Village Idiot

“I’ve never been that big into flags. But at this stage in the whole MAGA thing, I kinda want to burn a flag.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch

Demagogues

“250 years ago, this country was founded on a radical idea that government answers to the people. Today, that idea is under attack by a man who embodies the very tyranny our Founders rejected.” —California Governor Gavin Newsom

“[The SAVE Act] was written intentionally to subvert access to the ballot.” —New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

“We shouldn’t be hanging on to an anachronism that was designed for slave-owning states. Let’s re-envision [the Electoral College] for the 21st century.” —Hillary Clinton

Lack of Self-Awareness Award

“The level of corruption — political and financial corruption — that is not even being hidden anymore … it is out in plain view. … These people are unleashed and unhinged.” —Hillary Clinton

The Warmth of Collectivism

“New York: it’s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool. Set your AC to 78 degrees.” —New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani

Delusions of Grandeur

“We balanced the budget by governing with a fiscal responsibility that has been absent for far too long from City Hall. … If these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics just as well as the capitalists who came before, but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles.” —Zohran Mamdani

Insight

“Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.” —Water E. Williams (1936–2020)

Re: The Left

“I now believe that the Democrats are just some sort of machine that just brings in illegals from places unknown and launders money in their name.” —Adam Corolla

“Win some blue-state and blue-city races, and the cocky new socialist Jacobins believe that they have either already taken over the Democratic Party or will soon absorb it. … It is fascinating but ultimately depressing to watch old-style Democrats say or do anything to avoid the new mob of Robespierres.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Decline Is a Choice

“It was just about one year ago today when President Trump said that he looked around this city — the capital of the greatest country in the history of civilization — and didn’t like what he saw. He didn’t like the crime. He didn’t like the way it looked. And he instructed us to do something about it — and that’s exactly what we’ve done.” —Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

Upright

“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. … It’s like a cancer. You got to cut it out.” —President Donald Trump

“You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America. You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.” —Donald Trump

“As we look into the future of our 250th year, it’s time that we get out there and we expand our aspirations and our ambitions and build the country that will inspire the entire world for generations.” —Donald Trump

And Last…

“We have discarded, or at least ignored, some of our nation’s founding principles. The pillars that sustained us through wars and economic downturns need repair. How — or if — we do so will determine whether our descendants observe a 300th American anniversary.” —Cal Thomas