"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics 
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."  -- Plato

Politics: The last refuge of the scoundrel. 

POLITICIAN, n.  An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the
superstructure of organized society is reared.  When he wriggles he
mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice.
As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being
alive.    -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
POLITICS, n.  A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of
principles.  The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. 
DEGRADATION, n.  One of the stages of moral and social progress 
from private station to political preferment.
          -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
     <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1131/bierce.html>
    <http://rabi.phys.columbia.edu/~matmat/html/devils.html>
 <http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/as/Literature/Bierce/forked.html>

We need to forgive them for all their sins and crimes.
BUT NOT UNTIL AFTER WE HANG THEM.  

The majority is never right.
   -- Lazarus Long, 1912-

"Democracy has two excesses to be wary of: 
the spirit of inequality, which leads it to aristocracy, 
and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads it
to despotism." -- Montesquieu The Spirit of the Laws, VIII

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed 
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an 
endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."  -- H.L. Mencken

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent,
hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two 
percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them.
                                      --Lily Tomlin

-- 
Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The politician's corpse was laid away,
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged,
I wept;  for I had longed to see him hanged. 
                     -- Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
<http://www.angelfire.com/va/belloc/>
<http://rcatholic-l.freeservers.com/belloc.html>

If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con', 
what is the opposite of 'progress'?

-- 
Thus, I make no effort to cover my tracks, 
assume that I will never run for public office, 
and apologize frequently. -Henry E. Thorpe, sysadmin.  

"Politics": from poli = many, and
tics = blood-sucking parasites

Only in America do we use the word 'politics' 
to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin 
meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning "habitual 
uncontrollable purposeless gestures."