The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

The Gipper: “It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial Communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering our flag.”

Non Compos Mentis: “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state." —DNC chairman Tom Perez

Alpha Jackass: "I think [Trump is] dangerous. I think he’s not a credible leader of this country. … He cannot be trusted, and even though you may think it’s not in the best interest of my constituents, I think it’s in the best interest of my constituents to get rid of him.” —Rep. Maxine Waters

Demo-gogues: “To think that [Trump] would consider shutting down the government of the United States of America over this outlandish proposal of a border wall … would be the height of irresponsibility. He would not want that to define his first 100 days. … [D]on’t try any political stunts, don’t put any poison pills into this process. Let’s just do our responsible, important work of funding this government.” —Sen. Dick Durbin

Braying Jackass: “Hate speech is not protected by the first amendment.” —Howard Dean

For the record: “Clearly, Hillary still sees herself as the leader of the Democratic Party. And why shouldn’t she? Democrats have been locked in an abusive relationship with the Clintons for decades, enabling, explaining, convincing themselves that next time will be different.” —Maureen Callahan

Late-night humor: “Time magazine … released its annual list of the ‘100 Most-Influential People in the World.’ Making the list this year, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Pope Francis, James Comey, and of course, Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton did not make the list. Which is really crazy. Hillary Clinton influenced a whole half of a country to vote for Donald Trump for president. You’d think that would be worth something.” —Jimmy Kimmel