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Rick Perlstein Quotes

Fight injustice, that our children might be blessed Picture Quote #1

Whatever you think about his intelligence, what’s unquestionable is that Reagan had extraordinary emotional intelligence. He could sense the temperature of a room, and tell them a story and make them feel good. And that’s more fun, right? It’s more fun to feel good than feel bad. That’s part of our human state Picture Quote #1

It is a quirk of American culture that each generation of nonconservatives sees the right-wingers of its own generation as the scary ones, then chooses to remember the right-wingers of the last generation as sort of cuddly Picture Quote #1

Liberals tend to stress how marvelous education is, in and of itself, and also adore it as a vessel for genuine equality. (That’s me, by the way: Hell, I think we should be spending $50 billion a year to make college education free) Picture Quote #1

For the first time on Planet Earth (in 1964 America), a nation was made up of more college students than farmers. An unheard-of 42% of high school graduates sought higher education Picture Quote #1

Computers have cut-and-paste functions. So does right-wing historical memory Picture Quote #1

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All right-wing antigovernment rage in America bears a racial component, because liberalism is understood, consciously or unconsciously, as the ideology that steals from hard-working, taxpaying whites and gives the spoils to indolent, grasping blacks Picture Quote #1

Empirical debunking cannot reach the deepest fear of the reactionary mind, which is that the state - that devouring leviathan - will soon swallow up all traces of human volition and dignity. The conclusion is based on conservative moral convictions that reason can’t shake Picture Quote #1

I think that all politicians who aspire to the presidency are a little nuts, but for different reasons. What kind of person aspires to be the most powerful person in the world? The answer is someone with an internal drive that is so dynamic and so determined Picture Quote #1

Over fifteen years of studying the American Right professionally - especially in their communications with each other, in their own memos and media since the 1950s - I have yet to find a truly novel development, a real innovation, in far-right ‘thought.’ Picture Quote #1

Economic issues are a subset of social justice. Social justice is unimaginable without economic justice. Isn’t that obvious? Picture Quote #1

It’s almost a very rough rule of thumb: when Democrats are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around middle-class fears, Democrats win the election; when Republicans are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around cultural fears, Republicans win the election Picture Quote #1

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There is no freedom without groceries. There are no groceries without freedom. What people call ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’ are actually one and inseparable. It’s a virtuous circle Picture Quote #1

As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year’s defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better when the defining issue is national security Picture Quote #1

Polling only works in a country without a depressed, frightened populace. Where the public trusts authorities enough to tell them the truth without fear of retribution Picture Quote #1

In the suburban Midwestern Reform Jewish world I was raised in, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, grown men built plastic scale models of Israeli tanks and F-15 jets and displayed them throughout the house, dangling the warplanes from bedroom ceilings with fishing line Picture Quote #1

Here’s an irony of the history of conservatism’s relationship with business and business’s relationship with conservatism: ‘Wall Street’ used to be the right-wing industrialists of the forties and fifties’ greatest term of derision. (Wall Street was the place that humiliated them by forcing them, hat in hand, to beg for capital) Picture Quote #1

For a movement supposedly devoted to conserving the past, conservatives are oh-so-splendid at forgetting their own past Picture Quote #1

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My liberal friends love to dismiss Reagan. You know, they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, didn’t he, like, only read one-page memos when he was in the White House?’ Well, that’s just good managerial practice. I mean, Franklin Roosevelt made people write one-page memos Picture Quote #1

The only times during my religious instruction I remember hearing God’s name invoked with any sincere conviction at all was in the oft-repeated and breathtakingly chauvinistic claim that Israel’s ‘miraculous’ military victories over much-stronger enemies proved that He was ever on Zion’s side Picture Quote #1

In the rest of the industrialized world, your boss can’t fire you unless he or she can give a good reason. In America, with certain exceptions, your boss can fire you for any reason at all or for no reason at all Picture Quote #1

One thing Republicans understand: In American elections, you have to choose from among only two people - not between the perfect and the good Picture Quote #1

Racial rhetoric has been entwined with government from the start, all the way back to when the enemy was not Obamacare but the Grand Army of the Republic (and further in the past than that: Thomas Jefferson, after all, was derided as ‘the Negro President’) Picture Quote #1

Prediction is structurally inseparable from the business of punditry: It creates the essential image of indefatigable authority that is punditry’s very architecture; it flows from that calcified image, and it provides the substance for the story that keeps getting told about the inevitability of American progress Picture Quote #1

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Everyone on the Left has a favorite story that allows them to kind of excuse Reagan, explain away Reagan, say he was dumb, but unless we reckon with that kind of emotional intelligence and his ability to kind of speak to the aspirations of the American people, the less liberals are going to be able to understand the soul of his appeal Picture Quote #1

Call it Camelot’s revenge: the class of court scribes who made it their profession to uphold a make-believe version of America free of conflict and ruled by noble men helped Nixon get away with it for so long - because, after all, America was ruled by noble men Picture Quote #1

While Obama might not push college education exclusively, like most Democrats he does oversell it and does shortchange the alternatives. And millions of young Americans pay the price Picture Quote #1

I believe politics is a team sport. That, for awful and unfortunate reasons beyond any of our control, the American system only allows, effectively, for two teams Picture Quote #1

As an adult, I’ve always found the stereotype that Jews are liberal a curious one; my parents’ circle was predominantly conservative, not just on Israel but on most political issues. Most of all, they were intensely (and this is a word I remember repeating in my own angry adolescent dialogues with myself) tribal Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

Fight injustice, that our children might be blessed (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Whatever you think about his intelligence, what’s unquestionable is that Reagan had extraordinary emotional intelligence. He could sense the temperature of a room, and tell them a story and make them feel good. And that’s more fun, right? It’s more fun to feel good than feel bad. That’s part of our human state. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) It is a quirk of American culture that each generation of nonconservatives sees the right-wingers of its own generation as the scary ones, then chooses to remember the right-wingers of the last generation as sort of cuddly. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Liberals tend to stress how marvelous education is, in and of itself, and also adore it as a vessel for genuine equality. (That’s me, by the way: Hell, I think we should be spending $50 billion a year to make college education free). (Rick Perlstein Quotes) For the first time on Planet Earth (in 1964 America), a nation was made up of more college students than farmers. An unheard-of 42% of high school graduates sought higher education. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Computers have cut-and-paste functions. So does right-wing historical memory. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) All right-wing antigovernment rage in America bears a racial component, because liberalism is understood, consciously or unconsciously, as the ideology that steals from hard-working, taxpaying whites and gives the spoils to indolent, grasping blacks. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Empirical debunking cannot reach the deepest fear of the reactionary mind, which is that the state - that devouring leviathan - will soon swallow up all traces of human volition and dignity. The conclusion is based on conservative moral convictions that reason can’t shake. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) I think that all politicians who aspire to the presidency are a little nuts, but for different reasons. What kind of person aspires to be the most powerful person in the world? The answer is someone with an internal drive that is so dynamic and so determined. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Over fifteen years of studying the American Right professionally - especially in their communications with each other, in their own memos and media since the 1950s - I have yet to find a truly novel development, a real innovation, in far-right ‘thought.’ (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Economic issues are a subset of social justice. Social justice is unimaginable without economic justice. Isn’t that obvious? (Rick Perlstein Quotes) It’s almost a very rough rule of thumb: when Democrats are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around middle-class fears, Democrats win the election; when Republicans are able to successfully frame the meaning of an election season around cultural fears, Republicans win the election. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) There is no freedom without groceries. There are no groceries without freedom. What people call ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’ are actually one and inseparable. It’s a virtuous circle. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year’s defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better when the defining issue is national security. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Polling only works in a country without a depressed, frightened populace. Where the public trusts authorities enough to tell them the truth without fear of retribution. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) In the suburban Midwestern Reform Jewish world I was raised in, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, grown men built plastic scale models of Israeli tanks and F-15 jets and displayed them throughout the house, dangling the warplanes from bedroom ceilings with fishing line. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Here’s an irony of the history of conservatism’s relationship with business and business’s relationship with conservatism: ‘Wall Street’ used to be the right-wing industrialists of the forties and fifties’ greatest term of derision. (Wall Street was the place that humiliated them by forcing them, hat in hand, to beg for capital). (Rick Perlstein Quotes) For a movement supposedly devoted to conserving the past, conservatives are oh-so-splendid at forgetting their own past. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) My liberal friends love to dismiss Reagan. You know, they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, didn’t he, like, only read one-page memos when he was in the White House?’ Well, that’s just good managerial practice. I mean, Franklin Roosevelt made people write one-page memos. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) The only times during my religious instruction I remember hearing God’s name invoked with any sincere conviction at all was in the oft-repeated and breathtakingly chauvinistic claim that Israel’s ‘miraculous’ military victories over much-stronger enemies proved that He was ever on Zion’s side. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) In the rest of the industrialized world, your boss can’t fire you unless he or she can give a good reason. In America, with certain exceptions, your boss can fire you for any reason at all or for no reason at all. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) One thing Republicans understand: In American elections, you have to choose from among only two people - not between the perfect and the good. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Racial rhetoric has been entwined with government from the start, all the way back to when the enemy was not Obamacare but the Grand Army of the Republic (and further in the past than that: Thomas Jefferson, after all, was derided as ‘the Negro President’). (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Prediction is structurally inseparable from the business of punditry: It creates the essential image of indefatigable authority that is punditry’s very architecture; it flows from that calcified image, and it provides the substance for the story that keeps getting told about the inevitability of American progress. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Everyone on the Left has a favorite story that allows them to kind of excuse Reagan, explain away Reagan, say he was dumb, but unless we reckon with that kind of emotional intelligence and his ability to kind of speak to the aspirations of the American people, the less liberals are going to be able to understand the soul of his appeal (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Call it Camelot’s revenge: the class of court scribes who made it their profession to uphold a make-believe version of America free of conflict and ruled by noble men helped Nixon get away with it for so long - because, after all, America was ruled by noble men. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) While Obama might not push college education exclusively, like most Democrats he does oversell it and does shortchange the alternatives. And millions of young Americans pay the price. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) I believe politics is a team sport. That, for awful and unfortunate reasons beyond any of our control, the American system only allows, effectively, for two teams. (Rick Perlstein Quotes) Leaders are for calling people to their better angels, for helping guide them to a kind of sterner, more mature sense of what we need to do. To me, Reagan’s brand of leadership was what I call ‘a liturgy of absolution.’ He absolved Americans almost in a priestly role to contend with sin. Who wouldn’t want that? (Rick Perlstein Quotes) As an adult, I’ve always found the stereotype that Jews are liberal a curious one; my parents’ circle was predominantly conservative, not just on Israel but on most political issues. Most of all, they were intensely (and this is a word I remember repeating in my own angry adolescent dialogues with myself) tribal. (Rick Perlstein Quotes)

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