Political Self-Preservation Quotes

Washington is deeply frustrating because so many of the positions that politicians hold are a product of ephemeral self-interest. They reverse themselves, for themselves, all the time.

Painfully often the legislation our politicians pass is designed less to solve problems than to protect the politicians from defeat in our never-ending election campaigns. They are … too frightened of us to govern.

This planet is run by crazy people. Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Their perspective is so narrow, so...brief. A few years. In the best of them a few decades. They care only about the time they are in power..

Politics - I still think it's a bunch of liars and a bunch of self-interest. It's not about the people: it's about themselves and their rise to power. They are voting on things based on whether they will have the support of the people when they vote next time. They don't have the balls to say, 'I believe in this. I don't care what happens.'

Politicians have an acutely honed instinct for self-preservation.

And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.

It's quite unbelievable that Charlie Crist is getting away with this reinvention of himself - this rewriting of history for blatantly political purposes. Other than his gender, the guy has flip-flopped on everything, and I don't put that past him either.

A politician’s instinct is for self-survival.

Politicians will be politicians, they will have a weakness at times for not seeing beyond their nose.

Career politicians like Marco Rubio worry more about keeping the job than doing the job and are constantly looking for their next political promotion.

Democracy tends to ignore, even deny, threats to its existence because it loathes doing what is needed to counter them," explained Revel. "It awakens only when the danger becomes deadly, imminent, and evident. By then, either there is too little time left for it to save itself, or the price of survival has become crushingly high.

A war, or any wild-goose chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping himself in place.

Most politicians make decisions based on their own best interest rather than the greater good.

The beasts (Conservatives) had committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter.

New politicians try to displace old ones by changing the electoral laws, while entrenched politicians defend outworn electoral systems when they feel that the new laws might weaken their positions and perhaps even abolish their sinecures.