9 Quotes by Hendrik Hertzberg

The dismaying truth is that birtherism is part of a larger pattern of rejection of reality that has taken hold of intimidating segments of one of the two political parties that alternate in power in our governing institutions. It is akin to the view that global warming is a hoax, or that the budget can be balanced through spending cuts alone, or that contraception causes abortion, or that evolution is just another theory, on a par with the theory that the earth is six thousand years old.

Marriage should be between a spouse and a spouse, not a gender and a gender.

Robert Kennedy, on his own, left no great legislative legacy, founded no great institution, led no great movement. His most extraordinary accomplishment - and it was extraordinary - was to embody in himself, and create in others, a kind of transcendent yearning for the possibility of redemptive change.

A political ideology is a very handy thing to have. It’s a real time-saver, because it tells you what you think about things you know nothing about.

The filibuster is an affront to commonly understood democratic norms, but then so is the Senate.

A person’s character is what it is. It’s a little like a marriage – only without the option of divorce. You can work on it and try to make it better, but basically you have to take the bitter with the sweet.

Where is it written that if you don’t like religion you are somehow disqualified from being a legitimate American? What was Mark Twain, a Russian?

The “freedom movement” is a racist movement as such. But it’s a virulent example of identity politics. “Whiteness” is part of the identity, but not the most important part.

Unfair in practice is not the same thing as wrong in principle, but sometimes it has to do.