Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don’t talk about what democracy means — what it bestows on us — the revolutionary idea that it isn’t just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.
Bill Moyers (b. 1934) American journalist and public commentator
“The Power of Democracy,” speech, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, New York City (7 Feb 2007)
(Source)
Accepting the Frank E. Taplin, Jr. Public Intellectual Award. Reprinted in Bill Moyers, Moyers on Democracy (2008).
Quotations by:
Moyers, Bill
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.
Bill Moyers (b. 1934) American journalist and public commentator
Time (29 Oct 1965)
Standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country.
Bill Moyers (b. 1934) American journalist and public commentator
Closing comments, NOW (PBS) (2003-02-28)
(Source)
Regarding patriotism and opposition to the impending war in Iraq. Moyers quoted the comments in a speech to National Conference for Media Reform (St Louis) (2005-05-15); the phrase is often cited to that occasion.