Michael Parenti: To make the world safe for those who own it, politica...

Even though the crime rate has dropped in recent years, the United States has more police per capita then any other nation in the world.

Michael Parenti

police political years

Union busting has become a major industry with more than a thousand consulting firms teaching companies how to prevent workers from organizing and how to get rid of existing unions.

Michael Parenti

unions political teaching

You don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day.

Michael Parenti

peg leashes knows

The American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.

Michael Parenti

political government country

The rich have grown richer, but their tax rate has declined. The poor have grown poorer, but their taxes have increased.

Michael Parenti

rich poor political

All economic and political institutions are contrivances that should serve the interests of the people. When they fail to do so, they should be replaced by something more responsive, more just, and more democratic. Marx said this, and so did Jefferson. It is a revolutionary doctrine, and very much an American one.

Michael Parenti

doctrine political people

The US government is usually on the wrong side against the poor and downtrodden, because the wrong side is the right side, given the class interests upon which the [US] policy is fixed.

Michael Parenti

government sides class

Just as the power of the feudal aristocracy had to be broken in order for capitalism to emerge fully, so must imperialism and capitalism in Third World nations be overcome if a new system is to prevail.

Michael Parenti

broken overcoming order

Conservatives insist that government should be "run more like a business." One might wonder how that could be possible, since government does not market goods and services for the purpose of capital accumulation.

Michael Parenti

political government running

There is a century-old saying, "The dollar votes more times than the man."

Michael Parenti

dollars political men

The trick is to steal big.

Michael Parenti

stealing bigs political

For the last fifty years we've been supporting right-wing governments, and that is a puzzlement to me...I don't understand what there is in the American character...that almost automatically, even when we have a liberal President, we support fascist dictatorships or are tolerant towards them.

Michael Parenti

government character years

The Federalists also used bribes, intimidation, and fraud against opponents of the Constitution.

Michael Parenti

constitution opponents political

Russia became a juicy chunk of the Third World, with immense reserves of cheap labor, a vast treasure of natural resources, and industrial assets to be sold off at giveaway prices.

Michael Parenti

treasure russia political

Candidates who win while spending less than their opponents still usually have to spend quite a lot. While not a surefire guarantor of victory, a large war chest -even if not the largest-is usually a necessary condition. Money may not guarantee victory, but the lack of it usually guarantees defeat. Without large sums, there is rarely much of a campaign, as poorly funded 'minor' candidates have repeatedly discovered.

Michael Parenti

political winning war

In almost every enterprise, government has provided business with opportunities for private gain at public expense. Government nurtures private capital accumulation through a process of subsidies, supports, and deficit spending and an increasingly inequitable tax system.

Michael Parenti

political government opportunity

The god who presides over the Judeo-Christian belief system bears a disquieting resemblance to those imperfect creations known as human beings. This suggests that either he really did fashion us in his own image or we fashioned him in ours.

Michael Parenti

fashion political christian

Actually, the New Deal's central dedication was to business recovery rather than social reform.

Michael Parenti

dedication recovery political

To complain about how the media are dominated by liberals, Limbaugh has an hour a day on network television, an hour on cable, and a radio show syndicated by over 600 stations.

Michael Parenti

media political complaining

One mechanism of repression is the grand jury.

Michael Parenti

repression jury political

To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.