Political Inflexibility Quotes

No Federalist over the age of 30 has ever changed his mind on anything

There is nothing that an intellectual less likes to change than his mind, or a politician his policy.

In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.

Herbert Hoover was a man of genuine, fine character, but he lacked practical political sense. And he couldn't bend and shift and change with the requirements of the time. And he was a ruined President, because he was such a, I think, stiff-backed ideologue. And I think that speaks volumes about his character.

Few things are as immutable as the addiction of political groups to the ideas by which they have once won office.

We Americans love our Constitution so much that we can't bear to change even the stupid parts.

There are far too many politicians out there who take the wrong position and stick with it and never admit that they should do something different.

Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong.

It seems in America you are stuck with the position you adopted, even when events change, in order to claim absolute consistency. That can't be good.

Ken Livingstone appears incapable of contrition. That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won't come close to change.

One blames politicians, not for inconsistency but for obstinacy. They are the interpreters, not the masters, of our fate. It is their job, in fact, to register the fact accompli.

Bernie Sanders is making a big and potentially dangerous mistake with his continuing insistence on changes to the Democratic Party's rules and platform. I should know. As chairman of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, I understand too well where such ideological stubbornness can lead.

Progressive politicians have been around long enough running cities that some distinguishing characteristics can be noted. One is they don’t listen to anybody. To stop them you have to fire them. They’re not like normal politicians who have some give, who tack this way and that. Progressive politicians have no doubt, no self-correcting mechanism.

The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like. The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s—who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?