Ideological Clarity Quotes

[Commenting on Ronald Reagan:] I don't think he ever thought anything through.

A candidate who tries to steer a path down the middle in an effort to 'win independents' runs the risk of convincing everyone that they have no core values. As much as - or more than - any other voters, independents want to see conviction and authenticity.

At the organisational level, our party has to really develop a new style of connecting with the people. We have to also look at the way we project our programmes, our policies.

The days of Democrats biding our time, biting our tongue, and triangulating at the margins are over.

Intellectuals know how to answer the question, 'What God do I believe in?' not only through the question of 'What God do I abhor?' Intellectuals can also answer the question of 'What flag do I wave?' without having to answer the question of 'What flag do I burn.'

I think there's a growing amount of confusion about what conservatism is. And it is time for us to understand that conservatism is not built on personalities. Conservatism is not simply built on how angry you might seem from time to time. Conservatism is built on a set of principles and ideas that our nation desperately needs.

I think the Democratic Party has the chronic problem of appearing to be weak, of not standing and fighting for what it believes in, not fighting for its own.

I have no problem working with anybody as long as they are efficient and their intentions, their philosophy, their ideology are clear.

I don't know anymore where I begin and Obama ends.

The Catholic Church is and has been one of the strongest and most consistent counter-revolutionary forces in society. In [our] struggles we find this organization a formidable opponent. The reason for this is its ideological unity and its organizational centralization. If we revolutionists have not already learned these lessons in our experience, we could learn the value of ideological unity and organizational centralization from the Catholic Church.

[Woodrow Wilson] could state a principle better than the expert from whom he had borrowed it.

My ideas had been taking a socialistic shape for many years; but they were lacking in definite outline.

I bring to the table core Democratic values and can articulate them very strongly. I'm not someone who tries to claim the middle.

In Poland a man must be one thing: white or black, here or there, with us or against us -- clearly, openly, without hesitations. . . . We lack the liberal, democratic tradition rich in all its gradations. We have instead the tradition of struggle: the extreme situation, the final gesture.

One of the problems that Hillary Clinton had, and one of the problems that Democrats still have is people don't really know what we stand for.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

The Conservative Party tries to avoid important but controversial issues of concern to Conservatives and Canadians in general. It is afraid to articulate any coherent philosophy to support its positions.

I am happy to be called a 'commie' as long as I am one, so I should know if I am or not. I don't know what I am.

When it comes to social issues, Republicans don't just need to be more empathetic. They also need to be more emphatic in explaining to voters what they believe, and why.

The Washington establishment think Republicans win elections by you don't stand for anything, you keep your head down, you don't rock the boat. You know what? Every time we do that, we get clobbered in the polls.

Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism.

The English have all the material requisites for the revolution. What they lack is the spirit of generalization and revolutionary ardour.

Political and social events must also be effective, but not in a very obvious fashion. But political confusion and prolonged peace undoubtedly affect creative thought but whether they respectively hinder or help it is not at all certain.

I often envy my colleagues on the right and the left for whom no vote is hard.

Political confusion starts with terminology confusion.