Jeff Sharlet Quotes & Sayings

What's interesting is the populace movement of fundamentalism is starting to mirror that approach that elite fundamentalism has long had of trying to have influence across the political spectrum. — Jeff Sharlet

There are real radical Muslim groups out there that really are pretty villainous. You don't have to make them up. — Jeff Sharlet

The Family is the oldest and arguably most influential religious political organization in Washington. — Jeff Sharlet

Fundamentalism is a 20th-century phenomenon, but that kind of religious fervor actually has not always been associated with conservative goals. — Jeff Sharlet

The Cold War was really the great struggle of the 20th Century and it shaped American political life from top to bottom. — Jeff Sharlet

. . . private group prayers were the modern equivalent of a backroom cigar. — Jeff Sharlet

Liberals were just as engaged and using the rhetoric of a sort of a battle with the Soviets and with Communism in general, with an evil empire. — Jeff Sharlet

The politics of that year [2004] are old now, but the problem remains the same, the real culture clash of American life. It's between the essence of fundamentalism - paternalism, authority, and charity - and the messy imperatives of democracy, "the din of the vox populi" once derided by Abram Vereide. It's the difference between false unity, preached from above, and real solidarity, pledged between brothers and sisters - the kinds who are always bickering. — Jeff Sharlet

The Family in particular, but also other really **** conservatives come to call what is "Biblical Capitalism." The idea that capitalism is ordained in the Bible and that inasmuch as we interfere with the market, we're interfering with God's literal and visible hand. — Jeff Sharlet

What the Cold War did was provide a fairly clearly defined enemy and it's easy to organize around that. — Jeff Sharlet

Elite fundamentalism has always going to be involved with a certain set of conservative interests, but certainly not exclusively Republican. — Jeff Sharlet

Liberalism doesn't speak to ideals. Radicalism does. — Jeff Sharlet

Elite fundamentalism has always been on the corporate side of things. — Jeff Sharlet

You can recruit the populace conservatism for the interests of corporate conservatism that the two things can be married into one unholy union. — Jeff Sharlet

Whoever is holding the power says, "Yeah, let's keep things civil and quiet." Whoever's outside say's, "No, I'm not going to keep things civil and quiet, I'm going to bang on the door." — Jeff Sharlet

America is going to start happening outside of the parties. — Jeff Sharlet

What did "good government" really mean? Langlie and his brotherhood promised an end to political corruption. (There's no evidence that Langlie ever even took a drink, much less a bribe.) The days of "honest graft" were over, at least for a while. But seen from another perspective - that of ordinary citizens without access to Langlie and Abram's elite network - Langlie didn't so much end corruption as legalize it. Langlie wasn't opposed to a government organized around the interests of the greedy; he just didn't want to have to break the law to serve them. — Jeff Sharlet

My favorite forgotten President in American history is James Buchanan, who in defending really robust and sharp-elbowed debates said, "I like the noise of democracy. I like the sound of people in the streets making noise." — Jeff Sharlet