Harry Truman actually said...

You, the people, are the Government; and when you exercise your right to vote, you run the Government, and when you don't exercise your vote--as you didn't exercise it in 1946--you get such things as that 80th Congress, and you get just what you deserve when you do that because you shirked your duty.

Context

Rear Platform Remarks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Mankato, Minnesota

10/13/1948

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...

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