When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with their abuse. They can't get away with subjection. They can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation. They can't get away with domination. It takes courage for folk to stand up.

Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept that.

One is that I am a regular, everyday person, you know what I mean. I feel that wherever I am, I really am.

Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, a whole host of brilliant, courageous critics say all kinds of things, and he [Barack Obama] treats them with respect. They get invited to the White House. I say the same thing, he talks to me like I'm a Cub Scout.

To be an intellectual really means to speak a truth that allows suffering to speak.

We need to put strong Democratic pressure on President Obama in the name of poor and working people.

This book is the best treatment of the best American Marxist philosopher-and the best philosopher to emerge from American slums. Young Sidney Hook is essential reading for anyone interested in democratic theory and practice in America.