American - Writer | -
We, America, elected Trump. Putin didn't do it, nor the trolls in St. Petersburg with their zillions of busy bots. They may well have plucked certain strings in the national psyche - played us like a dimestore ukulele - but we were keen to be plucked.
Ben Fountain
BusyAmericaStringsUkuleleMayUs
Obama was elected on the shoulders of an incipient movement that he allowed to languish once he became president.
PresidentMovementShouldersHeOnce
From the start, Trump's rallies had the air of the tent revival, that same hot thrum of militant exorcism and ecstasy.
StartHotSameAirTentRevival
In true demagogic fashion, Trump bypassed the head and spoke directly to the gut, to the biles and bubbling acids of raw emotion.
FashionTrueEmotionGutHeadRaw
People rarely grow in humility once they reach the White House.
HumilityPeopleGrowReachHouse
The collective memory of America is short.
MemoryShortAmericaCollective
The national framework of social insurance - social security, unemployment and disability benefits, work programs, and workers' compensation - protected citizens from the kinds of risks that private markets couldn't or wouldn't insure.
WorkRisksInsuranceSecuritySocial
Nobody ever came to America with a starry-eyed dream of working for starvation wages.
AmericaDreamNobodyWorkingWages
Political rights notwithstanding, 'freedom' rings awfully hollow when you're getting nickel-and-dimed to death in your everyday life.
LifeFreedomDeathPoliticalYou
Democracy's premise rests on the notion that the collective wisdom of the majority will prove right more often than it's wrong; that given sufficient opportunity in the pursuit of happiness, your population will develop its talents, its intellect, its better judgment; that over time its capacity for discernment and self-correction will be enlarged.
HappinessWisdomOpportunityTime
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Ben Fountain quotes