Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first, let me commend Senator Whitehouse, Senator Shaheen, and all those who have worked so hard with them to bring this cause to the public forum. The genius of our Founding Fathers was to establish a system of government in which the governed determine who represents them. It is easy for us, more than two centuries removed from their achievement, to lose sight of just how remarkable that achievement was. They overturned untold centuries of human history during which those with wealth and power made the decisions and everyone else had little or no chance to influence how they were governed. The remarkable system the Founders created has endured through war, crisis, depression, and doubt. But we should not mistake that endurance for automatic permanence. Democracy requires that we maintain the vital connection between the people and their elected representatives. It must be the voters and not the influential few who choose our Nation's leaders. If the people begin to doubt their central role in our government, it will be corrosive to democracy. In recent months, there has been reason for just such doubt. A Supreme Court ruling has opened our system to a flood of unlimited and secret special interest money.…”