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There is nothing more basic to our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.

Mark Shields

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Mark Shields
Age: 87
Born: 1937
Born: May 25
Columnist
Writer
Weymouth
Massachusetts
Mark Stephen Shields
Democracy
Political
Nothing
Right
Electing
Participate
Basic
Leaders
Leader

More quotes by Mark Shields

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The Democrats have tried the war against women in the past. It didn't really have that much traction.
Mark Shields
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Peter Hart, the pollster, has a question when he asks about presidential or vice presidential candidates, what kind of a neighbor would they be? And several Democrats - George W. Bush was always seen to be a good friendly neighbor who would pick up the newspapers if you were out of town or check your mail.
Mark Shields
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By a 2-1 margin, voters believe that Donald Trump would change business as usual in Washington, but by almost as large a margin, they believe that Hillary Clinton would be better in a crisis and less of a decisive margin she cares about people like them.
Mark Shields
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When the size of the group supporting your cause reaches a critical mass, any legislator or elected official has to pay attention.
Mark Shields
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[Donald Trump] stood up and he said, you finally have a president, you finally have a president. I am the future.And what did he get? Hosannas and huzzahs and genuflection. It was a total takeover of the conservative movement.
Mark Shields
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90 percent of American schoolchildren are in public schools. And the emphasis on private schools and charter schools and parochial schools is not unimportant.
Mark Shields
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I don't hear any clear, coherent message [from Democrats]. I mean, when you're a party out of power, it's the time to be a national party chair.
Mark Shields
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Big money buys access in Washington, and access purchases influence. It is as simple as that. And they have basically given a green light, a further green light, after Citizens United, to the biggest money to have the bigger voice in our politics, and to sound out and drown out the voice of just ordinary citizens.
Mark Shields
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Steve Bannon went to the Conservative Political Action Conference and he said that there was a very important historical turning point, getting rid of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And the Republican Party has stood for that for as long as I have been alive.
Mark Shields
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He who speaks the truth must keep one foot in the stirrup.
Mark Shields
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The Democrats have to do what he did when [Rahm Emanuel] was chairman of the Democratic House Campaign Committee, recruit veterans, recruit football players, recruit business people. And I think that's what the job of the new party chair has to be.
Mark Shields
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I thought what Steve Bannon said was probably more chilling or more threatening than anything the president [Donald Trump]says, I mean, because he said, it's a constant day. We have to defeat the press.
Mark Shields
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Donald Trump is sounding the same theme he has sounded since May or June of 2015.
Mark Shields
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The final thing the Tea Party had was, they fed into the philosophy that Donald Trump now embodies. So they had a different view of how the world should be governed. And so they had a lot of things that we didn't appreciate going for them as time went by.
Mark Shields
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Donald Trump is an independent presidential candidate who ran on the Republican label. He really did. He took it over. He transformed it into his image, in his likeness.
Mark Shields
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Tim Kaine didn't come across authentic. It wasn't good. And it was - it just really - I think, for short-term benefit, I think the Democrats tarnished the brand, which is an awfully good brand.
Mark Shields
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The argument of those who are being criticized at any time, the civil rights movement forward, the anti-war movement forward, is, it's always outside agitators doing it.
Mark Shields
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When you run for president of the United States, everybody does the same thing in the campaign-they talk about veterans, how much they admire them, how grateful they are.
Mark Shields
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Every measurement of where you have more public confidence in creating jobs, American prosperity, controlling crime, health care, providing education, all of these standards, Bill Clinton has considerably higher marks... The sole exception is on protecting taxes, which is initially his attack.
Mark Shields
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[The Republicans] looked at basically the failed wars and they said, oh, this, us being the policeman of the world, that is not working.
Mark Shields