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.
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.
Successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision.
It is the belief that extremes and excesses of inequality must be reduced so that each person is free to fully develop his or her full potential. This is why we take precious time out of our lives and give it to politics.
There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy, grassroots organizing and electoral politics.
When too many Americans don’t vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action.
The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better.
As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.
The only way to change is to vote. People are responsible.
I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.
Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers.
The idea of democracy has been stripped of it moral imperatives and come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy.
Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.
If a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?
The American polity is infected with a serious imbalance of power between elites and masses, a power which is the principal threat to our democracy.
The kind of national goal we ought to be thinking about is way beyond national product – it is how do we as a nation help our children be the best kinds of people they could possibly be?
I emphasize self-esteem, self-confidence, and dignity, not as an ideal, but as a real test of community organization. Without leadership development, community organizations do not have staying power.
Politics is not about power.
Without trying, I’m different.
I’m short, I’m Jewish and I’m a liberal.