A combination of working in politics as well as teaching and being [an actor] certainly helped. I became so much more comfortable in front of a crowd. I felt like I was calling on all those other experiences. Zephyr Teachout More Quotes by Zephyr Teachout More Quotes From Zephyr Teachout People think that the politician is just part of a system, and whether they're lying or not doesn't matter. Zephyr Teachout lying people thinking Oftentimes people get it wrong when they say we need to educate voters first and then give them power. I tend to favor giving them power first. Zephyr Teachout giving people needs There is a long American tradition of suspicion of concentrated economic power because of its tendency to corrupt government and turn it from a democracy into a plutocracy. Zephyr Teachout political government long A lot of politics plays at the level of myth, and if you understand that, then you feel like you have access to the secret language of politics. People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?". Zephyr Teachout fun character thinking One of the most dangerous things about Fox News isn't that it's right wing but that it's nihilistic. It takes away the capacity to believe in politics. Zephyr Teachout news wings believe Creativity is essential to any kind of joyful living. Sometimes I act, sometimes I draw, I paint, I write poems. I can't imagine living without it. Zephyr Teachout creativity essentials writing Things poll well, but people don't believe that politicians are telling the truth. Politicians might mention renewable energy, and the public will think, "That sounds good, but I don't believe they're going to do everything they can to build those towers." Zephyr Teachout believe people thinking Integrity is hard work. I do think the internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform. So the temptations of social media lead to some dissonance. Zephyr Teachout hard-work integrity thinking In Europe, populism is sort of a dirty word, but we have this wonderful history of populism in America, including the abolitionist populists and the white and black populists working together in the nineteenth century. Zephyr Teachout white europe dirty My current goal is to change the way we think about antitrust and anti-monopoly. Zephyr Teachout goal way thinking I don't have any particular plans in mind. What I see is that you can become so focused on the idea of running that winning becomes your motivation, as opposed to what you stand for being your motivation. Zephyr Teachout motivation winning running If those people in power never made any mistakes, we'd be done for as a democracy. But people keep making mistakes. History is a series of mistakes. Zephyr Teachout democracy mistake people I think the reason you see so many people dropping out of politics is because there's an anti-poetic strain in modern political discourse. Zephyr Teachout political people thinking New York City is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to climate change, so I see Keystone as the central threat to New York. Zephyr Teachout climate cities new-york I think that most people have deeply creative sensibilities. Zephyr Teachout creative people thinking This is what's so hard about our current politics: things poll well, but people don't believe that politicians are telling the truth. Zephyr Teachout telling-the-truth believe people If you think art is a competitive forum, then you're going to stop doing it if you're not good. But if it's not competitive, it's something that you'll keep doing. Zephyr Teachout forums art thinking I'm not from the arts, I'm a law professor. But I think we need more poetry in politics. Zephyr Teachout law art thinking People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?" Zephyr Teachout fun character thinking Public education is so important - resisting privatization and charterization, high-stakes testing, and defunding. It's important for New York, but it's also important for the country. Zephyr Teachout important new-york country
