Political Commentary Quotes & Sayings

As America slept, our constitutional quilt was slowly being unraveled by special interest... I hope you like the cold. — A.J. Garces

War is politics for everyone but the warrior. — Tiffany Madison

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. — H.L. Mencken

A very, in a sense, terrifying aspect of our society, and other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe [war]. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler or LeMay or other that crops up. These people would not be able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity ... and therefore I think that it's, in some sense, the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who share a very serious burden of guilt that they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme and violent. — Noam Chomsky

We are all born to love people and use things. Unfortunately, we grow to love things and use people ... — T. Rafael Cimino

The premise that America's power and influence was rooted in its wealth was wrong to begin with. To the contrary, our strength comes from America's magical stuff. It is something intangible, something invulnerable, something no measure of evil, no amount of violence or bloodshed can destroy. — Rick Elkin

Wouldn't the world be a better place, if we were better at including than excluding? Wouldn't the world be wiser, if we never again dragged civilians into war? Wouldn't the world be better, if 1942 had never happened for either Polish Jews or Japanese Americans?
From Seattle in Shorts due out April 2014 — Mercia McMahon

America isn't a country; it's a marketplace. The more you sell, the more at home you'll feel. — Iimani David

I felt I had an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of great soul musicians of the past, who made a lot of social and political commentary through their music. — Aloe Blacc

I always stayed away from political commentary. First of all, I didn't feel entitled. What I may feel about a candidate, I'm a comedian. I mean, if people like my comedy, that doesn't mean they should vote for the person I like. That's why I always kind of stayed away from endorsements. — Bob Newhart

By making the government a combination of elected officials and citizen-backed initiatives and referenda, there can truly be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. — Victoria Stoklasa

If it takes us 10 years to get into the shit, it will take us 20 to get out.
And the journey starts NOW. — Jasper Fforde

A feat - of access and of passionate and appropriately unsettling political commentary. — Lisa Schwarzbaum

I had this terrible nightmare; I dreamt I was a politician and they were dragging me off to parliament — Rassool Jibraeel Snyman

What's a Somnubuvorus?'
'It looks like a cross between a boabab and a turnip, and about the size of a telephone box. It's actually not a plant at all but a fungus that releases puffs of hallucinogenic spores into the breeze. Anyone who inhales them suddenly becomes convinced that being near the Somnubuvorus will enlighten and enrich them with hard-hitting and devastatingly relevant social and political commentary. Then, of course, you are soon overcome with a sense of listlessness and torpidity, and fall fast asleep'.
'It sounds like what would happen if you weapoinised French cinema — Jasper Fforde

Too often people mistake monsters for gods. — Monique Snyman

Now most of 'Alice' isn't really a political social commentary, but I think a big message is here is that the culture we're involved in is fascinated with very quick fixes and instant gratification. — Caterina Scorsone

A mother was thinking of how to keep her naughty child in line she tried using the boogey man it didn't work ... she thought and thought then said "the Politician is going to get you" and he was never naughty again — Rassool Jibraeel Snyman

Stewart, with the help of his incredibly astute staff, was combining reporting with commentary, pointing a finger at stupidity and hollowness, and devising a creative hand grenade. All of it had political purpose and direction. It wasn't strictly ideological, although he's obviously left of center. And he was fearless, not in the sense that anybody was going to make him a political prisoner. But he punched up. He punched up, and the shots landed.

I don't think the world is any more absurd now than it's ever been, or more tragic, or more beautiful. But Jon took advantage of these new ways of seeing the world and took out his magic marker and drew circles around the idiocy. He set out to be a working comedian, and he ended up an invaluable patriot. He wants his country to be better, more decent, and to think harder.

~ DAVID REMNICK, editor in chief, the New Yorker — Chris Smith

Democracy is the worship of jackals by jackasses. — H.L. Mencken

The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you've just told them. — Rachel Maddow

Bernie Saunders is like a fly buzzing around a bowl of rotten fruit. Long hail this fly! — Marge Simon

I think that my films are basically family stories, beyond the fact that they are global and have political and social commentary. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Do you prefer to be with people who glow with love and compassion or those who burn with anger fueled by religious doctrine or political ideology? — Jeff Rasley

The moment you have massive social and political commentary trying to explain a phenomenon, then you know we are no longer dealing with a strictly psychiatric question. — Norman Finkelstein

He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.
(writing about US President Warren G. Harding) — H.L. Mencken

If you have the right to influence the laws that are made in your community, why not take the opportunity to do something good? — Victoria Stoklasa

