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The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes.

William Greider

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William Greider
Age: 83 †
Born: 1936
Born: August 6
Died: 2019
Died: December 25
Author
Editor
Journalist
Writer
Cincinnati
Ohio
William Harold Greider
Authority
Class
Disintegrating
Odor
Burnt
Governing
Classes
Washington

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The economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.
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Efficiency obliterates identity
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Aside from sending someone to war or to prison, government s ability to make people involuntarily give over their money is its strongest exercise of authority over private citizens and their institutions.
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Fellow senators balked at punishing Senator Alfonse D'Amato of New York though he was caught in a series of transactions that earned him the label Senator Sleaze. D'Amato explained their reluctance as he defended his own behavior. There but for the grace of God go most of my colleagues, he said.
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Children born today have a fifty-fifty chance of living to 100.
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The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.
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If everyone has to be a watchdog in order to make government work, then the foxes will also volunteer to serve.
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A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?
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The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.
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If you think about it, Washington's overwhelming power in the world is founded on death, the awesome arsenal for killing people.
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If we have wealth, it will be protected from inflation and possibly even enhanced in value.
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Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own.
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If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament? Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them? Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.
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A newly elected representative quickly discovers that his job in government-aside from making new laws-is to act as a broker, middleman, special pleader and finagler.
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Leaks and whispers are a daily routine of news-gathering in Washington.
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The problem of modern democracy is rooted in its neglect of unorganized people.
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Money is power in American politics. It always has been.
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If US per capita income continues to grow at a rate of 1.5 percent a year, the country will have plenty of money to finance comfortable retirements and high-quality healthcare for all citizens, including those at the bottom of the wage ladder.
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The point is, the political reporters are the ones who no longer understand the ritual they are covering. They keep searching for political meanings in the tepid events when a convention is now essentially a human drama and only that.
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When self-important people and powerful institutions are governed by illusion, history has a way of biting back.
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