The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.
Paul WellstoneRead
The problem with party politics is that people get involved every two or four years and that is it. In the meantime, the legislature and Minnesota politics are on a separate track.
Interpretation
Political engagement should happen continuously, not just during election cycles.
This quote by Paul Wellstone highlights the issue of limited political engagement among the populace, emphasizing that citizens should be active participants in politics beyond just the moments leading up to elections. He suggests that true democracy requires constant involvement in governance to ensure that legislators remain connected to the needs and concerns of their constituents.
In practice
In a speech about civic responsibility, emphasizing the need for year-round political involvement.
The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.
A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.
The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives.
What the poor, the weak, and the inarticulate desperately require is power, organization, and a sense of identity and purpose, not rarefied advice of political scientists.
It's too much show business and too much prompting, too much artificiality, and not really debates. They're rehearsed appearances.
Elections have consequences. So many people want to complain, but they don't want to vote. We can talk about Hillary Clinton. We can celebrate her; we can support her, but if we don't come out and vote for her, for shame.
Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.
The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.
But the simple truth is that we've lost control of our own borders, and no nation can do that and survive.
The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States.
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