Politics & Power Quote by Paul Harvey

A neat little gut-punch, built like a joke and delivered like an indictment. Paul Harvey frames compassion for animals not as sentimental hobbyism but as a political symptom: ordinary people care loudly because the institutions designed to protect the vulnerable have decided they’re not worth the paperwork. The line “Animals don’t vote” isn’t just a cynical explanation; it’s a diagnosis of how democracies can quietly narrow their moral universe to whatever shows up at the ballot box.

Harvey’s intent is to flip the usual sneer at animal advocates. Instead of “Why do you care so much about animals when people are suffering?” he counters with “Why are citizens forced to care so much in the first place?” The subtext is that the public’s outrage isn’t misplaced; it’s compensatory. Activism becomes a volunteer substitute for a state that measures value in electoral returns.

The quote also carries a broader critique of bureaucratic empathy. “Government is not” suggests a machine whose default setting is indifference unless incentives intrude. Harvey doesn’t need to name regulators, agriculture, labs, or local animal control budgets; the mechanism is familiar. When an interest group can’t punish you at the polls, its pain becomes “nonessential.”

Context matters: Harvey came from an era when mass media moralized in plain language, and his brand was populist common sense with a sharpened edge. He’s not offering a policy memo; he’s making the listener feel complicit in a system where compassion has to compete with turnout.