Clive Crook Quotes

Neither the rich nor the poor have great interest in government. The rich can afford their own security … in their gated communities and their own information networks. The poor are usually so pushed against the wall that they do not have time for the mechanics of the government. If you lose the middle class, you lose democratic government.

Wherever you have votes, you have power.

Rich people are powerful in wealth but few in votes.

[James] Madison pointed out in the discussion of the constitutional debates - the constitutional convention - that democracy would be a danger. He used England of course as the model and said suppose that in England everyone had the free right to vote; the poor, the propertyless - who are the great majority - would use their voting power to take away the rights of property owners to carry out what we would call land reform.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government.

Oligarchy is to the advantage of the rich. Democracy to the advantage of the poor.

This contempt for money is a trick developed by the rich to keep the poor without it.

The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it.

The competition of the poor takes away from the reward of the rich.

The dollar votes more times than the man.

it is a universal practice in the popular elections in all these states, to give no legal consideration whatsoever to those who do not choose to vote, as against the effect of the votes of those, who do choose to vote. Hence it is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters, who choose to vote, that constitute the political power of the state.

Because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government. Hence arises the common opinion that there are two kinds of government - democracy and oligarchy.

The meanest inhabitants by their constant attendance generally form the majority and outvote the gentlemen, merchants and all the better Inhabitants!

Exxon, Coca-Cola, BHP Billiton and News Corporation have much more say in organising the global agenda than the planet's 5 billion mature-age voters without a ballot box.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

Today in India there are all sections of people, as the BJP realized when the poor voted them out.

Perhaps we'll realize that each of us has not one vote but ten thousand or a million.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

People who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests.

It is perfectly evident to any logical mind that when you have got the vote, by the proper use of the vote in sufficient numbers, by combination, you can get out of any legislature whatever you want, or, if you cannot get it, you can send them about their business and choose other people who will be more attentive to your demands.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

The rich don’t want the poor to get ahead of them.

Republicans look after the rich, and Democrats focus on the needs of the middle class. Neither of them looks after the poor.