#politics

This revolutionary idea of Western citizenship—replete with ever more rights and responsibilities—would provide superb manpower for growing legions and a legal framework that would guarantee that the men who fought felt that they themselves in a formal and contractual sense had ratified the conditions of their own battle service. The ancient Western world would soon come to define itself by culture rather than by race, skin color, or language. That idea alone would eventually bring enormous advantages to its armies on the battlefield. (p. 122) ↗

— Victor Davis Hanson

#civilization #consent #contract-for-service #government #politics

He loved politics in large part exactly because it meant time spent with men like Cactus Jack Garner(who would be remembered for observing that the vice presidency was not worth a pitcher of warm piss). ↗

— David McCullough

#harry-truman #politics #love

Money is a servant to politicians and the country. But, if the politicians and the country become the servant of the money, the politicians has failed. ↗

— Oliver Kemper

#country #money #politicians #politics #money

The war to preserve the privilege of mythmaking ↗

— Marvin Bell

#line #motivation #poetry #politics #prodigal

olhe, hoje é possível reviver o fascismo, quer saber. é possível na perfeição. basta ser-se trabalhador dependente. é o suficiente para perceber o que é comer e calar, e por vezes nem comer, só calar. vá espirar esses patrões por aí fora. conte pelos dedos os que têm no peito um coração a florescer de amor pelo proletariado. que porra de conversa comunista. mas não é possível deixar de ter conversas comunistas enquanto não se largar a merda das ideias do capitalismo de circo que está montado. um capitalismo de especulação no qual o trabalho não corresponde a riqueza e já nem a mérito, apenas a um fardo do qual há quem não se consiga livrar. ↗

— valter hugo mãe

#politics #work #working-class #money

It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money. ↗

— P.J. O'Rourke

#government-spending #politics #money

If you put your politicians up for sale, as the US does (alone in this among industrialized democracies), then someone will buy them--and it won’t be you; you can’t afford them. ↗

— Juan Cole

#money #politicians #politics #super-pacs #united-states

If politics left out the manipulation of money, I would perhaps view it more than a partisan traffic jam that never ends. ↗

— Zephyr McIntyre

#money

If you look at how the federal government spends our money, it’s an insurance conglomerate protected by a large, standing army. ↗

— Ezra Klein

#insurance #military #money #politics #money

I've always found the thousand dollar dinners more unsettling than the twenty-five-thousand dollar ones --- if someone pays the Republican National Committee twenty-five thousand dollars (or, more likely, fifty per couple) to breathe the same air as Charlie for an hour or two, then it's clear the person has money to spare. What breaks my heart is when it's apparent through their accent or attire that a person isn't well off but has scrimped to attend an event with us. We're not worth it! I want to say. You should have paid off your credit-card bill, invested in your grandchild's college fund, taken a vacation to the Ozarks. Instead, in a few weeks, they receive in the mail a photo with one or both of us, signed by an autopen, which they can frame so that we might grin out into their living room for years to come. ↗

— Curtis Sittenfeld

#elections #politician-s-wife #politics #money