* “Today, we find it with enormous influence, influence that far outstrips where it was six or seven years ago. … Iran is everywhere throughout the Middle East.”–CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
* “Here we are 14 years after the start of the Iraq War, and the United States government is finding fresh ways to dig the country into war in the Middle East–this time, risking a proxy war with Russia over Syria. And there’s no protest anywhere! You’d think people would be tired of all this fighting, and be asking hard questions in public of why our government, no matter which party holds power, backs endless war.”–Rod Dreher, American Conservative.
* “Trump sees America as a victim, beset by outside evils: marauding Mexicans, Muslim terrorists. The Germans sell us too many cars; the Canadians dump subsidized lumber on our markets; NATO owes us money. ‘Greatness’ to Trump has nothing to do with leadership or example. It’s a zero-sum game: If Europe or China or India do well, America loses.”–Diane Roberts, author and professor of literature and writing at FSU.
* “For the United States, the biggest institutional lie of the moment is that we have a government of the people, responding to majority will. … We have a fake democracy, growing less responsive and less representative by the day.”–Timothy Egan, New York Times.
* “A 14th-century solution to a 21st-century problem.”–Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, on President Donald Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall.
* “Trump’s rural support was (also) driven by a feeling among voters that urban and even suburban Americans do not share their values, and that the news media disrespects them.”–Dan Balz, Washington Post.
* “This (Senate health care) bill, in short, is a sham. Those most hurt would be the ones who put Trump in the White House.”–Former Marine and Emmy Award-winner Montel Williams.
* “The rationale for gutting Medicaid has been stated as ‘providing flexibility’ for states in managing their programs. This is nonsense. … Florida is 48th in spending on Medicaid recipients. … Consequently, in a capped program, we would start way back and fall further behind year after year.”–Paul F. Robinson, M.D., a Copello Fellow with the National Physicians Alliance.
* “Clearly there is an audience for speeches that rally nationalist causes and against amorphous perceived threats. What I think may be driving some of the appeal of the politics of fear is the state’s low education and demographics.”–Scott Crichlow, political science professor at West Virginia University.
* “Fear resonates.”–Wheeling, West Virginia Mayor Glenn Elliott.
* “We congenitally believe that our motives are pure and our goals are right. Therefore, we should win by default.”–Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
* “Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic, because they’re people that can’t get the job done.”–President Donald Trump.
* “Obama’s legacy would be under much greater threat by a more competent president than Donald Trump. His inexperience and lack of discipline are an impediment to his success in implementing policies that would reverse what Obama instituted.”–Josh Earnest, former Obama White House press secretary.
* “The Cubans who flock to meet President Trump, their legacy will be that they lost two democracies to two nations.”–Tampa attorney Ralph Fernandez.
* “There are going to be a lot more places that are going to be functionally in play in 2018 than in 2016 or 2014, but to win those races you’re going to have (to have) extraordinary candidates.”–Florida Democratic consultant Steve Shale.
* “It’s not perfect. I’m going to sue for the smoking, but I know there are sick people who will see relief starting in July.”–John Morgan, after Gov. Rick Scott signed the medical marijuana bill into law.
* “This does have the potential to allow a lot of new utility poles in the right-of-way in places where people might not expect it. … We just don’t think it’s responsible to move forward without us having an opportunity to fully vet this.”–Rebecca Kert, Tampa’s senior assistant city attorney, on legislation that paves the way for 5G wireless communications in Florida.
* “I don’t think either of them would fail to cooperate across the bay. Everybody’s beginning to see how necessary that is.”–Dick Greco on the regional priorities of St. Petersburg mayoral candidates Rick Kriseman and Rick Baker.