What it means to be a Democrat

"You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat."
      - Jacqueline Kennedy

"...the two political parties in our history have always been divided, as Emerson said, into the party of hope and the party of memory."
     - President John F. Kennedy

"The Democratic party, at its best, is the party of inclusion and expansion...it is the party that led the drive after the great depression for social security of seniors, for jobs for common people, for mass-based education, for civil rights bills of the sixties."
      - Reverend Jesse Jackson

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
      - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I decided to be a Democrat starting in the presidential elections of 1960 when John F. Kennedy excited me with a promise to get the country moving again. I think he gave people a sense that they could make a difference."
     - President Bill Clinton

"The Democratic party I've come to understand is an inclusive and diverse party whose principles are drawn from the same roots that guided men who wrote our constitution."
     - Senator George Mitchell

"Democrats and Republicans both say you should climb the ladder of success. But the Republicans say, when you get to the top, pull the ladder up behind you. We Democrats say that you leave it down for others to climb too."
     - Senator Tom Harkin

"As the modern champion of the rights of minorities, women, and working families, the Democratic party opened the door to me."
      - Governor Ann Richards

"...the fundamental appeal of the Democratic party has always been grounded in the principles of fairness, opportunity, equal justice for all and a firm belief that the mission of government is not to stand on the sidelines, but to be active in pursuing these goals for the people."
      - Senator Ted Kennedy

Thanks to the San Diego Democrats for putting this compilation together.

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