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"My book is focused on the power of the American state, not least because the government of the United States governs so much that the case could be made that everybody around the world ought to have a vote in determining some of its policies."
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"Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle."

"Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom."

"I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses."

"I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government."

"I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world."

"The Federal Government should be the last resort, not the first. Ask if a potential program is truly a federal responsibility or whether it can better be handled privately, by voluntary organizations, or by local or state governments."

"Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure."

"It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for."

"We are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government."

"The government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion."
Explore more quotes by Todd Gitlin


"The mobilisation which Bush has been able to perform since 11 September 2001 has to be fought - at least by Americans - in the name of a wise, honourable and democratic patriotism."


"As I write at the end, if we step back and face the enormity of the torrent, then we have taken the first step to imagining what we might want to do about it."


"The genius of the economic machine is in its ability to convert these indulgences into profitability. It converts desire into attention, a grip on our eyeballs and eardrums, which in turn can be marketed to advertisers."


"The fancy term for what America has squandered in the past year and a half or so is legitimacy."


"I first came to think about media and politics in the late 1960s, having observed some distortions up close, but since then I wouldn't say that my personal experience has remained an important motive for my writing about media."


"So every day I'm mindful as I watch the Bush crowd extend their sway into policies of every imaginable variety, and over almost every square foot of earth, that the control of the American state is a matter of urgency."


"Some fine day, Democrats may figure out how to get on the right side of the value divide - how to define America as a place of the common good and not a playground of the strong."


"Some versions of patriotism come close to the tribal, which we all want to surpass, and some don't."
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