J. C. Watts Quotes

Republicans and Democrats have used accounting gimmicks and competing government analyses to deceive the public into believing that 2 + 2 = 6. If our leaders cannot agree on the numbers, if 'facts' are fictional, how can they possibly have a substantive debate on solutions?

— J. C. Watts

“I'm secure in who I am. I don't need the validation of those that would say, you have to be a certain thing in order to be accepted. I'm comfortable going against the grain if I need to.”

— J. C. Watts

“I like to call the ethos I grew up with 'Oklahoma values.' But you'd be just as accurate if you said 'American values.' Except for our lack of a seacoast, Oklahoma has a little bit of just about everything that's American.”

— J. C. Watts

“Reparations, I believe, are talked about for political reasons, trying to cater for the purpose of getting votes. If Congress was serious about reparations - in '93 and '94 the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, and not one single Republican vote was needed for reparations.”

— J. C. Watts

“I think you grow wherever God plants you. I hope I'm growing as a person of faith, as a Christian. That should be our number one objective this journey of life. That all starts with a personal intimate relationship with Christ and then being in prayer every single day about all of those things - being tenacious about it.”

— J. C. Watts

“The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other.”

— J. C. Watts

“Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It's not hard. Character is doing what's right when nobody's looking.”

— J. C. Watts

“Affirmative action is a little like the professional football draft. The NFL awards its No. 1 draft choices to the lowest-ranked team in the league. It doesn't do this out of compassion or guilt. It's done for mutual survival. They understand that a league can only be as strong as its weakest team.”

— J. C. Watts

“Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.”

— J. C. Watts

“The establishment wonders why we can't get more of the black vote. It's because it's not doing the things necessary to establish a deeper relationship with the black community. Most black people don't think alike. Most black people just vote alike.”

— J. C. Watts

“I'm looking forward to the day when America will mature to the point that we are a color-blind society. I'm not so sure that in politics that will ever be reality, because politics has a way of separating us based on skin color.”

— J. C. Watts

“I embrace my blackness, just as I do my conservatism and my Christianity, but I don't want to be defined or pigeonholed by any one of the many elements that make up my character.”

— J. C. Watts

If you are explaining, you are losing.

— J. C. Watts

“The Democratic Party has taken the black community for granted and said, 'This is the most loyal constituency we have. They're not going anywhere.' But the Republican Party has said, 'That's the most loyal constituency Democrats have. They're not going anywhere. We've got to win without them.'”

— J. C. Watts

“I think the Republican Party should be a pro-life party. I am pro-life. I do not apologize for that. On the flip side of that coin, the Republican Party has been big enough to allow pro-choice advocates to be heard.”

— J. C. Watts

Republicans think that the NAACP is the only voice in the black community. It is a voice in the black community. But it's not the only voice.

— J. C. Watts

“I would caution all of us or I would remind all of us that any candidate that we support, they are going to be flawed.”

— J. C. Watts

“Individual responsibility, hard work, paying attention in school, faith, family all these things are important.”

— J. C. Watts

“When it comes to the American dream, no one has a corner on the market. All of us have an equal chance to share in that dream.”

— J. C. Watts

“If diversity is O.K. for God, it ought to be O.K. for Republicans.”

— J. C. Watts

“That's the way blacks have been encouraged to think: that we got to stick together. You've got a situation today where if a black person says he thinks O.J. Simpson's guilty, other blacks will cut their eyes at him and say, 'You ought to go somewhere and sit down and shut up.'”

— J. C. Watts

“The more I ponder some of the boneheaded decisions GOP candidates have made of late, I can't bring myself to believe that they are serious about capturing more than about 8 percent of the black vote.”

— J. C. Watts

“Serving in Congress has been more than an honor; it has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life ... It has been a wonderful ride. It has been a wonderful journey.”

— J. C. Watts

My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.

— J. C. Watts

“Like any group that has endured much, African Americans have created a strong and mutually reinforcing sense of group identity. That's not a bad thing in and of itself.”

— J. C. Watts

“I think Newt Gingrich has a proven track record of changing Washington and getting results.”

— J. C. Watts

“I don't know if anybody has moved up the ladder more quickly than I have.”

— J. C. Watts

“In addition, there is one title I cherish a great deal more than Congressman and that is the title of ... Dad.”

— J. C. Watts

“Some might think that George W. Bush had his shortcomings, but let me tell you something - history's going to be kind to George W. Bush.”

— J. C. Watts

“I guess probably in my time in politics, it continued to be affirmed to me that the African-American community, despite being subscription television's most valuable customers, they are very underserved by cable and satellite television programming options.”

— J. C. Watts

“Most of all, however, critics of black conservatives say we've forgotten where we came from. I may forget a federal budget number or, God forbid, to set the alarm clock for my weekly 6 a.m. flight to Washington, but I know exactly where I came from.”

— J. C. Watts

“Well, Mark, I led the charge for five or six years to get reforms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I was chairman of an organization called 'FM Policy Focus.' What we were saying was, if there was blip in the housing market, Fannie and Freddie would destabilize the greatest economy in the world.”

— J. C. Watts

“Governor is not the position to have in Oklahoma. It is the head coach of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or Tulsa.”

— J. C. Watts

“As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.”

— J. C. Watts

“One of the Republicans' major products is dream making. People are dying to get into this country ... not out of it.”

— J. C. Watts

“When you look at the results that Newt Gingrich got when he was speaker, he got results for the American people.”

— J. C. Watts

“I think in politics, in Congress, you often do things that are Republican, or you do things because you're a Democrat. Sometimes that's good, obviously, and sometimes that's obviously bad. But in the news business, there's no such thing as Republican or Democratic news. News is news.”

— J. C. Watts

The Republican Party is terrific at determining how a program will impact the federal budget, but we're not nearly as good as the Democrats in explaining to people how our agenda will directly benefit them and their families.

— J. C. Watts

Death and taxes may be inevitable, but they shouldn't be related.

— J. C. Watts

“A Black man voting for the Republicans makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Col. Sanders,”

— J. C. Watts

“You take a poor black child. Give him a good education, tell him he's somebody, that God didn't create junk when he created him, and that black child will create his own affirmative action.”

— J. C. Watts

To say America can have strong leadership without strong character is to say we can get water without the wet.

— J. C. Watts

There is a war being waged right now on prayer and religion by liberals who are taking every opportunity to make America as God-less as possible.

— J. C. Watts

“They said that I had sold out and (am an) Uncle Tom. And I said well, they deserve to have that view. But I have my thoughts. And I think they're race-hustling poverty pimps.”

— J. C. Watts

“We have seen the Democrat solution to an energy crisis; it's called California.”

— J. C. Watts

“The government taxes you when you bring home a paycheck.
It taxes you when you make a phone call.
It taxes you when you turn on a light.
It taxes you when you sell a stock.
It taxes you when you fill your car with gas.
It taxes you when you ride a plane.
It taxes you when you get married.
Then it taxes you when you die.
This is taxual insanity and it must end.”

— J. C. Watts

“My father taught that the only helping hand you're ever going to be able to rely on is the one at the end of your sleeve.”

— J. C. Watts

“I believe government should be loyal to parents, teachers and children.”

— J. C. Watts

“Education is a bipartisan issue that concern all communities of color and should be first, last and always about the student learning.”

— J. C. Watts

There can't be opportunity or jobs without investment and profit.

— J. C. Watts