I happen to think that American politics is one of the noblest arts of mankind; and I cannot do anything else but write about it.
Interpretation
The speaker considers American politics to be a noble field worthy of discussion and analysis.
In this quote, Theodore White expresses his belief that American politics is a significant and honorable pursuit, akin to an art form. He conveys a sense of duty and passion for writing about politics, suggesting that engaging with this subject is not only important but also a meaningful endeavor that reflects the complexities of society and governance.
In practice
In a speech about civic engagement at a community event.
Generally students are the best vehicles for passing on ideas, for their thoughts are plastic and can be molded and they can adjust the ideas of old men to the shape of reality as they find it in villages and hills of China or in ghettos and suburbs of America.
Power in America today is control of the means of communication.
Politics in America is the binding secular religion.
History is always best written generations after the event, when clouded fact and memory have all fused into what can be accepted as truth, whether it be so or not.
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.
Too often character assassination has replaced debate in principle here in Washington. Destroy someone's reputation, and you don't have to talk about what he stands for.
The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.
Great powers can't get tired, because the international order is not self-governing.
The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.
I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
In the end, North Korea's conduct may change only when its leadership does.
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