Top 173 Quotes & Sayings by Keith Ellison - Page 2

I have a deep and personal aversion to anti-Semitism regardless of its source, and I reject and condemn the anti-Semitic statements and actions of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and Khalid Muhammed.

I know a lot of police officers who are on the force to do the right thing to protect people. But how can you deny this pattern, this disturbing pattern, Alton Sterling, Mr. Castile in my own community, Philando Castile, but then Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland?

Why can't we get real, sane, sensible gun legislation? Because the NRA, funded by Mossberg, Smith & Wesson, Glock and all the rest of the big dogs in the weapons industry, you know, spread around donations and won't let it move through.

I think debates are healthy. I think they include more people. And I don't believe most people, if they don't win, are just going to take their ball and go home.

I think there are real dangers to escalating military conflict with ISIS, and we need to be aware of them. But at the same time, you have to understand, you know, that this whole thing started with Bashar al-Assad and how he is the one who continued to escalate against the people of Syria who were trying to get democratic reform.

The idea of a financial transaction tax on Wall Street trades is gaining momentum. I have a bill called - nicknamed the Robin Hood tax also. It's a bill that taxes stock trades, derivatives and bonds, and would generate in the neighborhood of $300 billion a year.

The government has a right - the government and the people of the United States have a right to run the programs of the United States. Health, welfare, housing - all these things.

I believe that Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship are, and should be, key considerations in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East. Americans with roots or interests in the region should be involved in advocacy and discussions of public policy concerning the region.

We got to make sure that the Democratic Party is not just Democratic, but seen to be Democratic. That means we got to have systems in place that makes sure that everybody who participates in a primary is perceived to have an equal shot with everybody else.

What is it to be white? It does mean something to be Norwegian. It means something to be Polish or German or Spanish. But 'white' is simply a catchall for 'light-skinned person.' It doesn't really mean anything.

We've got to make sure our veteran, Democratic veterans are strengthened and feel like they are fully included.

One of the things that will decline over time is the demand that the society or the government bring forth a particularized racial remedy based on a history of deprivation. That will be even more difficult to do in the future.

The real problem for Democrats is we've got to help people believe, and then we've got to deliver the message to them. Believe what? That we are absolutely, unshakeably on their side, and we're going to fight for them every single minute.

My values - going back to my childhood - were always based on respect for all people and rejection of bigotry and racism.

My mom, Clida, taught my four brothers and me about her father's work to organize black voters in rural Louisiana in the 1950s. We carried her dad's legacy of activism with us. The Civil Rights Movement was present in the daily life of my family in Detroit in the 1970s.

We need more leaders speaking up for minority groups who have been marginalized and attacked.

I think that whenever businesses harm the economy, harm workers, harm consumers, or undermine human rights in any way, then it is the role of the government to make sure that they don't do that and to make sure that markets are fair and they operate properly.

I'll never forget working to get my college, Wayne State University, to divest from the government in South Africa. This was the beginning of my activism, and the fight for social and economic justice has been a constant thread in my life.

Decent wages keep people out of homeless shelters. Decent wages allow families to afford books and, I don't know, school fees and things like that.

I am not one of those people who has contempt for Hillary Clinton. I think she's served our nation. I think there are things that she's done that are very good.

For activists who want to preserve constitutional democracy, who don't believe in hereditary aristocracy, who believe that teachers ought to be able to deduct the 250 bucks of school supplies that they bring - they might spend their own money for in a classroom, then you still have time to fight a horrible piece of legislation.

Now [in 2016] I have the highest turnout in the state of Minnesota. And Minnesota is the highest turnout state in the country.

I'm an optimistic guy.It's just as much the case that people will come to me and ask my opinion about how to properly include the Muslim community, as it is that people will come with some hateful stuff too. When people come to me about my religion, it's not always a thing of "we don't want people like you here," which happens sometimes. But mostly it's people who would like to know more. I get a chance to help people understand the religion better.

The real question is not what one person's going to do, what are we all going to do? How are we all going to pitch in to fix this party to make working America know that the Democratic party is absolutely on their side? That's the real question.

I want to avoid sounding like I'm criticizing because I don't have all the facts in front of me yet. And I am trying to be a unifier.

I've been winning with 70 percent of the vote, and if you look at my district, you know it's a majority Christian district, and yet we've still been winning with high margins, so I don't feel like I've had any disadvantages for being a minority.

Look, rich people already have a lot of money. There's literally trillions of dollars in cash held by corporations, their stock valuations at an all-time high. They do not need a tax cut to do anything. They can invest now, if they wanted to. They don't want to, because they can make more money just by mergers and stock buybacks and stuff like that. So, this is really just sort of a travesty.

The main thing I've learned is that we're better together and that our society needs inclusion - right? - not exclusion.

I think that people have been looking at 40 years of flat wages. You know, the reality is you've got folks in diners and hair shops and barber shops all over this country who look at their own lives and think, you know, "My parents did better than I'm doing and my kids might not do as well as I'm doing." And that's because wages have been slashed for so long.

I worked at McDonald's. I cooked. It was one of the toughest jobs I've ever had. These people earn every single penny they get. In fact, they earn way more than they get.

I like Paul Ryan, and to a certain extent, I feel bad for him. But this is a moment of moral choice. And if he says that Hillary Clinton is worse than a openly racist, Muslim-hating misogynist who wants to build a wall to exclude Mexicans, who thinks that a judge, an American judge because of his Mexican lineage cannot be fair to him, if you`re saying that Hillary Clinton is worse than all that, then I just think that that just is ridiculous, it`s absurd, and it really starts to damage the speaker`s credibility.

