Ron Silver Quotes

Democracy is interactive... It's a constant job of information, education, explanation, listening, and interactive communication.

The very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affairs however little influence my voice may have in them.

I think everybody who has a brain should get involved in politics. Working within. Not criticizing it from the outside. Become an active participant, no matter how feeble you think the effort is.

Americans need to be engaged and invested in the legislative process that affects their daily lives, otherwise we are just democracy in name only.

Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.

Democracy is the only system capable of reflecting the humanist premise of equilibrium or balance. The key to its secret is the involvement of the citizen.

I believe that everyone should participate in democracy and enjoy doing it.

No matter where you stand politically - even if you're unsure of what your political ideology is - it is important to take part in the process of shaping our government.

Politics are close to me, but there are different ways of participating in politics.

I want people to learn what democracy means.

The value of government to the people it serves is in direct relationship to the interest citizens themselves display in the affairs of state.

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

A government of, for and by the people, requires much from the people.

Democracy is something that you must learn each generation. It has to be taught.

A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.

A democratic form of government, a democratic way of life, presupposes free public education over a long period; it presupposes also an education for personal responsibility that too often is neglected.

The effective functioning of our constitutional democracy depends upon the participation in public life of a citizenry that is well informed

Ignorant and illiterate people cannot understand democracy. They are prey to religious extremists.

It is citizen participation that nourishes the strength of a democracy.

To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for president. One hopes it is the same half

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.

If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.

We know that literate people are more likely than others to participate in their societies' democratic institutions and that the risk of war drops as more of a country's citizens receive a secondary education.