The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes.” —Will Durant (1885-1981)

Upright: “Republicans owe Bill Clinton an apology for impeaching him over lies and affairs while now embracing a pathological liar and womanizer. That apology will not be forthcoming. In fact, for years Republicans have accused the Democrats of gutter politics and shamelessness. Now the Republicans themselves have lost their sense of shame.” —Erick Erickson

Non Compos Mentis: “If they’re not going to support the people that the Republicans nominated, then they need to get out of the Republican Party and admit that they’re no longer Republican, that they’re something else.” —Mike Huckabee

Braying Jenny: “At a recent campaign rally in Indiana, Cruz responded to a protester, reported to be a child, with a pompous lecture about the glories of spanking. … Does anything better illustrate the toxicity of conservative ideology better than the enthusiasm for beating children? … Much of what is fueling conservative voters these days is outrage that their unearned privilege is slipping away from them. The mediocre white man can no longer assume he’ll be treated as better than women or people of color that are more talented than he is, simply because of an accident of birth.” —Salon’s Amanda Marcotte

Belly laugh of the week: “There’s a reason that the president is the most popular politician in America, particularly among Democrats, that his approval rating is higher and his unfavorable rating is lower among Democrats than anybody else in the country. That is a strong endorsement of the work that this president has done over the last eight years or so.” —Josh Earnest

And last… “We face six months of what will be a historically hellacious campaign. Yes, we picked the wrong time to stop taking opioids.” —Peggy Noonan