Quote#Politics & Power
The President is an elected king, but the fact that he is elected has…
Quote byRandolph Bourne · 1886–1918
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: II, ¶19. Published under "The Development of the American State," The State (Tucson, Arizona: See Sharp Press, 1998), p. 36..
English (original)
The President is an elected king, but the fact that he is elected has proved to be of far less significance in the course of political evolution than the fact that he is pragmatically a king. … Kings have often been selected this way in European history, and the Roman Emperor was regularly chosen by election.
— Randolph Bourne
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War is the health of the State.
We cannot crusade against war without crusading implicitly against the State.
How shall I describe Youth, the time of contradictions and anomalies? The fiercest radicalisms, the most dogged conservatisms, irrepressible gayety, bitter melancholy,—all these moods are equally part of that showery spring-time of life.
Our elders are always optimistic in their views of the present, pessimistic in their views of the future; youth is pessimistic toward the present and gloriously hopeful for the future. And it is this hope which is the lever of progress—one …
The State is a jealous God and will brook no rivals. Its sovereignty must pervade everyone and all feeling must be run into the stereotyped forms of romantic patriotic militarism which is the traditional expression of the State …
Indeed, it is not too much to say that the normal relation of States is war.