If there is a mystical chord in democracy, it probably revolves around the notion that unexpected music can resonate from politics when people are pursuing questions larger than self... I have seen that ennobling effect in people many, many times- expressed by those who found themselves engaged in genuine acts of democratic expression, who claimed their right to define the larger destiny of their community, their nations.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the uplifting potential of democracy when individuals engage in collective pursuits beyond their personal interests.
William Greider reflects on the powerful and harmonious effects that democracy can have when people come together for a purpose greater than themselves. He emphasizes how genuine democratic engagement allows individuals to feel a sense of nobility and connection with their community, leading to a more profound impact on society as a whole.
In practice
In a speech about civic responsibility, one might say, 'As William Greider noted, when we pursue questions larger than ourselves, we can create unexpected music in democracy.'
Trump sees the world in terms of a zero-sum game. In reality, globalisation, if well managed, is a positive-sum force: America gains if its friends and allies - whether Australia, the E.U., or Mexico - are stronger. But Trump's approach threatens to turn it into a negative-sum game: America will lose, too.
They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a peoples Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people.
The constitution has broken down. We have no enemies except the ones we select and direct towards the nearest nuclear bombs. They need an enemy to provoke, a diversion. This is the mentality of tenth-rate people who are in politics because corporate America likes them. They are malleable. They give them contracts to build missile shields that will never work. It's deeply corrupt.
[A] mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.
There is no private domain of a person's life that is not political, and there is no political issue that is not ultimately personal.
That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.
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