Daily Inspiration Quote by I. F. Stone

Power doesn’t need a protest sign when it already has a parking pass. In four clipped words, I. F. Stone flips the familiar image of democracy - crowds trudging to Washington to be heard - into a dry inventory of who gets heard automatically. The line works because it smuggles accusation into a joke: the rich "march" constantly, not as a spectacle but as a routine. Their feet never hit pavement; their march is made of meetings, lobbyists, fundraisers, law firms, donor retreats, and the quiet choreography of access.

Stone’s subtext is that influence is not an occasional right exercised at moments of crisis; it’s an always-on infrastructure purchased and maintained. The verb choice is the knife. "March" usually implies moral urgency and collective sacrifice. Stone repurposes it to describe the daily operations of capital, implying that money has learned to cosplay as civic participation while bypassing the messiness of public persuasion.

Context matters: Stone built his career as an iconoclastic, skeptical reporter, especially attuned to how official narratives hide private interests. Mid-century Washington was already thick with defense contractors, trade associations, and the early architecture of modern lobbying. Stone’s quip anticipates the later language of "special interests" and "dark money" by refusing the euphemism altogether. It’s not that rich people sometimes influence politics; it’s that they are the only constituency with a standing appointment. The rest of us march only when we’re desperate.