Opposition Politics Quotes

It is my duty to leave nothing undone that I may lawfully do, to pull down this administration....

It's very easy to unite a party around opposition or wanting to get the White House back. That's a unifying message, and you're seeing the Democrats uniting around being the party of 'no' and the party of 'resist.'

I've always seen my campaigns against corruption as political work of a purer form than what opposition leaders usually do. All they do is hold roundtables and release political statements, which is all well and good. But there are concrete things that need to get done in order to achieve the basic goal of every opposition politician.

Silence is not what democracy needs. Right now we have an election where, even the supporters of Hillary Clinton, the majority don't support Hillary; they just oppose Donald Trump. And the majority of Donald Trump supporters don't support him; they just oppose Hillary.

It is the steady abuse of power in other governments which renders that of opposition always the popular party.

I've been fighting amidst a lot of opposition from both Hillary Clinton as well as some Republicans who wanted to send arms to the allies of ISIS. ISIS rides around in a billion dollars worth of U.S. Humvees. It's a disgrace. We've got to stop - we shouldn't fund our enemies, for goodness sakes.

I was shadow health secretary for six years, and the beauty of being in opposition - if there is any beauty - is that you tend to get a pretty unvarnished view because no one bothers to paint the coal white before you turn up.

You can't get back to power by defining your project in negative terms. But it helps to have somebody in office who represents the opposite of what you believe.

Jesse Helms has historically been identified as an enemy of Mexico; therefore, by definition, anyone who opposes him is a friend of Mexico.

It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government.

You've got to remember that it's a two horse race. So when the Government is doing badly the Opposition is doing better and vice versa.

From this experience we have learned that in a big party it is important to have the necessary and often controversial discussions on policy issues such as the health system while in opposition.

I am for the Party that is out of Power

The anger on the left - I've never seen anything like it. I mean, they're right now opposing everything. Democrats in the Senate are filibustering absolutely everything.

The leaders of a party, or those who are so called, have but little sway over their followers, particularly when not in Government, and when they have it not in their power to threaten them with any very serious consequences

When you're part of the opposition you want to stay. It's part of your identity. You're useless if you leave. You feel like you have failed.

I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked.

We in the Labour party know better than most that opposition is the easy part. What's more difficult is governing and setting out an agenda for government.

For any new leader of any party at any given time it takes time if you are not in government to establish yourself.

It's our job as Liberal Democrats to be an effective opposition - and an increasingly tough one as well.

The Democratic Party has been a party of reaction - a party of opposition, complaining about Trump and the Republicans, rather than offering a lot of our own ideas and our own vision. And my view is that if Democrats want to start winning again, we have to start leading again.

I am a realist as well as an idealist, and I think that it is incumbent upon those of us in opposition to try to work within what are always arduous circumstances to stretch the limits of the possible.

In the early days of Meiji radical ideas of the West (such as those of the Rousseau school) aroused enthusiasm in the minds of the young liberal leaders of the nation and they went pretty far in their political agitation. The sponsors of these radical ideas were gradually forced to leave the seat of power and went into the ranks of the opposition. But during the forty long years of agitation the liberals were not half as successful in registering popular support as were the conservatives who stood for vigorous foreign policies.

Democrats are unified under the premise of total political annihilation.

We need a good strong opposition and I don't know whether it's any coincidence that we need Angela Eagle in Labour and we need Theresa May to lead the Conservative party, both of whom of course are women.