I love the donors and we thank them, but it has to be that the guys in the barber shop, the lady at the diner, the folks who are worried about whether that plant is going to close, they've got to be our focus. They've got to be a laser-beam focus on everything we do, and everything we do should animate and empower them at the grassroots level for working people across this country. That's how we come back.

I'm looking for a place to be of use and benefit. And every single Democrat in this country better be thinking the exact same way. How can we help the average American worker, you know, right out there, worrying about whether that plant's going to close? Fighting for them, standing up for them. That's what the story is.

San Bernardino involved two killers were actually radicalized before they started courting or dating each other online, and online as late as - as early as the end of 2013, they were talking to each other about jihad and martyrdom before they became engaged and then married and lived together in the United States.

You have to talk about the issue of race, but I can talk to white constituents about racism, if I at least acknowledge that life is not a crystal stair for them either.

We want to be making clear that if [Donald Trump] tries to deliver on his word, that we will be there to say no.

One thing that I'd just remind young people of is that when John Lewis, who's a member of Congress today, defied George Wallace and led the march from Selma to Montgomery, he was 23 years old. Martin Luther King was the old man in the bunch, and he was 35, so young people need to know that they've always been an important part of our society, have always been at the forefront of pushing for a more just America, and we can't be successful without the impatience, the vigor that young people bring to the fight for social justice.

Opposing [Donald]Trump aligns you with Hamas.

Even Hamas - Hamas is a terrorist group - do you know that Hamas came out in opposition to [Donald ]Trump`s statement? That puts the Republican Party, the Democrat Party, and everybody else in the establishment and [Barack]Obama on the same side Hamas is on. And over here all by himself is Donald Trump.

We have a chance for racial solidarity because all of us, unless you`re in the top 1 percent, are really struggling in this economy.

Trump is trying to tell all of us Americans that we are our own problem, not him. And that's not true. He's the problem.

People feel like there're two systems of justice, you know? Over there at Wells Fargo, you know, you had the scandal going on there, but the CEO leaves with a big, giant package. And other folks get in a whole lot of trouble for doing a lot less. The truth is that we have got to make America work for working people again.

After I win the job and even in the course of seeking it, we're going to be building bridges. And we're going to be meeting people and addressing the concerns that they have.

If you put everything, your heart and soul into a campaign, it might take you a while to come around to the realization that, you know, another person has won.

The conversation should've been about middle class people. The conversation should've been about how to raise the minimum wage and strengthen Social Security. But then we started talking about this whole email stuff again. And now the outcome is that, you know, Donald Trump has somebody who he's looking at to put on his Cabinet who's a lobbyist to privatize Social Security.

Worked hard on [our message of strengthening the middle class, working people], but it didn't come through in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.It really should have, because people are struggling. And the Democratic message and the Democratic platform would help them, but somehow it didn't come up the way it should have. But it will.

The fact is, is that Donald Trump knows that as he rifles money from the working and middle classes up to the super rich, he has to sow division among working people, because if working people and middle-class people really take a look at his economic policy, they will come together, and they will stop it. So, what he has to do is to promote racism - hate the Muslims, hate the Latinos, hate the blacks, you know, have male - men and women at each other's throats, you know, make sure we repress the trans people.

This is essential that we have a resurgence in democratic participation. And I don't mean big-D Democrat, I mean small-D democrat. I mean getting involved in your neighborhood, your community. This is no time to say, "I'm not into politics." This is a time to go headlong into the welfare of this nation.

The fact is, yes, statistically, African Americans and Latinos are getting hit harder, but it`s something that we can have real solidarity across racial lines on, to raise the minimum wage, to lower the cost of going to college, to make sure there`s real consumer protection.

You know, the elites always want to shame the poor - right? - and everyone else. I mean, the fact is, this economy is based on 70 percent of the people driving consumer demand. If people do not purchase goods and services, this economy will grind to recession. And that is why, if you are going to do a tax cut, it ought to really be aimed at low-income and middle-income people.

Donald Trump is using an age-old trick of right wing populism, much like George Wallace, much like Joe McCarthy, Pitchfork Ben Tillman who in the 1880s and `90s was a rabid hateful racists who whipped up hate and hysteria for his own political benefit.

If you unpack the statistics on who is supporting , Donald Trump, it means that there is a lot of people who hold very bigoted racist ideas and there is a lot of them.

I know that everybody who supported Bernie Sanders supported him because they believe that college debt is too high. They believe that the minimum wage needs to be increased. They believe that we have to take on climate action.

Here's the real thing. Democrats got to understand that the first line in the Republican playbook is going to be smear, you know? And there's nobody who's going to be able to avoid it.

I think that Paul Ryan could be a great leader for our country. But I think that he is in a moral choice moment, and so far, he`s choosing wrong Donald Trump.

Obstruction, basically, is whether you corruptly influence, obstruct or impede the administration of justice. You tell a chief law enforcement officer get, you know, back off my friend - or I hope you back off my friend and then when he doesn't, you fire him, clearly, that isn't - that is - fits the behavior of obstruction. The question of whether or not you can prosecute the president is open.

The most important criteria for a DNC chair is going to be vision.

I raised my right hand and placed my left on the Quran, which was being held by my wife and mom. Suddenly, I was blinded by a cascade of camera flashes.

I'm not against trade...but they're not really trade deals. They're really investment deals between international corporations...They're saying we want to get a race to the bottom so we can exploit the most unfortunate worker.

Here's what I'm saying, that there is now ongoing a post-mortem review of what could have gone better [during Hillary Clinton campaign] and what mistakes may have been made.