Shameless Quotes

“These are manipulation tactics happening at the hands of the very people whom voters have been groomed to trust. Republicans may claim to hate the Democrats, but frankly there is no one they have more contempt for than their own supporters.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“he suggested terminating the Constitution.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“There will always be those seeking to suppress the votes of young people and people of color, to restrict ballot access, to take away drop boxes, to limit early voting and mail-in voting, to facilitate longer lines in minority-majority communities. There will always be those campaigning to strip women of their reproductive rights, or refusing to acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ Americans. There will always be those leading efforts to ban books but promote AR-15s. There will always be those waging disinformation campaigns and exploiting a mainstream media apparatus too easily duped by bad actors. There will always be those seeking to break the very government that the country depends upon to function. Those people will always be there.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“When anyone calls me a liberal, I say, ‘You’re damn right,’ because at the heart of that word is ‘liberty,’” explained law professor, constitutional scholar, and U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin. “And I’m a progressive, because at the heart of that word is ‘progress.’ And these days, I’m very happy to call myself a conservative, because unlike the party of nihilists and insurrectionists, I want to conserve the land, air, water, the climate system, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Clean Air Act, the Social Security Act, the Medicare Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, you name it. Everything they want to tear down is everything we want to conserve and make work for the American people over the decades of progress we’ve made.” Republicans, by contrast, have spent decades hiding behind their historical branding to give themselves cover to act in a way that is completely antithetical to their professed values. These are conservatives who don’t intend to conserve anything; constitutionalists who don’t adhere to the Constitution; textualists who are content to discard any text that doesn’t confirm their prior beliefs. The Republicans don’t even believe in their namesake of a “republic” anymore.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“the state of the modern Republican Party: the dysfunction, the incompetence, the obstinance, the rage, the showmanship, but above all, the utter lack of shame.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Post-hypocrisy, and with shame out of the equation, they’re free to do what they actually want to do, which is to consolidate power for themselves. What we perceive as a weakness is actually one of their greatest, albeit amoral, assets. They no longer need to waste time with the pretense of honesty and integrity; now they can dedicate themselves to a rabid, relentless, shameless pursuit of power.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“They don’t have any ideals. Nobody ever called Mussolini or Pinochet or Hitler a hypocrite. That’s the last thing they were. Their vice was cruelty, and a desire to dominate and control at all costs. They’re a rule-or-ruin party. So hypocrisy is almost a flattering term to apply to them, because it suggests that they have some ideals to betray. They don’t.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“We are never going to outright win the fight for democracy; there should always be a fight.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Losing faith and abandoning the system altogether redounds to Republicans’ electoral benefit. That’s how they want you to respond.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“The Republicans followed through on the most cowardly decision of all: that theirs would be the Party of No. Unfortunately, that legacy has held strong.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“the time has come to disabuse ourselves of the notion that the fourth estate is going to rescue us, inform us fairly, or even be a partner in democracy.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“questioning whether the guy who added the greatest number of jobs in U.S. history might be up for the job.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“because those members of the media have come to expect so very little out of the party, the Republicans have managed to evade accountability for consistently failing to do their jobs.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“The left’s stories and angles will always be weaponized by the right.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“The same words, repeated over and over and over, getting jackhammered into our skulls.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“As president, he lost the greatest number of jobs in modern U.S. history,”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“the MAGA faction, truly have no program or platform of values.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“This is where Republicans thrive: in manipulating institutions like the Electoral College, in gerrymandering congressional and state legislative districts, in imposing voter suppression tactics, in preserving the filibuster. Like their leader, they are a party that specializes in the techniques of antidemocracy.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Gone was the righteous indignation about abortion, replaced by the quiet din of crickets chirping. Soon the party moved on to immigration,”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“They’re a rule-or-ruin party. So hypocrisy is almost a flattering term to apply to them, because it suggests that they have some ideals to betray. They don’t.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“glaring lack of any predicate to move forward with a Biden impeachment proceeding was made painfully clear on both sides of the political spectrum.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Mike Johnson is begging the world to see that, in keeping with the party he represents, he stands for absolutely nothing.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Make no mistake: the Republican Party is more than willing to sacrifice our cops—the men and women who stood in to protect them—if it means upholding Trump’s Big Lie.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“not one member of the Trump family has served in the military.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“striking to imagine opposing legislation called the Violence Against Women Act.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“Republicans, not unlike sheep, have very strong flocking instincts.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“well-funded radical right’s goal is essentially to lie in the road and make themselves obstacles to a functioning democracy.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“the wake of a calamitous Bush presidency, marred by war and financial collapse: rescue a shattered economy, and do so by joining hands with Republicans.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“tsunami of utter bullshit that is now available to the American public.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

“our present batch of Republican lawmakers “do have an authoritarian mindset of taking power by any means necessary. The hallmark of the authoritarian parties is a refusal to accept the results of democratic elections when they don’t go their way. Another hallmark is a refusal to disavow—or an enthusiastic embrace of—political violence as an instrument for achieving power.”
― Brian Tyler Cohen, Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy