It is an ancient political vehicle, held together by soft soap and hunger and with front-seat drivers and back-seat drivers contradicting each other in a bedlam of voices, shouting 'go right' and 'go left' at the same time.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Stevenson describes a chaotic political system where leaders contradict each other, held together by weak bonds.
- In plain terms
- Politics is messy with leaders disagreeing constantly and held together weakly.
- What can you take from it?
- Expect disunity and conflicting voices in political systems.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do political systems contradict themselves?
- Is chaos inherent to governance?
Another view
The metaphor is cynical and may not apply to stable democracies.
More from Adlai Stevenson
I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no ma…
Permalink to quote #31 A funny thing happened to me on the way to the White House...
Permalink to quote #33 The early years of the United Nations have been difficult ones, but what did we expect? That peace would drift down from the skies like soft snow? That there w…
Permalink to quote #30
Related quotes
The only difficulty with Himmler was that he was of a sneaky nature. I never knew whether I would be alive or imprisoned the next day. But I gained new strengt…
Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler quote #27 Nie chce, ale musze. (often written Nie chcem, ale muszem. to underline the accent)
Lech WalesaLech Walesa quote #1 Canada's position was Saddam Hussein should be disarmed. Now, to be quite honest, I had a lot of difficulty understanding how he was going to be disarmed witho…
Paul MartinPaul Martin quote #1