Like us, those vanished warriors planted their standards in the sands of their own self-summoned extinction. — Steven Pressfield

I am interested in making photographs which comment on the experience of a place as well as describe it. My position has not typically been one of advocacy for or against any political position. But I regard photographs as commentary, and that includes, at times, taking a specific political viewpoint on an issue. — Mark Klett

A lot of lip service gets paid to being honest, but no one really wants to hear it unless what's being said is the party line. — Colin Quinn

Have you ever found yourself saying, "There ought to be a law against this," or, "Somebody should do something"? Well, here's the good news - you can be the one to do something. You can be the one to make the law. — Victoria Stoklasa MA

I never think that anything I'm writing is bluntly political in any way. I'm not going for commentary. — Barbara Kingsolver

I saw America's economy last night, people raiding dumpsters at a higher rate than normal in my home town. Digging through garbage shouldn't be a career. Thanks Democrats. Thanks Republicans. — Carroll Bryant

One good thing about being an immigrant in the US, no one cares about my sociopolitical opinion. I exist like a bland wallpaper to all races. — Fidelis O. Mkparu

I would love to be associated with some sports organization. I was a journalism major. That's kind of intriguing, to do something in the political-commentary arena. — J. C. Watts

A library is a place where you learn what teachers were afraid to teach you. — Alan M. Dershowitz

'Dating Game' wasn't social commentary, political analysis, Shakespearean-level drama or even blunt-force comedy. It was just the televised equivalent of meeting someone at a bar. But it appealed to our most basic Darwinian instinct: selecting a good mate. You can't go wrong when a show's premise is hard-wired into human DNA. — Seth Shostak

Invisible violence in Pakistan, violence against brown people, ongoing violence in Iraq - that's got to be quantified in the same way as the cinematic glamorous violence that happens in recognisable cities. — Russell Brand

It's a tough trick to be able to create an intelligent movie that has socio-political commentary, and also has the emotional and moving stuff, at the same time. — Jodie Foster

My favorite Congressional incongruity: ... Red State legislators galumphing from meeting to meeting in full pancake makeup. Estee Lauder may well make more money on Capitol Hill than in Beverly Hills. — Frank Bruni

I'm the rap version of Dave Chappelle. I'm not sayin' I'm nearly as talented as Chappelle when it comes to political and social commentary, but like him, I'm laughing to keep from crying. — Kanye West

Everybody who's ever influenced me, from a Richard Prior to a Whoopie Goldberg to, you know, any of the voices that have resonated with me as a performer since I was a kid, you know, you couldn't really say that their work didn't have some element of political commentary in it. — Sarah Jones

he took political sketch-writing to a new level, invented sports commentary as we know it, and created the essay-form as practised by Clive James, Gore Vidal, and Michael Foot. — Duncan Wu

Herbert George Wells, better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau. He was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and produced works in many different genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. He was also an outspoken socialist. His later works become increasingly political and didactic, and only his early science fiction novels are widely read today. Wells, along with Hugo Gernsback and Jules Verne, is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction". Source: Wikipedia — H.G.Wells

What interests me, personally, is work which in some way, speaks the truth to power ... I don't think we speak the truth to power for power's ear, but for the ear and the imagination of future generations, who would seek to live in a world free from the malign and self-serving influence of those who wield it. — Irvine Welsh

I like to think that I'm one of the few people in public life who write their own material. I write every word. And I really enjoy writing - especially my political commentary. — Ed Koch

In The Hunger Games, there's something for everyone.
A gripping adventure.
A political commentary.
A love story.
A cautionary tale.
Some call it science fiction, some call it potential reality.
Some say it's for teenagers, some say it's for adults.
The book--and now the film--captures themes and concerns that seem timely.
But its real strength, in the end, is that it's timeless. It speaks to us today, and it will speak--even more powerfully--tomorrow. — Kate Egan

To every Old World belief, habit, or tradition, there was and still is a technological alternative. To prayer, the alternative is penicillin; to family roots, the alternative is mobility; to reading, the alternative is television; to restraint, the alternative is immediate gratification; to sin, the alternative is psychotherapy; to political ideology, the alternative is popular appeal established through scientific polling. There is even an alternative to the painful riddle of death, as Freud called it. The riddle may be postponed through longer life, and then perhaps solved altogether by cryogenics. — Neil Postman

If you won't admit there are kooks among those who share your political viewpoint, chances are, you're one of the kooks. — Raul Ramos Y Sanchez