adversarial politics Quotes
President Obama was a true Constitutionalist who, unlike other modern presidents, truly believed that members of Congress had a right to express their views and act on them and the President should not retaliate against them for opposing him on major issues. Unfortunately, this was interpreted by most people as weakness. It also hurt his legislative initiative, as no one feared his retaliation or was intimidated when he asked for their vote.
He not only knocked out his opponents, but this unusually bizarre politician murdered many, and actually ate some believing that cannibalism transferred power from the dead enemy to himself.
This quotation illustrates a political phenomenon that used to be common in American politics—the spoils system where government activities, positions, contracts and grants were awarded to the supporters of the winning party and not to the opponents. In modern times government contracts were supposed to have been awarded on the basis of qualifications and price and not conditioned on political support. In this rare quotation, the secretary admitted to violating his own Department’s regulations and using politics as a criteria where existing laws prohibited that.
In 1990 the organization recommended political vocabulary including:
