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Angus King Quotes (1944-)
Politician, King
About Angus King
Angus Stanley King, Jr. (born 31 March 1944) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from the state of Maine. As an Independent, not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties, he served as the 72nd Governor of Maine from 1995 to 2003. In March 2012 he announced that he would run as an Independent for the Maine seat in the U.S. Senate which was being vacated by Olympia Snowe. King won Maine's 2012 Senate election and took office on January 3, 2013. For committee assignment purposes, he caucuses with the Democratic Party.
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βFrankly, I think I might scare [the parties], and that would be a good thing.β
βWhen people asked me in a RV park, "What do you do?" I just said, "I'm a retired state employee from Maine."β
βThe Southwest was spectacular, but I have no interest in moving there. North Carolina is beautiful in spring and fall. But I can say I didn't find anyplace I'd rather live than Maine.β
βI think we're going to demonstrate the power of one-to-one computer access that's going to transform education. β¦ The economic future will belong to the technologically adept.β
βWe proved that with civility, common sense, building bridges, working with coalitions and working with people one at a time, we could do something. β¦ I can speak for the middle. β¦ The real issue is the system itself.β
βOne of the real benefits of any travel is gaining some perspective. You see things from different points of view. That came home to me in a variety of ways: politically, economically, seeing what was going on in other states.β
βJust in the past ten days, we've seen the literal destruction of a statutorily, I emphasize that word, statutorily established and funded federal agency by people ostensibly working for the president understand vague authority, no transparency, and no guidance from the congress.β
βI find it especially galling to read the sneering comment from the richest man in the world that, quote, βwe spent the weekend feeding said into the chipper.' Describing an action that will literally take food from the mouths of starving children. Forget red lines. Do we have no decency?β
βPower is shared, principally between the President and this body, this Congress, both houses. In fact, this herky-jerkiness, the two houses, the war power divided between the President and Congress, this unwieldy structure is the whole idea. No one has or should ever have all the power.β
βJefferson said the states are the laboratories of democracy. But the problem is, nobody reads the lab reports.
We've got every state trying to reinvent everything. I was struck even more so after this trip how little exchange there is among states that are coping with exactly the same issues.β
We've got every state trying to reinvent everything. I was struck even more so after this trip how little exchange there is among states that are coping with exactly the same issues.β
βMichael Jordan did not get good at basketball by practicing 42 minutes a week, which is what most kids have in the computer lab. β¦ Whether it's a scalpel, baseball bat or a computer, the skill in the use of a tool rests upon practice and familiarity, and that's what these kids are going to have to an unprecedented extent.β
βI always had a kind of Myth of Cincinnatus idea about politics β that public service was something you do for a while in between stints at real life. And when your time is up, you return to the plow, which is hopefully still somewhere close to where you left it.β
βMy approach to the job can be summed up pretty simply β I never viewed politics as my career. Important, yes, worthy of intense commitment, of course β but it was not my whole life. β¦ I saw politics as a way to make a contribution and satisfy my penchant for public policy, but not as something I couldn't live without.β
βOur framers understood this. They were deep students of history and also human nature. And they had just won a lengthy and brutal war against the abuses inherent in concentrated governmental power, George III. The universal principle of human nature they understood was this β power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's a universal principle, all over the world throughout history.β
βI don't have any illusions that I'm naively going to go down and Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are going to say, "Angus, tell us how to do this." I mean, I know that's not going to work. But I think, No. 1, my election would send a significant message and, No. 2, it might provoke similar movements in other states. If there were four or five people like me, that would change the whole dynamic.β
βWe could send down a combination of Pericles and Thomas Jefferson, and if that person's reporting to Harry Reid [Senate Majority Leader] or Mitch McConnell [Senate Minority Leader], he's going to be ineffective. β¦ Every vote is a test vote. Every vote is party loyalty. We're sunk if it keeps up this way. β¦ It wouldn't take but four or five centrists like me to completely change the dynamics.β
βYou have to take advantage of the opportunities that life gives you, particularly the moments in time when you have time, when you're between jobs or you retire. Get out and go. I think most of us are way too intense. We need to take a deep breath and do things that maybe don't fit the normal picture of what we're supposed to do at that stage of life. In some ways, this book is one big argument for just plain loosening up.β
βHow did they answer the question who will guard the guardians? They answered it by building into the basic structure of our government two essential safeguards. One was regular elections. In other words, returning the control of the government to the people on regular scheduled elections. By the way, this is what we learned in sixth grade, checks and balances. But the other piece that's built into our system that's the other essential safeguard is the deliberate division of power between the branches and levels of government.β
βWe have to understand, we are an anomaly in history. The historical norm is pharaohs, kings, dictators, emperors, presidents for life. But the fact that we're such an anomaly, and we've seen in our lifetimes other governments, other systems based upon ours slip into authoritarianism and dictatorship tells us how fragile what we have is. What we have in this country is an anomaly in history and it's fragile, and it needs to be, must be, protected from generation to generation. This makes this moment all the more urgent and portentous.β
βThis small group, and we don't know who they are, but this small group apparently it's reported in their 20's have no experience with government, no experience with foreign aid, no experience with the operation of the United States government, but they're making basically policy decisions and constitutional decisions.
The Constitution does not give to the President or his designee the power to extinguish a statutorily established agency. I can think of no greater violation of the strictures of the Constitution or usurpation of the power of this body. None.β
The Constitution does not give to the President or his designee the power to extinguish a statutorily established agency. I can think of no greater violation of the strictures of the Constitution or usurpation of the power of this body. None.β
βThe power of the majority is with you, my Republican colleagues. Together, together we have the power to right the balance, to reclaim the authority we thought was inherent in our jobs, and in the process save our country.
At a prior time of crisis, Abraham Lincoln defined the stakes for each of us, "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress, and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
Now is the time to establish a redline β the Constitution itself.β
At a prior time of crisis, Abraham Lincoln defined the stakes for each of us, "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress, and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
Now is the time to establish a redline β the Constitution itself.β
βWe have to keep our eye on the big picture. Not all the confusion and smoke that's going on over the last couple of weeks. Mr. Vought is one of the principal authors of the infamous Project 2025 which the President strangely hadn't heard of during the campaign but now seems to be the essential guideline for his presidency. Project 2025 is nothing less than a blueprint for the shredding of the constitution and the transition of our country to authoritarian rule. He's the last person who should be put in the heart of the operation of our government.β
Angus King Quotes by Topic
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Angus King on Radical centrism 4 quotes
βIf you like the system as it is, Iβm not your guyβ¦ If you want a shot at changing it, join me.β
Angus King on Maine 2 quotes
βWhen people asked me in a RV park, "What do you do?" I just said, "I'm a retired state employee from Maine."β
Angus King on Bowdoin College
Angus King on Civility
βWe proved that with civility, common sense, building bridges, working with coalitions and working with people one at a time, we could do something.β
Quotes About Angus King
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Angus King from others.
Aaron Blake on Angus King
βKing is the early favorite as a very popular former governor. He took 59 percent in a three-way reelection race in 1998 (thatβs not a typo).β
Eliot Cutler on Angus King
βHe would bring to the Senate the independence, the abilities, the reputation, and the disposition that will make him a great senator, that will serve us Mainers well and make us proud every day and that will begin to rebuild and restore the Senate to what it was intended to be.β
Deborah McDermott on Angus King
βOn Monday night, Feb. 27, former Maine Gov. Angus King was sitting in his Brunswick home talking with his wife, Mary Herman, about the trips they would take in their new RV. On Tuesday night, they were discussing whether he should run for the U.S. Senate. It was just that quickly that his world shifted into high gear, after Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe announced Feb. 28 that she would not run for re-election. "I really agonized over it. It was a huge personal decision and it completely changes our lives," said the former two-term independent governor. "But I've been handed a truly unique opportunity, and if I didn't take it, I think I would have regretted it." That unique opportunity, he said, is to shake things up as a centrist independent in Congress, an institution he called broken.β
About Angus King
Angus Stanley King, Jr. (born 31 March 1944) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from the state of Maine. As an Independent, not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties, he served as the 72nd Governor of Maine from 1995 to 2003. In March 2012 he announced that he would run as an Independent for the Maine seat in the U.S. Senate which was being vacated by Olympia Snowe. King won Maine's 2012 Senate election and took office on January 3, 2013. For committee assignment purposes, he caucuses with the Democratic Party.
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