From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable.
Jimmy ReidRead
The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.
Interpretation
The media's role in a democracy is to hold the government accountable rather than support it blindly.
Jimmy Reid emphasizes the crucial role of the media in a democratic society as a watchdog that ensures those in power are held accountable for their actions. Instead of merely facilitating governance, the media should actively scrutinize and challenge government officials, reinforcing the idea that their power is granted by the citizens they serve, thus reminding them of their responsibility to the public.
In practice
In a speech advocating for press freedom, you might say this quote to highlight the media's essential role in democracy.
From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable.
Polling is merely an instrument for gauging public opinion. When a president or any other leader pays attention to poll results, he is, in effect, paying attention to the views of the people. Any other interpretation is nonsense.
The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself and to create a situation where a President can be almost, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting.
'Get along, go along' is not an inspirational philosophy, and only God knows how much moral cowardice it has covered up over the years. Serve your time, collect your chits, and cash 'em in for your home state? No, I'd say we could ask for more than that from our senators.
I don't know a country in the world that doesn't have borders and doesn't want to know who is coming into their country.
I'm also very much aware that it is you who brought democracy to Chile, you set up a constitution suitable for democracy, you put it into effect, elections were held, and then, in accordance with the result, you stepped down.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
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