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Let’s all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

Barbara Jordan

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.
BARBARA JORDAN

Politics Produce Promise
There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.
BARBARA JORDAN

Law Order People
Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.
BARBARA JORDAN

Citizens Ideas Suffering
What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.
BARBARA JORDAN

Balance Government Ideas
Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
BARBARA JORDAN

Constitution Democracy Today
Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of a national community. It’s tough, difficult, not easy. But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny.
BARBARA JORDAN

America Community Destiny
Things which matter cost money, and we’ve got to spend the money if we do not want to have generations of parasites rather than generations of productive citizens.
BARBARA JORDAN

Citizens Cost Generations
How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance — the one value that is indispensable in creating community.
BARBARA JORDAN

Creating Equality Keys Tolerance
Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
BARBARA JORDAN

Education Keys Political
In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough. But today that is not enough. People want more.
BARBARA JORDAN

Giving Party People
I never wanted to be run of the mill.
BARBARA JORDAN

Mills Running Wanted
I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people.’
BARBARA JORDAN

Mistake People Years
I think it no accident that most of those emigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party. We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
BARBARA JORDAN

Country Democratic Party Thinking
The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
BARBARA JORDAN

Government Sports Stakes
It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
BARBARA JORDAN

Democratic Immigration Responsibility
I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.
BARBARA JORDAN

Mills Persons Running
The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.
BARBARA JORDAN

Court Lasts Protection
We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
BARBARA JORDAN

Erode Men Want
Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans.
BARBARA JORDAN

People Ties Voice
If you had to work in the environment of Washington, D.C., as I do, and watch those men who are so imprisoned and so confined by their eighteenth-century thought patterns, you would know that if anybody is going to be liberated, it’s men who must be liberated in this country.
BARBARA JORDAN

Country Men Work
If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
BARBARA JORDAN

Change Dissatisfied Resolve Way
If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
BARBARA JORDAN

Majority Peace Ubuntu
If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.
BARBARA JORDAN

Games Play Political
One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
BARBARA JORDAN

Benefits Illegal Immigration
More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.
BARBARA JORDAN

Future Government Inspirational
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
BARBARA JORDAN

Decision Emotional Passion
We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.
BARBARA JORDAN

Destiny Government Republic

Let’s all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

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Popular Authors

Let’s all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Barbara Jordan Quotes