John Avlon

"Politics is history in the present tense."

"The far-right and far-left can be equally insane."

"Politics follows the lines of physics: every action creates an equal and opposite reaction."

"Extremes are ultimately their own side's worst enemy."

"Terrorism is always one bad day away from being issue No. 1."

"Demagogues always do well in economic downturns."

"Professional partisans are still playing politics by industrial-age rules. They haven’t woken up to the information-age reality. Younger generations have grown up with a multiplicity of choice on every front, which can be tailored to suit their individual beliefs. Politics is the last place where we are supposed to be satisfied with a choice between Brand A and Brand B."

"If you only take offense when the president of your party is compared to Hitler, then you're part of the problem."

"Us and against them is the opposite of our national motto, e pluribus unum: Out of many, one."

"The independence of our nation is inseparable from our interdependence as a people."

"Semi-obvious but bears repeating: Much of the evil in the world comes from seeing and judging people as members of groups rather than individuals."

"America is both North and South, White and Black, Republican and Democrat. We are laughter and loss, Saturday night and Sunday morning, Old Testament and New. Liberty and equality are not opposites in inevitable conflict, but act in concert under the practical balance of the Union. In the end, even war and peace are intimately entwined."