Michael Kinsley

Michael Kinsley (born March 9, 1951) is an American political journalist and commentator. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire. Kinsley has been a notable participant in the mainstream media's development of online content.

Quotes

• Conservatives are always looking for converts, whereas liberals are always looking for heretics.
  • As cited by John Leo in Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police Transaction Publishers, 1998, p. 61.

• A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth - some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say.
  • As quoted in Commentary: The gaffer speaks, The Times, April 23, 1988.

• I have a saying: the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal.
  • As quoted on Crossfire, CNN, Nov. 15, 1990.

• Ambition can never be naked in a political campaign, it must be clothed in deceit.
  • As quoted in Time, Jan. 4, 2008

Donald Trump is actually a fascist (December 9, 2016)

Donald Trump is actually a fascist, The Washington Post (December 9, 2016)

• Donald Trump is a fascist. ... Not in the sense of an all-purpose bad guy, but in the sense of somebody who sincerely believes that the toxic combination of strong government and strong corporations should run the nation and the world. He spent his previous career negotiating with the government on behalf of corporations; now he has switched teams. But it’s the same game.
• If I’m correct that Trump actually has a governing philosophy, that’s a bad thing, not a good thing. If he actually has principles to guide him through those famous swamps he plans to drain, that’s alarming, not reassuring. Bad principles are not a good substitute for no principles. Four or eight years of bad principles may make no principles look pretty good.