Coming Up Short Quotes

“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America…. We all share the hope that we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody’s son…. People don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better…. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. They are devoted instead to the ideals of America—the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, freedom of speech and assembly, freedom from fear, and democracy. True patriots don’t have to express patriotism in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag. They express patriotism in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going, sacrificing for the common good. This means paying their fair share of taxes rather than lobbying for lower taxes or seeking tax loopholes or squirreling away money abroad. It means refraining from making large political contributions that corrupt American democracy. It means blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one’s job. It means volunteering time and energy to improving one’s community and country.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“My father loved America. He served proudly in World War II. He always paid his taxes in full and on time. “It’s an honor,” I remember him saying about paying taxes. “It’s for America.” He called Joe McCarthy a “son of a bitch” because, he said, “McCarthy hates America. He’s just out for himself.” My father would have despised Donald Trump.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“When I tell my undergraduates that I once advised Barack Obama, they’re somewhat impressed. Labor secretary to Bill Clinton? Their eyes begin to glaze over. Worked for Jimmy Carter? Not particularly interested. Interned for Bobby Kennedy? Campaigned for Eugene McCarthy? They look puzzled, as if I’ve entered the misty expanses of ancient history. Sometimes I follow this by telling them I started my career as an assistant to Abraham Lincoln. This used to elicit a laugh. I’m beginning to fear it won’t much longer. But every day I consider myself blessed for having the great good fortune to spend most of my time with these young people. They inspire me. They push me. They make me laugh. They help me play the long game. They’re going to inherit the mess my generation has bequeathed them. Instead of being bitter or angry, they have all sorts of ideas for how to clean it up, fix it, make the world better. They have the energy and determination to succeed. They keep me optimistic and sane. They make me hopeful that the common good can be resurrected.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“But as Republicans have moved into the netherworld of authoritarianism, CNN’s news coverage would never satisfy them—Fox News had that sewn up—nor should CNN even try. If we learned anything from Trump and his lapdogs at Fox News, it was that facts, data, and logic were no longer relevant to the Republican base. Even “straight news reporting” depends on what stories are featured, which facts are highlighted, and the context surrounding the news. How could it be possible to report on Trump or any number of Republican leaders without mentioning the Big Lie, or say they’d broken norms if not laws? The anti-democracy movement in America (as elsewhere) is among the biggest challenges facing the world today. Wouldn’t failing to report on it in a way that sounded alarms be a gross dereliction of duty?”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“Their level of education, skills, capacity to work together, and the infrastructure linking them determine the current and future standard of living of people in that country, so a nation should invest in its people and what they need to be more productive.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“Had the Democratic National Committee not tipped the scales against him by deriding his campaign and rigging campaign financing in favor of Hillary Clinton, I believe Sanders would have been the party’s nominee in 2016.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“The biggest change over the previous four decades, the change lurking behind the insecurities and resentments of the working class, has had nothing to do with identity politics, “woke”ism, critical race theory, transgender kids, immigration, “cat ladies,” or any other Republican cultural bogeymen. It has been a giant upward shift in the distribution of income and wealth; in the power that has accompanied that shift; and the injuries to the pride, status, and self-esteem of those who have been left behind.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“Musk, Thiel, Murdoch, and their fellow billionaires in the anti-democracy movement don’t want to conserve anything that occurred after the 1920s, including Social Security, civil rights, and even women’s right to vote.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“a “zero tolerance” policy against eating in a Metro station.) I concluded that although Roberts was “a very bright, if not brilliant jurist and an extremely thoughtful lawyer,” his “values are way to the right of mainstream America” and it was up to the Judiciary Committee “to decide whether you want to put somebody in as Chief Justice who’s that far to the right.” The intellectual leader of today’s majority (if “intellectual” is the appropriate adjective) is Samuel Alito, perhaps the most conceptually rigid and cognitively dishonest justice since Chief Justice Roger Taney, who found in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford case in 1857 that Congress”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“They felt abandoned by the middle class and the college-educated who deserted their communities, stiffed by the clever kids with draft deferments, forced to bus their kids to Black neighborhoods and accept Black kids into their schools, and burdened by an economy no longer delivering upward mobility. As the journalist Pete Hamill observed at the time, the workingman “feels trapped and, even worse, in a society that purports to be democratic, ignored.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

“The growing tide of big money in Washington increased the profits of large corporations but did nothing to help workers adapt to the inevitable shift from an industrial to a knowledge-based system.”
― Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America