States, my father said of Eisenhower a man who also was from the heart of the country. They saw their mission to protect and preserve democracy. My father's son sees the mission continuing...]

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"There's an evidence-based case to make that American democracy really is on the line, because democracy only works if the losers accept defeat … How Fox News treats this election if it comes down to a Trump loss and a Trump refusal to accept that loss will be critical.” -- Jim Rutenberg, New York Times' writer-at-large (2024)

~

"A movement driven by disinformation about Trump’s 2020 defeat has taken over many of the boards that certify elections. It could cause chaos in the weeks ahead"

"Although the Stop the Steal movement of 2020 has evolved into the considerably more sophisticated “election integrity” movement of 2024, its success is still premised on persuading election administrators of two things that are not true: that widespread election fraud is a real and present threat to democracy and that they have not only the authority but also the legal duty to do something about it — that they must “do their duty” and deny certification." -- Jim Rutenberg, New York Times Magazine, October 25, 2024 | Read the NYT article, 'How a Pro-Trump Army Built a Movement to Reject Elections'

S/

"Don't sit this one out. Do something. By chance of fate, you are alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet." -- Carl Sagan

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"It is hard to imagine a free market in a real world, and certainly not in Washington where 35,000 corporate lobbyists work hard to make sure the market is anything but free..." -- Sam Smith, Washington DC, 2005

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“Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.” -- Timothy Snyder

• https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/243930.Timothy_Snyder

“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given." ... “In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” -- Timothy Snyder, "On Tyranny"

• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33917107-on-tyranny

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"The extra curricular activity in which I was most engaged - debating - helped shape my interests in public policy." -- Joseph Stiglitz

• https://www.amazon.com/Road-Freedom-Economics-Good-Society/dp/132407437X

"The notion that every well educated person would have a mastery of at least the basic elements of the humanities, sciences, and social sciences is a far cry from the specialized education that most students today receive, particularly in the research universities." -- Joseph Stiglitz

"Today, it is neoliberalism—the belief in unregulated, unfettered markets15—that has led to massive inequalities and provided fertile ground for populists." -- Joseph Stiglitz

T/

Dorothy Thompson, read about her, read her quotes

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Thompson
• https://www.azquotes.com/author/14610-Dorothy_Thompson

U/ V/ W/

“We all do better when we all do better.” -- Paul Wellstone

Politics is much more than about the money in politics buying its way

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Paul_Wellstone,_how_to_do_better.jpg

The Magic Green Bus

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"The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up — ever — trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?" -- Terry Tempest Williams

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“Recent history has profound lessons for us in the U.S. today about how fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies. The secret is that these leaders all tend to take very similar, parallel steps. The Founders of this nation were so deeply familiar with tyranny and the habits and practices of tyrants that they set up our checks and balances precisely out of fear of what is unfolding today. We are seeing these same kinds of tactics now closing down freedoms in America, turning our nation into something that in the near future could be quite other than the open society in which we grew up and learned to love liberty.” -- Naomi Wolf, "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot", Book / Published 2007

• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/503432.The_End_of_America

• https://books.google.com/books/about/The_End_of_America.html?id=VTevBxYHHjgC

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Wikiquotes (On Democracy, Alphabetically, with Attributions, Sources, Links)

• https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy