Polarization Quotes

I wrote the album during a time of extreme polarization in America. There was a war happening and it was dividing families. I realized the party that I was working for had lost but that we still had to come forward together as a nation. You can`t be a sore loser. Hence the album title Have a Nice Day". What drew me to politics in the first place was the fact that I wanted to have a place to take a stand and use my voice to express what I believed in. But I`ve no longer got any political aspirations. I feel that as a politician, fifty per cent of people would hate you before you even left the house. And I`ve never quite known what motivates politicians. Do they really believe in the cause that strongly or is it just the pursuit of power? I once flew on a plane with Bill Clinton and a reporter asked whose job was better, mine or the President`s? I said that mine was, because I get to keep the plane and the house."

With events like the Super Bowl, you see a polarization. You`re going to get the big guys, but you`re also going to see smaller guys blowing their whole ad budget just to get top-of-mind awareness.

There is too much at stake for us to surrender to the politics of polarization.

The polarization and animosity were far deeper on the eve of the Civil War than it`s ever been. The `red state-blue state` divisions of today (referring to the 2000 presidential election where maps denoted in blue states that backed Democrat Al Gore and in red for Republican George W. Bush) or the cultural wars over abortion, gay rights or other issues are far more superficial than the events of the 1850s.

I think there are a lot of good ideas there. I think, again, progress has been impeded by the polarization of the issue. And we need to look at some short-term actions that we could take to improve the system, to start helping people have health care be more affordable and accessible, while working on a longer term solution _ which takes time, it takes consensus, it takes not worrying about who gets the credit.