Today is Election Day in the state of Washington. Moi is always amazed that elections come and go peacefully whether one is involved or interested. There is something to be said for a regular process for making decisions, even if not everyone is not happy with the outcome. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is Election Day.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.”
Gore Vidal, Screening History
“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
Abraham Lincoln
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind
Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.”
Euripides, Orestes
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
Abraham Lincoln
“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.”
Herbert Marcuse
Every election is determined by the people who show up.”
Larry J. Sabato, Pendulum Swing
In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”
Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
“In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.”
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.”
Aristophanes, The Knights
“…they say if you don’t vote, you get the government you deserve, and if you do, you never get the results you expected.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.”
George Orwell
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best”
Otto von Bismarck
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