Political Quotes

“Madam President, as our Founders worked to design what would become the Constitution of the United States, they had certain core principles in mind--certain principles that were the exact opposite of the way government worked in Europe. They did not want to see America be a land run by a dictator or a King. They wanted to make sure that power was distributed between voting Americans, a principle Jefferson called the equal voice principle, because distributed power among the people would lead to laws by and for the people, not laws by and for the powerful. They had another principle, and it was the opposite of what existed in Europe, where a King and perhaps the King's circle were above the law, not accountable to any core principles of conduct or any rules. What they did in their lives as rulers in that fashion just simply was accountable to no one. But our Constitution had a different vision. The goal was to have everyone in America accountable to the law--that we are all in this together. No one is a King. No one is a dictator. That vision is really embodied in four simple words carved into the facade of the doors of the Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under Law. If you stand here in the Johnson Room, just across the hallway, and you look out the window toward the Supreme Court, you see this: Equal Justice Under Law. It is a principle so foundational to our vision of a citizen-run nation, a nation by and for the people, that it was the source of my first political act.…”